Our groups of 39 volunteers had orientation in Philly on Tuesday - For those that may remember, it was just being in AFS again...skits and all! :) After the orientation was over a bunch of us went out for dinner. We split into a few different groups and I went with the Irish Pub contingent (all in their 20's!)! We ended up staying out drinking beers and getting to know each other until around midnight - lots of fun! Like an idiot, I woke up at 5am the next morning and that was that...I was awake.
We left for JFK around 9:45 a.m. and I was horribly car sick the whole way...I forgot how my body hates being on busses. This set the stage for feeling horrible for the rest of the travel. The flight from JFK to Munich was delayed because of weather and the arrival of Obama to NYC, so we sat on the tarmac for over an hour...then the flight took almost 9 hours. I didn't sleep a wink and spent about one hour downstairs outside the bathrooms trying not to throw up. Fun! Plus, the TV's weren't working properly, so we couldn't choose what to watch, had to watch whatever was on...grrrr!
We flew Lufthansa and they did a horrible job of hydrating us, so by the time we landed we were all dying of thirst. But no water for us! Because we were late to Munich we only had about 20 minutes to get to the gate. Of course Security insisted on opening ALL our bags which was annoying! We just made it - I literally had to beg them not to close the gate! After about a 2 hour flight into Bucharest, we had another 2 hour bus ride....seriously?! Luckily, someone gave me some motion sickness medicine for this leg. I know, Mom... I bought motion sickness meds, but I had to move my packing around because, of course, I volunteered to be the Document Leader and had stuff to carry in my backpack on the airplane.
Since all our travel was without a PC official, our group needed four volunteers from Philly to Bucharest to handle all the movement of people, bags, and documents. I was in charge of everyone's passports and tickets...yikes! We actually had a girl lose her passport at the last minute prior going. It was found over in front of China Air on the floor...strange to say the least! Luckily, there were no big issues - other than 3 people not getting their bags in Bucharest, all went well. It was great to arrive outside the airport in Bucharest and see a huge Peace Corps banner with about 15 staff/volunteers there to greet us! It was also nice to no longer be in charge.
The bus ride out to our hotel was interesting as it was through a lot of little towns outside Bucharest. What a country of contradictions! You'll see a nice, newer concrete house and next door is a run down little bungalow and in the front yard of that is a lean-to made with what looks like trash and blankets. Very interesting visually! And the dogs! Good grief, the dogs! There are stray dogs everywhere...it is too much. And it's not like they are all of a similar breed...they are all different type. All just roaming around, peeing and pooping anywhere they want to! I took some pictures and will post them when I can.
So we just finished a good dinner with the Country PC Director and a bunch of staff and now a bunch of us are sitting in the hotel lobby catching up on emails. Tomorrow we have a day of more training and then on Saturday our Gazda's (host families during the next 11 weeks of training) will pick us up and on Monday the fun begins!
To top my crazy tiredness off, I am experiencing some type of vertigo after all this travel... like when you ride a roller coaster and after you get off you still feel the movement. That's how I feel right now... I can still feel the plane dipping and the bus moving down the road. It is VERY unnerving. I talked to the medical director and he said that after a good shower, meal and rest I should be fine.
I can't believe I'm actually here, starting this adventure! It's pretty damn exciting!!!
