The long bittersweet goodbye

While the title may have the word long in it, this is going to be a short post and my last post while living in Moldova.

I will be flying out of Moldova for Budapest at 5:45am on Wednesday, July 27. There are no words to accurately describe my feelings about this. The last 7 weeks since school finished has been a whirlwind of packing, cleaning, visiting as many people as possible, helping with the training of new volunteers, saying goodbye, repacking, getting rid of things, buying gifts, saying thank you, crying, smiling, laughing, drinking, eating great Moldovan food, and saying more goodbyes.

This morning at 6am, I got on a bus for the last time in Floresti and headed to Chisinau. I was proud that only one tear fell since I did not want to make a fool out of myself in a bus full of Moldovans. But I made sure to attentively watch out my window as we drove through my town for the last time. I just wanted to soak up as much as possible. Saying goodbye to other volunteers has been difficult, but at least I know I will be able to see them again back in the States. Saying goodbye to my partner, my town and friends, to Peace Corps staff and to Moldova has been heartbreaking. I know I will see them again, but I do not know when. Although according to my partner, I will be back to see her new house once it is finished being built. All I know is that I cannot imagine not coming back to this crazy wonderful country that has been my home for two years. I have never wished to have 2 lives more than I do right now.

Just typing this has made me a little emotional so I will wrap up with my favorite things...numbers and photos (in somewhat chronological order) of my favorite people and times: When I leave Moldova I will have been here for 776 days or 105.5 weeks. And it has been some of the hardest, funniest, heart warming, loving and wonderful 776 days of my life.

It's all real now!

So, today was the day! The Peace Corps, Moldova, me leaving it all became real...really real. I received my staging papers via email this morning with instructions for booking my flight and where I’m meeting and how much I can pack. Well, you know me, I like to plan, to get things lined up so I know what to expect (which is really ironic that I’m going into the Peace Corps where you never know what to expect or that I LOVE working with kids who are the complete opposite of expectation/predictability).

I called the travel agency and made all my travel arrangements for getting to our orientation before heading out of the states. So, I leave in about 31 days. WOW-it’s real. Which then made me remember I have this blog set up and have for a while now, but wanted to wait until I had something to say. I realized now, I was just waiting until it sunk in fully. And, now I have stuff to say.

Some basics…
I am leaving on June 8 at 6:10am (which for those who know me really well are laughing at how early I’m going to be up that morning). I am flying to Philadelphia, PA and should arrive about 5:30pm. Which is nice because I will actually be there a little earlier than most since check in for the orientation is not until June 9 at 12pm. Time to hop on the metro and check out the sights a bit. I’ve never been to the east coast so I’m excited about this.

We have orientation from noon until 7pm, and then the volunteers can all do whatever we’d like. Then the next morning we fly out at 6am (again you’re all laughing) for Moldova!!

So as of June 10, I will be in Moldova for 27 months. I still do not know exactly where, but according to the itinerary we fly into Chisinau, which is the capital, with a 6.5-hour layover in Istanbul. Any suggestions?!?

I’m getting excited, but there is still so much to do. The check off list (that’s for you Jen Piatt-you know how I’ve always loved your lists) is getting really long, but I am enjoying the little check marks I make.

Tomorrow night the girls and I are getting together and hopefully we will get some more of the party plans worked out. Oh yeah, its June 6-William Land Park-BBQ-anytime you want to come on by between 11am-5pm. More details to come.

Next post will be some information about the country itself since I’m sure some of you are scratching your heads saying Moldavia? Moldivin? Monrovia? (my dad said that one for awhile). It’s actually a cool little (and I do mean little) country.