so long and thanks for all the fish

Hello to you all on my last night in the USA. Tomorrow my group of 35 or so volunteers will be flying out to Amsterdam where we have a 12 hour layover, and then will be off to Georgia. We get into Tbilisi at 2 in the morning and then have a 3 hour car ride out to our first training site. We stay in a lodge for 3-4 days and then split off into smaller groups for training out in other rural villages. We were told today to pretty much expect to have no internet access for the first 9 weeks of training. This was a tad shocking for most of us, but I guess this is the whole "be flexible" policy that the PC preaches so much.
The last two days have been filled with training activities. Mostly they have been information sessions where we discuss various issues that may come up during service and training. Safety, adaptation, and coping strategies were discussed and silly games were played. Overall it was pretty fun and a good chance to start to get to know the people I will be seeing a lot of over the next few months of training. Mostly the group seems comprised of young recent college grads (although i am the youngest... surprise surprise) and a few older people. Everyone is friendly, excited, and nervous. Some people are here for very specific reasons and others have said that they simply joined the Peace Corps because they couldnt think of a reason not to. A few people said they were looking for career changes and others said they had been unemployed for so long they just needed a place to live and food to eat. People have come from all over the country and seem to represent interesting aspects of American culture.
I just had mexican food for the last time in probably a very long while. It was good.

Because I may not have internet or phone for quite a while, you may not hear from me for a bit. But, please don't stop checking back here, because you never know. But more importantly, please keep emailing me. Because when I finally do get to check my email, I hope to have a full mailbox. Also, some of you have already sent me letters and packages, and I thank you in advance.

Thanks for all your kind words.

Wish me luck!