26 Days Later

I can't believe how fast my time here is coming to an end. I officially have 26 days until I'll be in Georgia. Kind of daunting actually. Within the next few weeks i have a million and one things to do before I get on my plane. This week I am dedicated to packing up my apartment in Knoxville and moving all my stuff to my parents' house in Greeneville. It's a little frustrating that I'm going to pack up my clothes only to unpack them at my parents' house and then repack them again for Georgia. That's life though. My siblings have been so kind to call dibs on all my stuff while I'm gone, how sweet of them....in fact I was skyping with my sister Jillian a few weeks ago, (she's in London for a semester doing an internship for her business program) when she called dibs on my TV as well as my kitchenware. My other sister, Olivia, is eyeing some apartment stuff and my brother Reese, who starts his first semester at UT this fall, is open to all the apartment hand me downs he can get. They're like a pack of vultures but I still love them.  Other than the packing, i have to call my credit card company, cancel my Comcast subscription, pay my taxes and buy the last min cold weather items that I'll need in Georgia.

This past Sunday I received my travel info and the go ahead from the Peace Corps to go ahead and book my flight through their travel service. All I can say is that it's going to be one hell of a travel day. My journey from Knoxville, TN to Tbilisi, Georgia goes thus far: I have an early, no, take that back, a SUPER early flight from Knoxville's airport on April 21st. My flight leaves McGhee Tyson airport at 6 am which means either my parents and I drive from Greeneville to the Knoxville that morning...so leaving around 4 am or we get a hotel in Knoxville the night before...either way it's still early. But back to my travel plans...from Knoxville I fly to the Dulles/Washington airport arriving around 7:30. I have an hour long layover before I get on my connecting flight that will take me to Philadelphia. I should arrive in Philly around 9:30.  Still keeping up with me? Oh yeah, I'll also be traveling with two very large 50 lb bags too...keep that in the back of your mind.  Anyway from the airport in Philly I will need to somehow get myself to our designated hotel before 12:30 noonish. I'll be staying here for the next day and a half with the other PC volunteers going to Georgia. From what I'm told this is kind of like a mini orientation before we leave the US. After the orientation we all will take a bus to the JFK airport and board our nonstop flight to Istanbul, Turkey. From Istanbul we fly to Tiblisi arriving sometime midday on April 25th.  Whew...lot of traveling but after that I can finally say that I'll be in Georgia!

Well I've got to get back to packing up the apartment. Below is a picture of all the paperwork I've had to do...and that's not the stuff online either.

Loads and loads of paperwork....that's the government for you

Cheers-
Anneke