The Road to Armenia

It's been an incredibly long and emotionally fatiguing start to the volunteer process. After flying to DC on Wednesday, we spent about 8 hours in trainings and registration stuff before finally breaking for dinner around dark. For most of the day, I felt reassured about the PC process, buoyed by the quality of folks that surrounded me. It's a good group, ranging in age from 20 to 75, totaling 58 volunteers in all.
Checking in 58 volunteers with approximately 140 pounds of luggage each was just this side of a disaster. We left for the airport at 12:30 for our 5:45 flight, and several folks made light jogs to the gate to make it on board on time. 58 to DC, 58 to Vienna though. So far so good.
Due to a 14 hour layover in Vienna we were given a day hotel to shower and rest. While some did that, a group of us powered through the fatigue and ventured to city center for churches, bratwursts, and the last good beer for quite a while. We've been repeatedly forewarned by current volunteers that Armenian wine and beer is borderline undrinkable, while the cognac and homemade (vodka), are solid. So getting a few beers in while in Vienna seemed prudent.
From here, it becomes a guessing game. I will be in Charentsavan, Armenia for the next 10 weeks, but I don't know where I'll be after that. I also haven't met my host family, who I'll start living with in 3 days. I know I'll be doing teacher training, but in an educational setting and system that I have no familiarity with. Mostly, I know that at the end of this next flight, I'll be living in a land with one of the wildest alphabets ever created, featuring about 6 'U's, 5 'J's and a question mark that looks like a small fish to me at this point. Adventures to follow