Hello and Welcome to my Armenia Blog!!!


This is the first entry of what I expect to be many over the next two and a half years.  As many people know I have joined the Peace Corps and they have invited me to go to Armenia.  I got this news just after arriving in Laos for a motorcycle tour and I had to look up where exactly Armenia is and what there was in the country.  I knew a little about it but had never thought I would get assigned there and so had not really done much research on it.  As coincidence would turn out one of the guys on the ride had a sister who was in the Peace Corps in Armenia.  I believe she was in the A1 group (first group in Armenia, I am in A-16).  After I got back to the states I talked to her and a number of other past volunteers as well as some people living and working in Armenia now.  Everything I heard impressed me and so after a lot of thought I accepted. 

Now I am getting ready to head over there.  From what I have heard we will have orientation in Philadelphia starting around May 28.  This is where we get general information, shots, etc.  I can't imagine I will need any shots given all the ones I have had for my travel in the last 2 years.  Even my doctor called me a pin cushion.  After a couple days there we head to Yerevan, the Capital and are immediately whisked away.  I heard a rumor that we are going to spend our 3 months of pre-service training in a town between Yerevan and Sevan, the big lake in the North East of the country.  Pre-Service Training (PST) is 3 months of what I hear is intense language, culture and history training.  I am a bit worried about the language give my past experience trying to learn any other language.  Hopefully it will go well and I will be sworn in after the 3 months.  During PST I will live with a host family.  After PST i get assigned to a town and an organization and may live with a host family or get my own place. 

I have already talked to a number of current volunteers over in Armenia as well as a bunch of the volunteers in my group.  It is going to be a great experience.  I hope that you will continue to read and comment on this blog. 

Brian