Pre Departure

Ok so this is the blog I've been talking about and I will try and update it as frequently as possible to keep everyone's interest in reading it. I got about a week left before I fly out to Philadelphia for three days and then to Azerbaijan for 27 months! So from Phila, we fly out to Frankfurt which is like an eight or nine hour flight, and then to Baku (the capital city of Azerbaijan) which is about another five hours or so I think. I've been reading some other volunteer's blogs and I guess there are like fifty or sixty of us volunteers going to Azerbaijan which is way more than I expected, but I am excited that there are many others going and experiencing this culture. For now, it's hanging out with friends and family and deciding what I need to pack until it's off to Azerbaijan. More to come on that. Since I am on the subject of travel, Me, Ryan and Jenna just got back from a wonderful yet short lived vacation in San Francisco. Among the things we did: saw Alcatraz, went on a four mile hike through the red wood forests, crossed the golden gate bridge, went to power to the peaceful music festival in golden gate park where Michael Franti played for free (!!!), saw Sarah Silverman standup, talked to some really cool dudes from Germany who reassured us that Europeans do not in fact hate Americans, ate a lot of really awesome food, walked a shit ton, tried to climb to the roof of our hostel but came back down because I realized I am afraid of heights, skated with Ryan, saw poopy pants on the street, watched Ryan drunkenly beg for change and fail miserably, slept in the hall one night because an old man in the bunk below me at the hostel snored soooo loud, wrote snoring old man a letter begging him to curb his snoring so I could fall asleep, had a conversation with a girl from France who had the same last name as me! (just spelled different, but still crazy), went to Haight/Ashbury, hung out with Nat and JP finally!, felt an earthquake!, saw a lot of cool graffiti, bought Jenna a can of Sparks because she looked tired, flew home, had fun.

Soon,

trc