I made it!

After nearly 30 hours of traveling, all 70 of us finally made it to Moldova yesterday evening. Only one of us misplaced a wallet which included all of his money and passport, but, you know, no worries! ... and only one bag got misplaced at the airport when it was accidentally picked up by a Moldovan who thought it was his own, but no worries, it got returned safely.

We all met in Philadelphia, had 5 hours of training, and then drove to NYC to catch our flight to Frankfurt. The best part was the turbulence hit just as we had all received our food and wine. Quite a mess! I was very thankful to have my iPad because there were only a few TVs in the plane, so I was able to have my own personal screen.

Once we arrived in Frankfurt we had a 9 1/2 hour layover. A lot of people showered (there were showers in the airport!) and we all paid $5 for bottles of water because the water here in Moldova is not drinkable.

The plane on MoldovaAir was much larger than I expected, and we had a delicious chicken and veggie meal on the 2 hour flight! (The USA has a lot to learn as to how to treat the patrons... just kidding).

Then we all arrived safe and sound- with all of our luggage- in Moldova! The countryside is absolutely beautiful. There are a lot more hills than I thought, and the city is huge! Well, maybe it's not really, but it sure seems like it is!

It's been really great to have this huge support system the entire journey here. I remember when I was on my way to France to study abroad last year, I was terrified. Looking back, and comparing it to these travels, I think it is due to the fact that I was alone, and this time we had 70 people in the exact same boat- on all of the flights together (except for the one from KC to Philly- but I was lucky and had a fellow KS PVC with me). Because we have each other, it's a lot harder to get scared or get too deep into our thoughts because we are so busy mingling and getting to know each other...

Which, speaking of the other volunteers, everyone is absolutely fantastic. Before coming here, I thought there might be discrepancies between people (like we had in France). But someone made a good point when they said it takes a certain type of person to join the Peace Corps... and they were right. Our minds work in a very similar way and we are all pretty outgoing for the most part.

Cate