Packing and Goodbye

Sunday the 27th was a great day. I spent it with family and with Hannah. Most of the day involved packing, playing card games with them, a great final meal at home, watching TV shows that I will miss and more packing (oh, also downloading a TON of things onto my new external hard drive and ipod that were gifted to me this past week! Great presents). My Mom did an amazing job of running a few little errands while I packed and Meghan, my sister, also suggested that I change my blog title to "Azerbai-Sean." Well here you go Megs.

For those who are interested, here is a make-shift packing list I have. I never got around to making a master packing list, although I did look over previous volunteers' lists.

(PS- for anyone who has heard of the Color Personality Test, this experience of packing for the next 2 years of my life just shows how wickedly Orange I am). Hannah just kept saying how unbelievably stressed she was at my nonchalant style and my dad threatened to leave that area of the house because I was making him so nervous. They're both Greens.

Packing List: 2 check bags, 1 carry on, 1 personal item bag.

1) 5 dress shirts

2) about 10 T-shirts

3) 4 polo shirts

4) 4 casual button down long sleeve/short sleeve shirts

5) 5 pairs of slacks

6) 2 pairs of jeans

7) 2 pairs of shorts

8) Running shoes

9) casual shoes

10) dress shoes

11) Chaco's (sandals)

12) a suit jacket

13) pea coat & jacket

13) all the toiletries

-Including an extra roll of toilet paper

-also contacts even though PC said not to; current volunteers said I should.

14) electronics

-my netbook

-Passport Elite 500GB external hard drive

-ipod

-power converter

15) extras

-my own sleeping bag (PC give you one, but it's huge and difficult to travel with)

- a journal

- a couple books

-Honey to give to my host family (it a suggested gift by former and current volunteers)

-A picture album that Hannah made for me with pictures from 5 years ago to current; a gift I will use over and over and over again.

Monday rolled around and was a pretty difficult goodbye day. Meghan had an early flight back to Sacramento, so we/I said our goodbyes. Not easy at all.

Mom, Dad and Hannah all stayed until my flight left, which was delayed until the afternoon. I'm actually thankful for that delay because the extra time was really wonderful.

The goodbyes were all tearful, and hard. It finally hit me; 2 years.

But I'm confident time will fly, and of course there will be visits in order.

So here I am in Philadelphia, and only 40 minutes away from Staging (orientation). We'll hop on a Bus tomorrow morning at 7am to JFK in New York and then we're off to Frankfurt for a layover and then Baku by October 1st.

I'll miss you all. I love you. I should be able to post more in a day or so.