OMG it's really happening!

So us soon-to-be trainees all received quite the email from headquarters a few days ago. In it we were given our first glimpse at the details of the next few months of our lives, and let me tell you, it's a bit intimidating. After getting over the initial shock a few months ago, I've felt very little anxiety about this whole Peace Corps dilio. But now that departure is less than three weeks away and I'm starting to get a better idea of the reality of my impending life in Mongolia, I'm pretty much crapping my pants.

So here's a few things I've found out.

• We'll arrive in Ulaanbaatar late at night on Saturday, June 5, (though it'll be early morning back in America!), and then we'll hop on a bus to Zuunmod, a small city of about fifteen thousand people. Zuunmod is about fifteen miles south of UB as the crow flies but nearly thirty miles by car. The road is so much longer because it has to wind around Bogd Khan Uul, the three thousand foot mountain that sits between the two cities (click the map above for a larger image; UB, Bogd Khan Uul, and Zuunmod are just to the lower left of center).
• In Zuunmod, we'll be given the first fourteen days of our walk-around allowance as well as a -40° sleeping bag. We'll be there for at least the next five days for orientation, living in dorms.
• After that, we'll be sent off to our host families, where we'll be for all of Pre-Service Training, which will take up the next ten weeks. I'll be in a community with between eight and twelve other trainees, but we'll each be living with a different family. I still don't know where I'll be for this portion of service, but I doubt it will be Zuunmod or Ulaanbaatar.
• Training for Mongolian PC service follows the Community Based Model. Rather than sitting in classrooms and studying in the more traditional way, we'll be doing much of our learning experientially, through engaging with the community in which we live. Apparently this is a relatively new thing for the Peace Corps, and many nations still use the older style. However, it sounds like a more efficient method to me, so I'm excited about that.
• Apparently while being trained, we'll also be responsible for conducting a community service activity in our area. Just to keep the stress level maxed out.
• Assuming I survive training and am chosen to become a Volunteer, I will be sworn in back in Zuunmod on Friday, August 20.
• While in Zuunmod, it will be fairly easy to stay connected via the telephones at the post office and the city's two internet cafes. However, the email says that communication will be much more difficult once we're living with our host families. We are told to "be prepared for this limited communication and prepare your family [back home] for the fact that you probably will be able to call or email them only rarely after you head out to your host community."

So yeah, pretty intense. But already a lot of the anxiety has dissipated and I'm getting excited again.

My time in Maine has been nice so far, although I wish I were getting more hours at work. I've been spending too much money, but at least I've been doing a lot of the things I'm gonna miss a lot: going to my favorite restaurants, eating lots of seafood, seeing my buds, going bowling. Jonny Hyman, one of Peter's best friends from college and a very good friend of mine as well, was in town all last week, and then this weekend Eric Gibbs, one of my best buds from Oberlin, came to town. He and I went hiking in northern Maine (see pic below) with Erin Child, another Obie, and generally had a great time. Saying all these goodbyes is getting rough, but I guess that's just the way it goes.

I've also been studying a little Mongolian. I'm focusing on the alphabet, but I've got some words down too. Here's how you say goodbye: bayartai!