It's all over. I've finished my paperwork, handed in my cell phone, say my goodbyes to all the staff members and when it becomes July 24th, I will no longer be a Peace Corps volunteer. I can't believe that it's over. When I first joined, I remember thinking, "How am I going to do this?" Now, I find myself thinking, "How the hell did I do that?" The best answer I have to both questions is simply one step at a time. It's a bittersweet feeling to say the least. I'm glad that I won't be teaching at my school anymore but I'll miss a lot of the kids. I'm happy to be leaving Samtredia but I'll miss the charm of my little town. I'll miss my two counterparts who were always wonderfully nice to me and helped me whenever they could. I won't miss my host family who turned bitter against me when I told them that I had no power to give out VISAs and couldn't help their son Avto get to America on the same flight as me (I didn't tell them I was traveling). They didn't believe me and thought that I was just being unhelpful. This led to my last goodbye being rather awkward as they looked at my like an ungrateful child.
I'll miss the Peace Corps Georgia staff members and the staff at American Councils. Both of whom are wonderful. I won't necessarily miss all the paperwork and evaluation forms that I had to fill out for either organization over the past two years though.

All of that is in the past now though. If you read my last blog, you'll know that I'm going traveling. Egypt, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I'll arrive first in San Francisco on September on the 12th and then back in Denver on the 14th. If you want to contact me, feel free to. Originally, I had nothing to do with my computer and I planned on just carrying it with me for the seven week journey. About a month ago though, I met an embassy intern named Sarah. We've become fast friends and Sarah is going to be nice enough to carry my computer back to America for me and then mail it to Colorado. For doing this, Sarah is in my 'awesome book' forever. Not also does this save me a good 10 pounds, but it's also going to make me slightly less connected. If you contact me, I don't promise a quick response but I promise to at least read whatever you write. To end this blog, I'll give you some interesting facts about my two years of service.

Number of days spent as a volunteer: 767
Number of books I read: 64
Number of Newsweek's I read: One for everyweek of my service for two years, so you do the math
Number of weddings that I missed, due to Peace Corps: 2
Number of text messages I received at about 4am when CSU beat CU at the Rocky Mountain Showdown: 4
Number of text messages I received the next year when CU beat CSU: 0

Number of missiles that landed in Georgia: 1
Number of riots that were quelled by suspending the constitution for more than a week: 1
Number of parasites personally acquired: 1
Number of parasites personally defeated: 1
Number of strange lumps found on my chest: 1
Number of trips to Thailand, Peace Corps paid for because of my weird lump: 1
Number of strange lumps that are still on my chest: 1
Number of flights I've taken on Georgian Airways: 1
Number of people, on this flight, that were using their cell phones: 2
Number of people that set off an alarm because they were trying to smoke in the airplane: 1
Percentage of my hair that was gray before I joined: about 1 percent
Percentage of my hair that's gray now: about 15 to 20 percent
Exchange rate from lari to dollar when I arrived: 1.82 to 1
Exchange rate from lari to dollar when I depart: 1.39 to 1
Number of blogs posted: about 40 or 50
Number of countries that I visited before Peace Corps: 0
Number of countries that I will have visited by the time I return home: 13
According to my friend Jeff, who I'm traveling with; odds of me hooking up with a thai woman who's actually a man: 7 to 1
Also according to Jeff; odds of me waking up the next day, crying about it and then making the same mistake: 35 to 1

Price of a six hour bus ride: 20 laris (about 15 dollars)
Price of a kilo (two pounds) of most vegetables at the bazaar: 1-2 laris (.75-$1.50)
Price of a brand new iphone ($200 in the US) in a country where half the features are useless: about $500

Amount of times I though about quitting: A least a few. It's two years
Number of priceless memories and unforgettable friendships I acquired: Uncountable

P.S. I was purposefully trying to make this blog seem like one of those Mastercard commericals.