This morning Ashlee and I successfully completed the close-of-service process, officially ending our two years' of service with the Peace Corps here in Mongolia. As of 11:30am today, we are no longer Peace Corps Volunteers. Instead we have moved into alumni status as "Returned" Peace Corps Volunteers, or RPCVs. It feels awesome!
Adding to this feeling of awesomeness, the antibiotics I have been taking to kick this stomach bug seem to be working and I am feeling MUCH better -- plus the rain finally stopped and the weather is perfect! All-in-all, we're both feeling pretty good, albeit tired and ready to come home.
Our flight leaves tomorrow at 7am, so it will be an early morning. We'll have a 5-hour layover in Tokyo (we're hoping to score some good sushi) and then it's a 13-hour flight to Los Angeles. We will land around lunchtime and our parents will pick us up and whisk us away to the glorious Cheesecake Factory. Much to Ashlee's amusement, I have already scouted out the menu online and I have an idea of what I want to order: chips and guacamole, a Navajo chicken sandwich (add bacon and bleu cheese), and a mojito. For dessert, I'm vacillating between the red velvet cheesecake and the lemoncello torte. Hmm, decisions decisions.
As for the rest of today, we are currently sitting in our tiny guesthouse room packing our bags for the trip tomorrow. We're worried that we have more things than we will be allowed to take, and we really want to avoid paying exorbitant excess baggage fees, so we have to make some tough decisions on what to take and what to leave behind. Tonight we're going to meet up with some friends to say some final goodbyes -- not all of our goodbyes, however, because there is a fair number of fellow RPCVs flying out with us tomorrow.
Life is pretty sweet at the moment.
PS - Because of our (Ashlee's) excellent budgeting skills, we have found ourselves with a healthy amount of leftover Mongolian tugriks. Rather than blow this little nest egg on last-minute (and unnecessary) souvenirs, we decided to convert the sum to US dollars to bring back to America. After visiting the currency exchange kiosk at the State Department Store, we have exactly enough money to buy our iPhones! It's like it was meant to be.
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