That being said, Peace Corps for me was a great experience, but something that is really impossible to document in words and pictures. I would be happy to talk to anyone about my journey that wants to listen. I also encourage anyone who’s considering Peace Corps to go for it; you won’t regret it.

Good luck, and thank you for reading these past two years. Tsesetsyun!

(This is a somewhat long post, so maybe you can just look at the photos)

On Sunday, our first event wasn’t until late in the evening, so Sarah, Heather and I set out towards to Forbidden City and Tianaman Square, two of Beijing’s most famous landmarks. Unfortunately, we suffered an immediate setback - all of the roads between our Metro stop and the square were closed by the police for the street cycling race. Doh! Sarah and Heather decided to go shopping, and I decided to wind my way through Beijing to get to the other side. I eventually stumbled into Forbidden City nearly by accident, but had a great morning exploring the city. I even was there for the cycling race as it passed right by the square. It was an exhilarating 30 seconds as they passed by.

Sunday night we went to the Men’s 56 kg weightlifting finals. Anyone who knows me knows I’m certainly not into weightlifting, nor had I ever been to a weightlifting competition. Regardless, it was a really interesting experience. The athletes had two lifts to do, the snatch and the clean and jerk. Each of these guys weighed about 120 pounds, and could lift twice as much as I could. Amazing. The most interesting part, aside from the medal ceremony itself, was that a Chinese athlete was the winner, so the crowd went wild.

Tuesday was our day of games. We had more weightlifting tickets in the morning, so we went there for a while, but it was boring the second time, so Sarah and I left to go visit the Lama Temple, which is the most important Chinese Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It was very interesting, and most notable for it’s world-record-setting 26 meter high Buddah carved out of a single piece of wood!

After that we went to a Beijing duck restaurant, to order the city’s famous “Peking Duck”. I love duck. And this duck really lived up to its name. Highly recommended for anyone going to Beijing. Or PF Chang’s. Their’s is good, too. After that we went up to the Olympic Village, where we had tickets to women’s Handball. For those who don’t know what Handball is (like me, until 2 days ago), it’s a combination of basketball, hockey, and soccer. There are teams of 6+1 goalie, and they must dribble/pass the ball up court, and ultimately throw it into the other team’s goal. It’s very fast paced and was a lot of fun. We watched China vs. Romania, and Russia vs. Sweden. Romania prevailed in a blowout (in some of these events, I think they just give the Chinese a team out of sympathy) but the second game was much closer, with the Ruskies winning by 3. I was slightly disappointed, but congrats to them for a good fight.

Tuesday we parted ways with Beijing and rode the night train to Hong Kong, where I am now. The train was awesome, and even had potted plants! It also had those nice comforters that you get in 4* hotels, A/C, and oddly enough, a squat toilet (the only one we saw on a train the whole way). It was sad to leave China, as the hospitality and everything else was great while we were there. It will be interesting to see how things pan out after the Olympics leaves town, but while we were there we have nothing but glowing things to say about the games, the city and the people.

Tonight we went to an Equestrian event, which are being held in Hong Kong for health reasons. The event was called “Dressage”, which is basially “Horse Ballet.” It was aweful to watch, really. The argument for it being a sport is that it requires an intimate connection between rider and horse, but I don’t think it belongs in the Olympis; it requires no real athletic skill and the horse is doing the work, anyway. Besides, horses were born to run and jump and pull, not prance around. Just my two cents.

Most importantly, tomorrow morning our journey ends, and I fly back to America!! I’m really looking forward to being home. We have about 24 hours in the airplane, and connect in Vancouver, then Denver, then to Kansas City (ugh!). On Saturday I’m leaving to Seattle with my family for a short vacation (as if this wasn’t enough), and will be in Columbia for a week before I move to Dallas on the 28th.

It’s going to be a hectic next few weeks, so I’m not sure when I’ll have a chance to post again, or if I will continue the blog at all. If this is goodbye, then thank you for reading about my journey these past two years. I know my adventures will never stop, no matter where I am, but my two years in Peace Corps will always have a special place in my heart. It’s been my pleasure to keep this web journal, and I hope everyone who’s followed it has learned something about me, or Armenia, or Peace Corps, or just wasted an hour of week at work. Regardless, I encourage everyone to follow their dreams and explore the world - it’s a big one, and will teach you more about yourself (and others) than you can ever get from a book. Good night, and good luck (yes, I ripped that off, too bad).

We hopped on the train the next morning and set off for China. The train was very nice, had air conditioning and a shower car, tvs and headphones in our compartment, and was just comfortable. Crossing the border was easy (for once) and we arrived in Beijing around 2 PM on 08.08.08 - the first day of the OLYMPICS!

I must say, so far Beijing has been extremely impressive. The city is immaculate; all of the buildings and roads are clean, and there are both security officers and volunteers EVERYWHERE. They are very helpful. The public transportation and taxis are well organized and clean, including meters in all the taxis so that there’s not even the option to get ripped off.

Since we arrived on the day of the Opening Ceremonies, and we were too poor to afford the thousand dollar tickets, we went to a park where the Olympics Committee had set up big screen TVs for people to watch. The park was nice and beautifully decorated, and it was a great atmosphere to watch the Opening Ceremonies. The Chinese are very energetic and very proud of hosting the Olympics, and it was a cool experience to watch it with them. The ceremony itself was so impressive, but my favorite part was when all the athletes came into the stadium. In the crowd, there were people from countries all around the world (from Argentina to Australia to Armenia), and when they stood up to cheer on their country, the rest of the crowd applauded for them as well. It was really cool and was a great showcase of the Olympic spirit.

While we came home late, we woke up the next morning early to go to the Great Wall of China, which all the signage continued to remind us is a, “wonder of the world.” We got there early in the morning to avoid the crowds, but it was also very foggy so the wall was harder to see than normal. Regardless, it was beautiful, but also extremely humid, and so we were drenched with sweat by the end of the trip. To get down, they had a toboggan ride, which was a lot of fun! We also read, in a Chinese newspaper, that Chairman Mao once said, “You are not a man until you have climbed the Great Wall.” So, I can add “becoming a man” to my list of accomplishments this trip has helped me accomplish. Sweet.

When we got home, we walked around the Olympic Green and took pictures of the major stadiums from the highway. The environment is electric here and people are really in the spirit of the games.

We’ve been having a great time, and still have three more days here. Today we are going to Tiananmen Square, and then to the Forbidden City. Tonight, we go to our first event, the Men’s 58 kg Weightlifting Finals, which should be exciting (especially to see a medal ceremony). Tomorrow we have handball and more weightlifting tickets, and then we head to Hong Kong (and home!) on the 12th. The Internet is slow here so I will have all my pictures up later today - keep checking.

We decided to purchase our Russian visas in Armenia, because a) thousands of Armenians go to Russia yearly so it should be easy and b) we were there. After investigating the process online, we realize we need an invitation letter from a hotel we’re staying at. No problem - there are hundreds of sites offering them for cheap online. Just one caveat - the Russia embassy in Yerevan onlyaccepts visa invitations from Levon Travel in Yerevan. So yes, the mafia has even infiltrated the Russian embassy - another example of the underlying corruption that just keeps hurting Armenia’s prospects for growth.

So, we went through the motions, paid the exorbitant fee ($275 - the actual visa fee is $150), and submitted our paperwork for a standard, 30 day tourist visa. We get it back, and our entry date is fine, but our exit date is printed as 31 July. Even a kindergartner knows that July 21-31 is not 30 days. The reason this was a concern is that we left Moscow on the 29th, and the train wouldn’t cross the border until August 2. Leaving us with an expired visa on August 2. Follow??

We immediately point this out, and which point they say, “Well, you can’t change a visa once it’s issued. You must pay for a new one. Regardless, after you get on the train on the 29th, you enter into a free travel zone (like an airplane) and you will be able to cross the border just fine on August 2nd.” We asked, and confirmed this, three times before we left Armenia.

Fast forward to August 2, 2008. After 5 days of train ride, viewing the beautiful countryside and meeting interesting travelers, our trip came to an end with a Russian customs official pronouncing, “You have a bigproblem.” They pulled us off the train with our luggage, took our passports until we paid a fine and the train left, and then instead of sending us out of the country with a lesson learned, they put true Russian bureaucracy back in action. We had to get on a night train, go back to the town of Ulan Ude, Russia, and wait. And wait. And wait. This was Saturday. The visa office wouldn’t open until Monday at 2. We show up early, to be taken to a customs office where an “incident report” was filed against us, fingerprints taken, and a million forms signed. They made nothing easy; the office was in a village about 20 km from the town center; we had to pay our fines at the bank, not in cash to them; and we had to have THREE passport size photos taken at our own expense (in addition to the 3 nights we had to stay at a hotel).

Anyway, finally on Tuesday at 6 PM we got our exit visa, and just today did I sit on a 12 hour bus to Mongolia. So, I’m out of Russia, and I couldn’t be happier for it. The country is ridiculous, the people unfriendly and unhelpful, and NO ONE spoke English in the entire country. There was one consolation to the whole trip, it’s that we got to see what Ulan Ude is truly famous for:

That’s right - the world’s largest Lenin head. Right outside my hotel balcony. Jealous???

And an adventure is what I got, from start to finish. I tried to keep a journal, so I’ll share some excerpts with you, along with some pictures:

Day 1: We boarded the train around 9, with the Vladivostok train next door, and left at 9:35. Our cabin is small and not as comfortable as the St. P train. The beds have a sheet and a fleece strip a blanket. Matresses have no padding. We just organized our things, I read (Crime and Punishment) and went to bed around 11. Before, our cabin attendant, “P” brough us a .6L Chinese beer which was just ok. Nice guy, and we’re going to try and get on his good side.

Day 2: Woke up around 8 AM. Very restless sleep as the cabin’s not long enough for me. It was also cold. We slept with the window and blinds open initially and that was a bad idea. Now it’s better. After waking up, Kathy and I toured the train. There are 2 first class trains; two with 4 person rooms, and two with 2 person rooms. The two person rooms even have a shower inside! The bathrooms are all the same, though. There are no paper towels and no soap. The toilents flush straight on to the tracks. There is also one dining car, which smelled like coal and served mashed potatos for breakfast, and no observation car. Definitely no frills.

Day 3: Yesterday was a lazy day. I only slept til 8, and then had a snack at 1, lunch at 2, watched Gone Baby Gone from 2-4, slept 5-7, ate dinner at 8. Went to sleep around 1, and woke up this morning about 9:30. All these times are Moscow time, so now our sun is setting early and rising earlier as we head East. We’re already +2 hours from Moscow, and will be +5 by the time we end our trip.

The views yesterday were good - it rained on and off, but we were going through big tall trees and rivers. Today is hot and sunny but even flater with lower trees. Reminds me of east Kansas. I really enjoy the relaxing days, and am sleeping better now. My favorite part of the train trip so far has been getting out at the stops along the way. We stop every 4 or 5 hours for about 20 minutes at various stations, and at each stop there are tons of stores selling any amenity we could need for the train, from toothbrushes to bottled water to 5L jugs of beer!

Day 5: See previous days. We have passed a big lake (Baikal) which is pretty, but was not worth Kathy saying, “Guys, you have to wake up to look at this,” while opening the shades at 8:30 in the morning, and then leaving the cabin. It looks pretty much like Lake Sevan, but maybe if we stayed there it would be better.

Scott Demyan (one of the Peace Corps volunteers from my group) is getting married today. Too bad we couldn’t be there for that. Today we pass the the Russian-Mongolian border. There’s a chance my next entry will be from prison. Our visas expired 2 days ago, but it’s because Levon Travel in Yerevan promised that when we left Moscow on the 29th, we entered a possibly-non-existant free travel zone. T-minus 5 hours and we’ll know. Russian border guards are usually very friendly people so I doubt we’ll have a problem.

…..

We did have a problem But tomorrow we will be leaving Russia, and I will explain everything safely from Mongolia. Until then, enjoy the rest of my pictures in the photo gallery.

Take a look in the photo gallery!

Before I move too far forward, I wanted to mention our 3 day stop-over in Moscow after we left St. Petersburg. Moscow is a very interesting city. First of all, we found it was far less touristy then St. P. There has been almost no signage in English (even at the Kremlin!) and English speakers and restaraunts have been few and far between. The city doesn’t have nearly as many attractions or history as St. Petersburg, but is instead a functioning capital for the people of Russia. As such, the Metro system is far more developed (it could rival London’s), and there were many more people coming and going from work. Regardless, we spent our time poking around near the Kremlin and saw some amazing sites.

We stepped off the Metro near Red Square, and the view was nothing short of stunning:

(sorry for the bad photos - I’ll fix them tomorrow)

This is St. Issac’s Cathedral, probably the most well-known building in Moscow. The entire Kremlin complex is huge, and features vast gardens, beautiful churches, a state history museum. Here were my highlights from the three days:

Outside a tiny, tiny church is a golden circle; they say that if you stand in the middle, facing the church, say a wish and then throw a coin over your head, your wish will come true. That’s all well and good, but the part that amused us most were the 6 grandmothers standing behind the thrower to intercept the coins! I think there is a minimum age requirement of 70 to participate, but these old ladies were ruthless and cutthroat. One lady even brought a baseball cap, and she was literally able to grab the coins out of the air. It seems like they have quite a business operation going there!

World’s largest bell. Soviet ingenuity at its best - it’s never actually rang. Another thing to check off the list though (just wait, I’ll post photos of a much better “world’s largest” tomorrow!)

Lenin’s Tomb. Yes, the one and only Vladimir Lenin’s body can be found, perfectly preserved, in a creepy tomb right outside the Kremlin walls. The tomb is like a dungeon - very stern faced security gaurds, very strict, and when you walk into the room with his body, it’s an incredible experience. Every six months, his body is cleaned, then dipped in wax and other chemicals to preserve him, and then fully dressed in a new suit. He is then put on display for tourists to see. It’s one of the most… compelling… tributes to a man I’ve ever seen. I was happy to be out of there - only to see the graves of other Soviet big-wigs, including Breshnev, Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space), and our favorite Communist, Josef Stalin himself.

Anyway, there was a lot more we saw in Moscow, so be sure to check out all the pictures and videos tomorrow on Flickr. Until then, you can revel in this good news: we finally have our Chinese visas!!

Fortunately, most of you aren’t up to date on the drama that has been our Chinese visa. To make a long story short, we spent about a month trying to get our visas through the Chinese Embassy in Yerevan. The Embassy there was quite possible the least helpful and least welcoming place on Earth. Every time we went (pretty much every Tuesday and Thursday for the last month) they came up with a different excuse as to why they couldn’t get us a visa. We tried and tried, and finally asked the man who worked there if he knew anyone locally who could get us the documents we needed. Of course, he produced a cell phone number for his friend Artur, and we dutifully called it, I met him at a Metro station with an envelope of cash, and he got us the letter we needed. Or so we thought. Turns out the Consulate in Yerevan is just a jerk and would not have given us the visa no matter what (his parting words to us were, “Go apply for a Chinese visa in America”) and so we did just that: we mailed our passports home.

“What?!?!”, you are probably asking. Fortunately, Peace Corps provided us with a second passport during our service (aside from our personal passports). So, we mailed our personal passports to a wonderful company in Washington, DC, VisaHQ, who got us our visas quickly and professionally, then mailed them back to us in Mongolia, stamped and ready to go. It’s been quite an (expensive) ordeal, but the good news is, we’re finally going to China and the Beijing 2008 Olympics!!!

Our last day in St. Petersburg, we visited two amazing cathedrals - Catherine’s and Peterhof. Both were built during the 18th century, and both are incredibly lavish. The crown jewel of Catherine’s is the Amber Room, which, as you can imaging, is made of only amber. They didn’t let us take pictures there so these are some bootlegged images:

Peterhof was Peter the Great’s Palace, but was largely destroyed during WWII during the Nazi occupation of St. Petersburg. My favorite part of these palaces was the pictures of the reconstruction efforts. The most magnificent part of Peterhof was the cascading fountains in his lower garden. Absolutely stunning. Fortunately we were able to get there just before they shut the fountains off at 5 PM.

Friday night we had our first overnight train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow. This was my first overnight train ride, and surprisingly enough, it wasn’t that bad! Even more surprising is that Russian trains are incredibly efficient and on-time, the exact opposite of anything in Armenia. Our train arrived at 1:44 AM from Finland, and left the train station by the 1:49 AM departure time, on the dot. That left exectly 5 minutes to get all of our bags on the train, and then stand akwardly in the hallway waiting for the large, angry looking carriage attendent to tell us where to go and what to do. In Russian.

We finally were led to our beds, which were narrow, but surprisingly long, even for me. I shared a cabin with three Russians. I must have looked like a deer in headlights as I basically copied the man who occupied the opposite top bunk, learning where the ladder was, how to use the water, etc. I slept like a baby, though (probably because it was so late), and the noise of the train was surprisingly soothing. The sheets were clean, the other people were respectful enough, and while it’s cramped, I think it’s going to be incredibly relaxing to just sit and watch the scenery and relax across Russia.

We leave for the Trans-Siberian the evening of the 29th. Until then we will be exploring the capital of Russia, Moscow, and today we are going to look at Lenin’s waxy body at his tomb. Woohoo. As always, all of my photos (and videos!) are uploaded to my Flickr page.

Of course, I am referencing this hostel in the past, as I sit here in our new hostel in St. Petersburg. 7Bridges was just very informal, which came at a price of professionalism. We didn’t get sheets until late, things weren’t done when promised, he never received our reservation, and often left his non-English speaking girlfriend to run things. Regardless, we decided to change hostels today, where I’m now writing from, and it’s clean and comfortable. And there’s no bed-bugs (yes, that was a problem).

Likely you’d rather hear about the amazing features of StP then my ranting about hostels. The first day, the 21st, we did not have much time to explore, as we were all exhausted, but the first thing we noticed are the beautiful canals that line the roads. The city is built on the Gulf of Finland, and reminds me a lot of Amsterdam, the way the canals run through it. There’s a lot less of a system, really, but they are beautiful (as is the rest of the city - great parks and gardens) nonetheless.

The second day we really got a taste of StP. We hopped a mini-bus to the Summer Gardens, where our first stop was the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, built between 1883-1907 where Alexander II was assassinated. After this we walked through the beautifully manicured Summer Gardens, which Peter the I commissioned for his summer home (well done).

We continued walking to Peter and Paul’s Fortress, which towers over the Neva River and was built when StP was first founded over 300 years ago. Inside are some truly amazing exhibits. For anyone who knows me, the “Rocketry and Astrophysics” section really brightened my day; they had a real Soviet rocket and lots of interesting propaganda on the Russian space program. I especially reading the poster below about how a Soviet astrophysicist figured out a formula to “conquer the universe”.

The cathedral inside the fortress was also beautiful, and reminded me of St. Peter’s in Vatican City, with a lot of gold and a huge alter. Interestingly enough, the entire family of Peter, Catherine, Ivan, and other famous Greats and Terribles have above-ground caskets within the church. Cool, but kind of creepy. The rest of the day we wandered around town on the way back to our hostel, with the only interesting part being a walk through the park where we ran into a lady with a BEAR. Yes, a baby bear. It was actually really sad, as the bear wasn’t happy to be there and exploited for pictures, but it’s certainly something you wouldn’t see in Central Park.

Tomorrow we’re heading out for Peterhof and Catherine’s Palace, which were the summer homes of the two Czars and are supposed to be absolutely beautiful. We are also going to attempt it by only public transportation, which I heard was the only trick Huidini couldn’t do.

To get a better understanding of StP, I’d recommend looking at all my pictures, which are now online (and shouldn’t be updated daily). The URL is http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgiff. Dobry noche!

I’ve spent my last few weeks in Armenia saying my last goodbyes, selling my wares (computer, cell phone, etc), and planning for my great adventure across Siberia and to the Olympics. Last Saturday I left for the International Outreach Camp, which I worked at last year, and spent 5 days there as an “intern”. I helped design the camp over the past year, and while I was only there for a few days, everything was going really well, and so much better than last year. We all decided that when the camp director was using free time as free time, we did something right. The campers, staff and teachers are all amazing, and I applaud their efforts for putting together a great program. Sorry I don’t have pictures - I’ll get those online one day.

So, tomorrow morning at 7:30, I will pay my last 10,000 dram exit tax and leave the country I’ve called home for two years. It will certainly be a bittersweet departure; I’m leaving behind so many good friends, and a lot of successes, both projects in Noyemberyan and cultural exchanges with Armenian people. I feel really good about my service here in Peace Corps, and can’t wait to share my experiences with others when I get home.

Home, home, home. That’s actually not a place I’ll be for a while. Tomorrow I’ll get into St. Petersburg around 1 in the afternoon, and begin my trek across three of the largest, least accessible countries in the world (trust me, when I get into the visa stories…). Here is my schedule, for those who care:

• July 21-25: St. Petersburg, Russia
• July 26-29: Moscow, Russia (via overnight train)
• July 29-August 3: ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD!
• August 3-7: Ulan Bator, Mongolia (and the beautiful countryside around it)
• August 8-12: Beijing (via overnight train) for the 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS!
• August 13: Hong Kong (via overnight train)
• August 14: Arrive at Kansas City International Airport, 11 PM - AMERICA!!!

I will do my best to update my blog (more) regularly as I make this great journey across Asia. If you only visit to learn about Peace Corps in Armenia, thank you for following my journey in Armenia these last two years. It’s been amazing and I hope everyone who read my posts learned a little about Armenia right there with me. Now, all that’s left to say is, HADGOH ARMENIA!!!