Almost a year ago, I headed to Bucharest with Julie to officially end our 27 months of Peace Corps service. We spent two nights in Bucharest, got our final medical check-ups and completed mountains of paperwork. It was a whirlwind completing our close of service checklists. We returned the smoke detectors and water filters which we had lugged from our sites, closed our bank accounts and turned in all our grant paperwork. At the end of the day we had checked off all the boxed on our pages of forms and we were officially cleared to leave Romania.
I felt ready to go. I turned in my grades, I had cleaned out my classroom and apartment, I said goodbye to people in Onesti, I had donated everything I wouldn't be taking with me, I packed my bags, I checked out of Peace Corps. I felt both excited and nervous about my future back in the States.
What ended up being one of the hardest things was saying good-bye to my friend and fellow PCV, Julie. After two years, countless trips on trains, buses, maxi-taxis and automobiles, one apartment flood, two Christmases together, one pig killing, one Hungarian adventure, and many other adventures Julie became one of my best friends. Even though we only saw each other every three weeks or so, Julie was the constant in my life in Romania. She was the one I called when I needed someone to talk to, had witnessed something ridiculous or felt unsafe. Julie was headed straight into grad school in DC after Peace Corps so although I knew she would still be a phone call away, I knew I would miss all of our adventures. However, we did promise that if we can ever get selected as contestants on The Amazing Race we could make the best team ever!
I went from straight from Romania to Norway to meet up with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and to meet my nephew for the first time. I was very excited to reconnect with family that I hadn't seen for two and half years. I spent a week and a half in Norway before finally arriving back in the states in the middle of July.
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