July 1

July 1, 2013

First business of the day was notifying my sister that I was up and ready to skype with her and my brother-in-law so we could map out a plan for my arrival. We made a tentative plan for me to stay at their house while I get my car registration up-to-date and other details.

Having a long list of tasks to achieve before my departure on the 12^th, I set out to call and email a lot of people to get things done. First of all was Gulnara at Lingua whom I informed I’d be working from home to complete all the reports due to Georgetown and the embassy prior to my departure.

I also inquired, again, about my session for their ESP seminar so I could add it to my calendar. As a goodwill gesture, I also extended an invitation to lunch so we could summarize what had happened these past nine months. She replied by saying the trainers had enough staff members to fill all the slots for the seminar and that my presence wasn’t required.

We agreed to have lunch on Friday and then she informed me that an invitation card from the U.S. Embassy for a reception on July 3 had been dropped at Lingua for me to pick it up. I agreed to do so on my way to the meetup for couch surfers taking place nearby tomorrow evening.

I found three angry mosquito bites on my right leg only, which meant they were able to bite right through my jeans during my visit at the cemetery. The bites continued to swell and itch as the day progressed and made it impossible to cross my legs at all. How I loathe mosquitoes!

I heard from Willoughby that Jennifer had squealed on her to Peace Corps about her making negative comments about the food during CATEC and her habit of knitting even when the ambassador was speaking. She was forced to write a note of apology to Jennifer even though it clearly pointed out that the food had been unpalatable. Good for her!

Asel confirmed that his student, Rasur, wanted to buy my laptop. He called subsequent to our email and promptly came by with the $100.00 payment I had asked for it. When asked if he wanted a receipt, since we agreed I could keep the laptop until the 10^th, he didn’t understand. I proceeded to write, print and sign a receipt acknowledging the receipt of the money and the delivery date.

Diana, a friend of my landlady, had agreed to buy my backpack and sleeping bag as they are now running a business that caters to tourists wanting to go trekking overnight. We agreed on $50.00 for the backpack, which was almost new, and $40.00 for the sleeping bag because Diana claimed tourists demand that an additional piece of linen be inserted in the sleeping bag for hygienic purposes.

I needed to reimburse Willoughby for the money she’d loaned me during the travels in Russia since my own credit card had been useless there. I had taken careful notes of the expenditures and emailed her with my summary. We both agreed it was correct, so I’ll reimburse her tomorrow at the meetup.

I informed Cate about the meetup so she’ll have an opportunity to meet the local organizers. I also emailed Luann, spoke to Damira and Willoughby and they all agreed to go except for Luann who already had a commitment.

Jennifer and Gulnara from Forum both replied indicating they’d received the notification to complete the ELF letter of recommendation and were hoping to do so soon. I also completed the last four highlight reports for the embassy and RELO for which Jennifer indicated her appreciation. No word from Johanna.

As I was preparing to complete my final expense report for the entire ten months I’ve been here, I occurred to me that most of the receipts I had for the purpose of photocopying and laminating materials had been printed on very low quality paper and the dates were either illegible or missing.

I wrote to Jennifer, Johanna and Gen, at Georgetown, to see if it’d be possible for me to combine all receipts into one-line item in the report as I’d been given a budget of $200.00 for such expenses. Gen was the only one to reply in the positive.

My brother-in-law reminded I was going to order a new laptop from amazon.com and then emailed him the confirmation as I was going to use their address for shipment. I did so and then remembered I also needed a stylus pen for my tablet and got those ordered together. The laptop is expected to arrive on the 9^th, three days before my arrival.

What a hectic day and without even setting a foot outside my flat!