It's finally real

I made it! After some long, gruelling hours on the plane, we finally made it to Azerbaijan late last night. It was approximately eighteen or so hours of traveling by bus and plane, but it spanned thirty two hours if you were adjusting your watch through all of the time zones. We are now staying at a hotel in Sumgayit for the next couple days before we are taken to our host families. I like to think of it as a nice little transitioning point because after trying to practice my new highly intelligent "Thank You" to the staff serving us supper (after which he smiled and made me repeat after him two more times), I feel glad this won't be my first impression on my host family. So far things are going well though. We had our staging event in Philadelphia, where I checked out the Liberty Bell.
Then we had a day long staging to get to know each other, talk about logistics of departure, and go over some final rules and regulations. Then 60 of us boarded a bus to NYC, took a plane to Frankfurt, took another plane to Baku, and then a bus to Sumgayit. Now we are finally here. I don't think that thought has quite hit me yet, but then again, I might be too tired to comprehend much of anything.