quick note - with datestamp!

So you can tell how long ago this all really was - I gotta say I was absolutely delighted to be able to write something worthwhile in to the 20th reunion (rather than, say, I'm still a copy slave at Kinko's - the job I had before I joined the Peace Corps. I still have anxiety dreams about that place).

We were supposedly going to Batumi for a competition in Ureki, and I had to get special permission to skip an all-volunteer conference - I said I was going as an escort for the female members of the karate group. It turned out there was no competition, but somewhere in Georgia it's recorded that I won my mythic bout. I also didn't mention in this email that I had screwed up my back immediately after my father and Mary left, and I was in rough shape. I swear, I didn't do anything - I was going to reconcile accounts with Varton at the karate school, I went to sit down and I screamed instead. It was an unbelievable amount of pain.

Wed, 25 Jul 2001

Hey you -

Am off to Batumi (Georgia) as of this Sunday/Monday - traveling with my karate compatriots - and will be absent through the 15th of August. So...... once again expect delays on the snail mail! I did get a number of letters off, but more came in, so it all balances out. Plus packages - HUGE ones from Abby and Scott (thanks so much guys!).

I'm very happy here. And vacationing with Armenians - if that isn't the coolest thing?! Just think, during my 20th high school reunion, I'll be swimming in the Black Sea. I wrote and told them about it, too. Snob that I am.