2 weeks to departure

I am just 2 weeks away now from leaving England for my year working for VSO in Mongolia. I still have so much to do to get ready and time seems to be evaporating fast. I have been meaning to start this blog for months now and really wanted to . I will try to recap on the last 8 or 9 months that got me where I am now:

January 2010 - came back form a medical expedition to Nepal - inspired to volunteer for longer

April 2010 - sent application to VSO

July 2010 - attended selection day in London

August 2010 - informed I had been selected

September 2010 - first placement discussion

October 2010 - offered Mongolia placement

November 2010 - handed in 12 week notice at work

November 2010 - house put up for rent

December 2010 - started VSO training courses

December 2010 - train tickets to Mongolia booked and received

December 2010 - Russian and Belorussian visas obtained and received

December 2010 - started injections

December 2010 - preparing house for rent/packing process begun

December 2010 - Mongolia visa application sent to VSO

December 2010 - tenant for house found

7 January 2011 - Skills for working in Development course with VSO

14 January 2011 - last day at work

23rd January 2011 - lock up house

24th January 2011 - 0918 train from Wakefield Westgate to Mongolia

26th January 2011 - arrive in Moscow

1st February 2011 - depart Moscow on trans-siberian train

6th February 2011 - arrive Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia

11th February 2011 - start new job at Ach University

How do I feel now? Excited!! Can't wait to see Mongolia, can't wait to see my new colleagues, my new place of work, to see where I will live, to settle in, to get to know the city and people, to experience the extremes of the country. Can't wait to start work there and enter a whole new world of development work. Can't wait to see how I adapt to a new culture, to see how I handle a completely new job, way of working and what good work I can do. Can't wait to be immersed in the landscape and the climate.

So much to look forward to and enjoy.

I will use this blog to record and inform - record my experiences and feelings - and inform you of the work I do and what its like to work in Mongolia as a foreign volunteer.

So much yet to do - still don't have a visa for Mongolia, haven't yet received a formal acceptance letter of my post from Mongolia. Don't know where I will be living.... not bothered, I'll just turn up anyway!

Speak soon, just before I depart probably