A few basic facts...

Two weeks from Wednesday, I will leave the United States of America for the Republic of Armenia to begin a two-year term of service in the Peace Corps as a Community Health Extension volunteer. Last night was my going-away dinner for close friends and family. The family tree is going to spread its branches this year. Cousin Shoshana is in Israel studying medicine, cousin Nava is going to London to study art, and cousin Joanna is marrying fiancée-cousin Ari. I leave it to Aunt Janet and my highly elite travel agent mother to figure out how to get family matriarch Grandma B to tour London, Tel Aviv and Yerevan in a style befitting her 91 years (palanquin? dromedary train? zeppelin?).

We're not a drinking crowd, but many toasts were given by family and friends. My friend Clement began in French, inviting me to visit his hometown of St. Etienne, a suburb of Lyon. This caused a cascade of toasts in languages I don't speak; Sofye in Russian, Rain in Mandarin, Jing in Cantonese, Saaqib in Bengali, Goldie in Hindi, Uncle Aaron in Yiddish and Aunt Janet in Hebrew. Saaqib noted that even though few other guests understood Bengali, everyone laughed in the right places. I think that Saaqib is just a funny guy. Dmitry arrived covered in glitter, muttering something about how that damned poochkin (or Pushkin) had thrown it all over him at Alice's Tea Cup, then hugged me and freestyled for my ears only.

I'm embarrassed to say I cheat-sheeted some Armenian greetings thanking everyone for coming, and for being the wonderful friends, family and awesome people that they are. I plan to freestyle in fluent Armenian for my welcome-home dinner in 2012, but if I can't do it, I'll make it up and no one will be able to tell the difference.