Doldrums

Site visit was the beginning of the end, but it's reached full force now with only a week to go. I feel like we've learned all we are going to learn in training at this point and most of us are ready to move on to the real thing.

The situation has been exacerbated by what's been a downer week for a variety of reasons. First of all, the married couple in our group left to go back to America which cast a pall on everything. Secondly, the little things are starting to get to me in my somewhat bored state in the end of training. The weather is cloudy, our classrooms are absolutely freezing because we don't have heat, my apartment hasn't had electricity in two weeks, the food in my host family has made me a bitter, defeated man, we have a skeleton staff crew after a bank poached two people, technical training is going in circles, and after the language test, our Russian class has collectively lost the will to live.

In short, swearing in can't come soon enough. In reality, life isn't so bad but I think I've reached a culture shock phase in which I've become a little frustrated and irritable. It happens to everyone and in truth I have yet to have a truly miserable day.