Peace Corps Follows Me Wherever I Go...

I am not sure whether this is some kind of a random coincidence or it should have been expected, but I just found out that two of my teammates of the aforementioned fellowship in Armenia are former Peace Corps volunteers who I have apparently met (but can't recall, or rather can't put faces to the names) during my PC groupie days. My reaction, a mixture of surprise and amusement, is similar to that when upon meeting my current MA classmates during graduate orientation:

Where do Peace Corps Volunteers end up after they’re done with their two year service? Apparently, the SID program at Heller is the place to be – it seems like ninety percent of the Americans who are in the program (and believe it or not, they are a minority in an extremely diverse and colorful incoming MA student crowd) are returning Peacies. To take this further – what are the chances that you’ll meet one, let alone two of these amazing well-wishing, tree-hugging do-gooders that have just come back from your own country? Even more so, what if you even happen to have personally seen them on site? From the day one, when after being freshly inaugurated and sworn in, they crowded my favorite bar, making complete fools of themselves, I’'d stumble upon them throughout the year here and there in ever corner of downtown Yerevan… A former PC groupie that I was back in the day, while conducting series of interviews with them for my still unfinished project, I actually ended up befriend a few (they are, after all, charming, and adorable, and totally harmless). And yet, Brandeis was the last place I’d expect to run into a former Armenia stationed Peace Corps Volunteer – but then, it’s a small world that makes room for even the most improbable encounters to happen.

Apparently, the fat bastard was right: PC volunteers turn up in the darnedest of places when you look for them... even more when you don't... kinda like Armenians.