Yes, no, I don't know!

I've changed my blog! Title, background, you know, the fun stuff.  I got bored and decided this needed to be updated. There's a good chance it will change again soon as I was having issues deciding which background I liked....

I've started buying everything I think I need to take with me to Guyana.  At this point I'm only slightly worried that everything won't fit and my luggage will be too big/heavy and I'm sure as it gets closer to the time to actually start packing I'll worry more about this.  Getting ready to go is rough. I'm already going through the 'Yes, no, I don't know!'s of packing. I don't know where my permanent site is going to be or if I'll have running water/electricity there, so I feel the need to take everything that I might need if I don't have the general comforts of life in the U.S. (ie running water/electricity)  with me. Though, in truth, when applying for PC I didn't really expect to be going somewhere with those luxuries. Or internet access.  I pictured myself in a mud hut in the African bush, but if you give me the option of having electricity and running water or not, well, I'm probably going to chose to have them, though it would definitely be interesting to live without for 2 years.

I go shopping every 2 weeks and promptly run out like the shopaholic I may be to spend just about my entire paycheck.  This needs to stop.  I might need stuff to take with me, and there are still some necessities (bathing suit, bug spray, anti-itch, cream, you get my drift) that I need to buy.  But I need to save money so I actually have some when I get there, can travel, and go on vacation.  Otherwise I really will have to subsist, food, vacations, and all, on my Peace Corps stipend.  That's fine when in country and in my community, I really am going to try to live off of it and live like the locals.  But I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to not only want, but most likely need a vacation out of country.  On a nice beach somewhere, just to relax.  Unless I want trek through the jungle and camp for my vacation, which is also a possibility.  Chances are, I'm going to want to do both: trek and beach. Perhaps, if I have electricity, I'll get internet or a refrigerator.  Which will surely cost money.  So the spending needs to stop. And I plan to stop spending, really, I do.  My next paycheck will pay off my credit card (YAY!) and be the last one I use totally for buying stuff to take with me. Seriously, I'm not going to have room for or want to lug around everything I've already bought anyway.

For my friends who are thinking of coming to visit, well, you may be 'roughing it' a bit compared to American standards, but there are things to see and do to make up for it. Like visit Kaieteur Falls, the largest single drop waterfall in the world. And yes, I really do want you to come visit, hence the pretty picture :-)

The fact that the temperature in my house usually hovers around 59, which, for me, is way to cold, makes me even more excited to get to Guyana!  The volunteers who are there now have also been super helpful with answering questions and making Guyana seem like an awesome place to be, so shout out to them! Time is really flying.  This holidays make time seem to go so much faster and I feel like I'm going to be leaving for staging before I know it.  It's going to sneak up on me, like a spider in the dark, but less terrifying....I hope....

Things I'm enjoying and going to miss later: getting clothes straight out of the dryer, all nice and toasty warm, and putting them on...MmMmm warm....Grapes. Oh, how I'm going to miss grapes...Is it possible they have grapes in Guyana...? Something to look into....

I came across the Prayer of St. Francis recently and though I know I've heard it before, this time it struck me differently.  I don't think I'd ever really paid much attention to it before, but I'm going to do what someone else I know does everyday. Read it. It's motivational and helps me to remember what I want to do with my life and why I do the things I do.  Now, the church I've been volunteering at is a Franciscan church.  And most of the volunteers, including Yanil, who I teach with, are all part of Franciscan organization.

How I haven't heard this prayer in the last few months or made the connection between them and St. Francis and this prayer, I don't know. For those of you who don't know, I'm not particularly religious. That's not to say I don't have religion, or spirituality, or faith.  I just don't practice religion in the traditional sense.  This prayer really makes sense to me, and I'm going to remind myself of it daily so that I can strive to be more positive in my daily lifeand to be inspired by its meaning.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

INVITE!!!!!!!!

My invite arrived yesterday!!!!!! I turned into a little bit of a crazy person with the shrieking and jumping up and down when I saw it outside my door, but oh well!  I did startle my step-father though.  He was in the house and thought something was wrong when I started freaking out. Ooops. Anyway, onto the important stuff.

I'm going to GUYANA!!! 

I've been invited as a Community Education Promoter.  As far as I can tell this means I'll be teaching literature and working with PTAs, but I'm still pretty vague on what it is I'll really be doing.  Guess I'll find out when I get there! I leave January 30th.  I was actually kind of surprised to get Guyana.  I work with a woman from there and asked her a bit about it when I found out my time of departure and thought it might be there.  She said they really only speak English there and as I had been told there were indigenous languages, I crossed it off.  Not a bad surprise!

Guyana is in South America, above Brazil, and is culturally Caribbean.  Best of all: its warm all year! Right now, when I'm pretty cold, this is even more appealing.  Hopefully I'll still appreciate the warmth once I'm there, in the humidity, and most likely sweating like crazy.  I've already been shopping too. I've got 3 new pairs of sandals and some summer/early fall clothes that were on sale. I figured I better get what I can now while it's still around.  If I tried getting this stuff in January I might have a little bit of trouble....

My aunt was doing some research and found that 90% of the population lives on the coast.  From what I've seen online from volunteers who are there now, most of them are also on the coast.  And apparently PC tries to group people together, so no one is totally alone.  I'm personally hoping to be placed on the coast with a few other people near by. But I won't find out until I've been there for around 3 months, so expect another post with lots of !!!!! around April. 

SO EXCITED!!!!

Final Interview!!!!!!

I just had my final interview. My invitation is being mailed today!!! AHHHHH!!! SO EXCITED!!!!  I'm being invited as a Community Education Promoter!!! To somewhere is C/SA leaving in late January! So maybe El Salvador or Guyana?  My PO said somewhere Spanish speaking, but where there are local, indigenous languages.  Where volunteers are usually placed in the interior of the country, probably with little access to electricity.  Not thrilled about that bit, but it would definitely being interesting and a learning experience!

How long does it take to get mail from DC to Delaware? Maybe I'll have it by Saturday??? I can always hope...

For those of you going through the process my interview took about 30 mins and here are the questions I was asked:

1. What are your reasons for wanting to join PC?
2. How does your family feel about your decision?
3. How would you cope with living in an isolated area? Without structure in your day?
4. When can you leave?
5.  How have you been preparing for PC since you began applying?

There may have been more, but I think  that was the biggest part. It's really not bad, really just a conversation. Though, if your anything like me, you'll have butterflies anyway :-)

SO EXCITED!!! I can't wait to get my invite!!!!

Can I do what?!?

I have my final interview on Wednesday! SO EXCITED! I emailed my placement assistant last Wednesday since it had been 6 weeks since I had sent in my updated resume and I hadn't heard anything. She emailed me back saying I would hear from my placement officer in the next 2 weeks.

He emailed 30 minutes later and I set up a time for my final interview. I received another email from him today with some questions:

1. What's your phone number? Please update you'r toolkit.

2. Are you able to bike? Yes.....(here I can sense what the next question will be. Getting prepared)

3. If you can ride a bicycle, would you be able to ride, say 7-10 miles per day? Yeah, probably....maybe....

4. Would you be able to ride up to 20 miles per day? (i.e. 10 miles each way to your work site) Ummm....I'm sorry? Yeah, probably not.

I actually started laughing when I read the last question. I made the mistake of emailing him back saying that I could do it.  I'm going to have to retract that statement.  I'd love to be able to and I think I could work up to it, but I wouldn't be able to right when I got there (wherever there may be).

For anyone who is waiting to hear something, I encourage contacting them. It can help. More to come on Wednesday....

Jobs, Volunteering, and Contact

Sitting around, relaxing, doing nothing is all well and good for a little while.  Unfortunately, it can quickly become pretty boring.  So far I've been doing just this for about 2 weeks since I got home.  I'm not bored yet and I've managed to give my self at least one thing productive to do everyday, but I will be glad when I become busier.  Which should be pretty soon.

I've been extremely luck where jobs are concerned.  I don't need anything great since I'm hoping to only be home for 6-7 months and just want something with decent pay.  I was offered a job catering and was just offered the opportunity to return to the bank I was working for last summer before I left for Korea.  I'm taking the bank job as I loved it there and the pay was better. Having a job is such a relief and I'm really happy to be going back to somewhere I enjoy working.

I'm also set to begin ESL teaching 2 days a week with Spanish speakers beginning next month.  This is perfect! It's a church in the city for 2 hours a night, 2 nights a week.  I'll get to listen to/practice some Spanish while volunteering.  I'm also hoping to find someone there who would be interested in doing a language exchange with me so I can get some additional practice and help with my Spanish.

In addition to this I think I'll be volunteering at the ACLU starting next month.  For this, I have to thank my incredibly kind neighbors.  They invited me over for dinner last week with them and the director of the Delaware ACLU.  For someone who eventually wants to go to law school, this would be an amazing experience and a great opportunity to be around lawyers.

Now, to totally switch topics, I had contact from the placement office today! They asked for my updated resume, which I sent and which included both volunteer opportunities above.  I'm hoping it was in the right format, there are no problems, and that I'll here from a placement officer soon.  As much patience as applying for PC takes, when you do get news it's really exciting! I'm hoping things keep moving forward and I'll have some real updates soon!

Cleared!

I've finally been given medical clearance! A couple of years ago I was having some major family problems and was prescribed anxiety/anti-depression medication by my primary physician.  Well, since it wasn't prescribed by a psychologist I was told I needed to get a mental health evaluation done.  My pre-service nurse emailed me at the end of July with this information.  At the time I was still in South Korea where I called around to see if any English-speaking doctors could do this.  I found one who was willing, but he was going to charge about $700 to do it.

Needless to say that was way out of my price range, so I decided to wait until I went home in a couple of weeks to do it.  I returned to Delaware at about 11:30pm on August 13th and was able to get in to see a psychologist on the 18th.  He's someone who is familiar with me and my family and knew what had happened and what my father is like.  I faxed in his evaluation, which was glowing, the next morning.  Less than a week later and I've been cleared! Another step closer to hopefully getting an invitation!

I noticed in the meantime that invitations for programs departing in February, my nomination month, have started going out, which has made me nervous.  I'm really hoping to talk to a placement officer really soon so my program doesn't get filled up before I'm ready.  Hopefully it will all work out on time, just have to wait and see!

Anyway, I've made it back home! Been here for a little over a week and am loving it!  The weather is amazing and I've been enjoying spending time with family and friends and reading/tanning on my deck.  Looking for a job though.  That's not so much fun.  I'm hoping to go back to where I was working last summer, but for now I'm enjoying relaxing :-)

Delay's Suck

I'm now under medical review.  Yay! I'm excited to have things moving forward.  Almost exactly 3 weeks from submitting my medical kit and I'm under review! However, I'm already facing a delay.  They want me to see one additional doctor and get some more paperwork done.  And, of course, I can't do this right away. And I hate being delayed :-p

I'm leaving Korea in 2 weeks.  What I need to get done would cost about $700 here, mostly because I need someone who speaks English fluently and they can charge more.  Sooo not paying that much. Which means waiting at least 2 weeks until I get home to do it.  Plus the time it takes to have the paperwork filled out. Probably another 3 weeks until I can send it in. Delays SUCK.

Invitations are being sent out now for my invitation time and this delay makes me nervous.  What if my program is filled by the time I have all my info in? I'm going to try not to worry and work on being patient.  It's practice for if I am invited and go. 

I have 2 weeks left in Korea, so I'm going to try to make the most out of it.  Most of it is going to be spent desk-warming at school with nothing really to do, so I'm going to apply for jobs at home.  Wish me luck!

Back it up, back it up

I was so excited to be dentally cleared and moving forward in the application process, so of course there has to be an 'And then...' I was really hoping everything was just going to go totally smoothly, no trouble at all.  And, really, this isn't a big deal at all, more a minor annoyance.

I applied from South Korea.  I did all my blood tests, physical, all that good stuff here. That has all made it to PC.  However, I emailed pre-service to make sure my medical records and psych evaluation that my mom mailed in separately also made it and were with my other stuff.  No such luck.  Mind you, I had asked before if it would be alright to mail stuff separately and was told that was fine.  Well, the email I got back from pre-service  said this:

Items mailed separately can take a long time to find.  Your physical exam is here but not your mental health/psychological forms.  You may want to gather all the documents together, verify them against the checklist and mail them in again.

Pre-Service Unit.

This doesn't make any sense.  Why should I spend at least $100 to get all my paperwork together AGAIN and mail it to the States, especially since they already have most of it.  So, we exchanged emails and I pointed out that OMS had told me before that mailing/faxing my medical records and psych evaluation was fine, and should I just fax in another copy? Yes, that's fine.  Inconvenient and annoying, but doable.  My mom, wonderful as she is, is going back to my doctor at home to get another copy of my medical record and have her fill out another psych evaluation, then fax it in to PC this week.  Hopefully my  doctor made a copy of the psych evaluation when she did it the first time. 

  It's going to get taken care of and my mom is going to fax it in with a nice cover letter asking them to, please, immediately put it with my other papers since it's the second time it's been sent.  I'm going to be home in a month, which is great, and will hopefully mean that if there are any more problems I can take care of them myself and not have to rely on my mom so much.  On the downside, I won't have insurance, so I'm REALLY hoping everything is in order by then and I don't have to go to the doctor/do any more tests.  Anyway, so that's that. 

I may have taken a step back in the process, but I know I'll keep moving forward, its just a (very) minor setback, that may not be a setback at all depending on when all my paperwork makes it together and when they began doing my medical review.  So, really, probably no problem at all....

Steps

I've been dentally cleared!!!! I know, its really not that exciting, but it brings me one step closer.  I was actually really surprised that my tool kit was updated and that I had already been dentally cleared.  I only mailed my med kit (via DHL) on Tuesday, so it would have arrived at PC sometime Wednesday morning.  From what I had been reading on other peoples' timelines it seemed like it usually took at least week, usually more, for PC to update the toolkit to say that the med kit had been received. It's nice when things happen quickly, though I don't think anything else is going to happen for a while now.  This is what my toolkit now says next to Physical:

"Peace Corps received the results of your physical exam on July 6, 2011. If the program you are nominated for is not scheduled to leave in the next 4 months you may not hear from Medical until the time of departure is closer. Currently those programs scheduled to leave in the next 4 months are being reviewed. For applicants leaving within 4 months Peace Corps may request additional medical information. Please respond quickly to these requests."

Sooo....looks like I'm going to be waiting a few months.  My nomination has a tentative departure date of February, just about 7 months away.  However, I still have hope.  Maybe, for whatever reason, I will be reviewed (and hopefully cleared) soonish.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this video yesterday and it made me smile. Enjoy!

Choices

I was finally able, after 2 weeks of waiting, to go pick up my blood test results and finish my medical packet.  The doctor at the international clinic is only in every-other week, so it delayed when I could finish everything by several days.  BUT for anyone applying from South Korea, on the off chance that you read this, Seoul National University Hospital is awesome!  They are so helpful and so patient.  They made what could be an incredibly frustrating experience not so bad.

I was lucky enough to be going through the medical process there with another PC nominee who was really on-top of everything.  Since we were doing our paperwork on the same schedule it was easier to explain how it all needed to be, that we needed all our results in English.  The nurses and doctor really helped with everything; translating, getting exactly what we need.  Plus, last year they had helped a couple other nominees do the same paperwork, so some of the nurses were already familiar with what we needed.  Anyway, everything is complete (I hope).  I've gone through it all so many times I've lost count, written several personal statements in the hope of avoiding delays, and am going to DHL after work today to mail it.  Fingers crossed that I make it into the 15% of nominees who aren't medically delayed for further information/paperwork errors.

Doing this all from South Korea means that I have been relying pretty heavily on my mom to help me get paperwork and general help from home.  I can't even out into words how thankful I am to her.  She went to my doctor's office several times, picked up the paperwork, made sure it had everything I needed and put it in the mail.

With my original papers I had to send in a notarized letter from my mom saying that she would make payments on my one student loan that can't be deferred  if I do serve with PC.  She scanned it to me and I sent in the copy with everything else.  Well, my recruiter, who had emailed be Tuesday to get my unofficial transcripts, which somehow hadn't made it into the original paperwork, to complete my file, emailed me again on Thursday to say that her boss had just informed her that they needed the original letter.  And could my mom possibly drive to NYC to drop it off? Well, no she can't.  But she did run home after work, pick up the letter, go to FedEx and have it mailed to it would get to my recruiter by 10:30am the next day, Friday.  Seriously, I'm so thankful for her and how great she is to me.

Now, the rush that my recruiter put on getting all my papers together and having everything finished on her end by last week makes me wonder whats going on.  I have been nominated for a February departure, so does that mean that everything is going to be rushed through? Or is that just how they operate?  February is still pretty far away, so I wouldn't think everything would be rushed, but I hope it is.  I want to have everything done and (hopefully) be invited as soon as possible.  Seriously, waiting is the worst.

Anyway, on a different note, I've had to make some choices.  We all do, that's what life is about.  I've always planned on going to law school.  I've taken the LSAT, applied, and was admitted into school for this coming year.  I emailed my school was offered a one-year deferral.  I didn't say that it was because of Peace Corps, but because of money.  Which is true.  Coming to Korea I had planned to save so much money.  That has not happened.  At all.  So I have this deferral.  I have to email them by tomorrow to accept/decline it.

I'm going to accept.  If Peace Corps doesn't work out for some reason, them I'm still covered for next year.  If it does work out, then I re-take the LSAT and apply to schools again.  I feel like this is a pretty good life-plan.  Plus, the school I was planning to go to has been amazing about everything.  It would probably still going to be the school I choose if I do PC and put school off for a couple more years.  I've never had a goo experience with university offices, but they really have been so nice and easy to work with.


Life is full of choices.  We have to decide what is best for us and sometimes we have to veer off the course we had set for ourselves.  I'm happy with my decisions and can now only hope that everything works out for the best.

Poked and Prodded

Apparently Peace Corps uses DHL to mail medical packets to people applying from overseas.  I'm REALLY happy about this! Instead of having to wait like 2 weeks to get the kit from the time they put it in the mail it only took 2 days! So I freaked out about not getting into see the doctor for nothing. 

Luckily I was able to get an appointment at the International Clinic at Seoul National University Hospital on Saturday.  This is the clinic that another applicant had been to, so they already knew a lot of what goes into this particular medical kit.  I also, happily, met another PC applicant at the clinic who had been emailing one of the nurses for a couple of weeks to make sure they new exactly what was needed.  This is great for me because all I had to do was tell them that I needed the exact same thing as the other woman.  And since they will be processing all of our stuff at the same time I'm pretty hopeful it will all go smoothly. 

However, this did turn into a 8hr ordeal.  I had to catch the bus at 6am to get down there (yuck!) and then I was early and had to wait for them to open.  The other applicant was supposed to be the only person before me but because her consultation took so long they told me I had to go last that day.  I got into see the gyno, eventually saw the doctor, had a ton of vials of blood drawn and got the polio-booster that I needed. I made it out of there around 2pm.  I did have a little trouble because I didn't realize I couldn't eat or drink anything for 8hrs beforehand.  Well, apparently that only effects of test, thankfully.  So I'll be going to the doctor near me tomorrow to have the TB skin test done.   

This actually wasn't too bad though.  There were a ton of other foreigners there who I got to talk to and it was great talking to the other PC nominee.  We both have to go back in 2 weeks to pick up our results and go over them with the doctor, so I'm hoping to run into her again.  We also exchanged info which is great.  It's good to know there is someone here who is going through the same process/stress that I can talk to.

I'm going to the dentist today, in about 2 hours, which I'm dreading and just really hoping they don't find any cavities/anything else wrong. I've heard everyone there speaks English, so, again, I'm hoping it goes smoothly.

And I've actually decided that I am glad to be doing all of this here.  Yes, having to travel farther for English speaking doctors and having to wait 2 weeks for them to be in the office is a little frustrating.  Still, it's worth it.  Medical treatment in Korea is much less expensive than it is at home, so I'm happy to be saving some money :)

So, dentist today, doctor tomorrow, and test results in a little under 2 weeks. Totally doable.  And hopefully everything is done correctly and I'm totally healthy! 

Added Stress

I've been going through the application process from South Korea.  This hasn't really added any stress or been a problem at all until now.  Now I'm into the medical part of the application.  I was nominated last week and had high hopes of receiving my medical kit in the mail this week and getting to the clinic on Saturday.  No such luck.

I had an email from the medical office yesterday (Tuesday in the US, Wednesday here) asking me to verify my address.  So, definitely not getting the kit this week. Hopefully next week.  Not really a big deal.  Except that there are few places I can go here that have English speaking doctors and are open on Saturday's, the only day I can go.  The one place that I can go is in Seoul and was a hospital with an international clinic. Perfect! Except, I come to find out, the family medicine doctor, the one I need to see, only works every-other Saturday.  Know what Saturday he works? That's right, he works this Saturday.

So, unless I can find another English speaking doctor, I have to wait 2 weeks.  The other problem is that I could have gotten everything done at that clinic in one day for not that much money.  There is another English-speaking family doctor near by, but he's sure to be more expensive and that would be going to different places for every part of the kit: the physical, the gyno, and the dentist and all for more money. Or I can wait and not finish this thing for several weeks, which may be what I do.  The problem with that is that I would have to go to the clinic 2 Saturday's in a row and I was planning to be out of town every-other weekend next month, so it would really push back when I could finish everything.  I'm glad I'm in Korea, except that doing this from home would be sooo much easier!

I'm just going to look at this as an exercise in patience.  It will all work out eventually anyway.  I like to get things done right away, but I'm going to roll with the flow on this.  I'm flexible with a lot of things, but when I feel like something is under my control, that it's something I can or should be able to get done, I like to get it done and out of the way.  Move forward.

Lesson learned: become fluent in the language so I can go see whatever doctor is around. Anyway, it looks like I'll be working on this for a while and I'm going to try not to stress too much about it.  Once this is done I will (hopefully) move on to the next step.  Fingers-crossed!

Un-nominated? Please, no!

Due to a major miscommunication, I had a minor freakout last night.  I had been planning to go to bed early since all of this is keeping me up at night thinking rather than sleeping.  I'm so glad I stayed up.  I had emailed my recruiter (?) earlier in the day to inform her that I needed to change my availability.  I was no longer going to be available to depart as late as June, 2012 and needed to change the month to May, 2012 for my latest departure date.  This is because if I am invited to serve I want to return to home in time to start school the next fall.  Unfortunately there was some confusion over this.

She thought I would no longer be able to leave in February, that I couldn't leave until May.  So, freaked when I received an email saying that she would email Washington to start the un-nomination process!!!! Bring on the panic attack!!! I'm really happy with everything about my nomination and definitely don't want to loose it, though I do realize that if I'm invited it might change anyway.  I immediately emailed her back explaining that I can leave in February and crossed my fingers she would get the email in time.  I also called a couple times and ended up leaving a message.  By that point in was about midnight here and I knew I wasn't going to sleep until I knew what was going on.  Luckily, my message reached her in time to halt the un-nomination process. So relieved!

Anyway, not everything is back on track, thankfully.  I'm waiting to receive the medical packet so I'll start in on that soon.  I'm hoping it reaches me sometime next week.  I found out there is an international clinic not to far from here where all the doctors speak English, so that took some stress off.  I had a bunch of medical tests when I arrived in South Korea last year and I was fine, so I'm hoping nothing has changed.

So far, the waiting has been that hardest part.  Patience is a virtue I need to cultivate.  Playing the waiting game for the next several months is going to be really hard!

Peace Corps

So, some of you know this, some don't, but I've made the decision to apply for the Peace Corps.  I decided to start this blog as way to help me keep a time-line of my application process and (if I'm invited) to serve as a way to share my experiences with all my friends and family at home and whoever else may be interested. Wish me luck!

P.S. In case anyone notices all the 'if''s here, I'm trying really hard not to jinx myself. Better safe than sorry :-p