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 :-)