Sunday, February 14, 2010

I finally gave in

So as many of you know, I will be leaving for the Peace Corps in about a month. I decided that I would start a blog now so that when people ask me "how can we hear from you," I can answer with a simple web address. I don't plan on posting much on here until I actually get to Albania (who really wants to read about me packing and selling my stuff or my inner most feelings about what is going on right now, and if you do just call me we can have human interaction before I leave). But anyways I will be in Ithaca for a few more days before going on a road trip then returning to Ithaca for a few days then going home before my staging date of March 15th.

For those of you who don't know the back story and would like to.... I applied to the Peace Corps back in December 2008, hoping to be able to leave soon after college, this plan may not have worked out 100% for me. It took awhile for me to receive my nomination, and before that I almost got rejected because they thought from my answers that I would be too strict of a vegetarian but luckily we smoothed that out. When I received my nomination it was for Africa, without a date. I waited for some time for my invitation without hearing from them, and luckily I had two other friends who also were in Peace Corps situations, one who headed out in October who assured me that they would call, and the other who was in the same situation as me, waiting in Ithaca while working part time jobs and waiting to hear. After a few months I decided to call to make sure they had received my transcript which I had sent months ago. I was assured that they did and that the reason I had not heard back was my nomination was for April, and they were only processing January-March departures at the time... she was surprised to hear that I had never been given an estimated date. Well after a little research I learned that the only country leaving in early April in Africa was Botswana, so I started to research Botswana and get excited about leaving and being in a new country. So how did I end up in Albania?... enter the phone call. A few weeks latter I was at work when I received a phone call, as always since I have been waiting for the Peace Corps I decided to take it since it was a number I did not recognize, and low and behold it was in fact (for the first time since I made sure to pick up unidentified numbers) the Peace Corps. They told me that I was all set for my Africa placement, but that a spot had opened up in Eastern Europe, was I able to leave a little early? And in fact I could. Did some more research, found out Albania was the country leaving in the time frame they gave me, and then a few days later my invitation arrived! Since then I have been tying up loose ends, packing, saying goodbye, renting out my house, and so on.

So that's the story, I'm just happy that these past few months of working part time jobs, including an oh so great one (hint, sarcasm) at a hotel chain that shall remain nameless but who eventually fired me with their main reason being I missed too many days due to being sick... were not for nothing, and I no longer have to question that I will be going into the Peace Corps when I tell people that that is my next step.