Monday, January 31, 2011

Alright, I asked for it...

Something to note--Do not send an email that you want an answer to right away, on a Friday. That being said, I did get a 'mytoolkit' update this weekend. The little check box was marked by the Medical section and this is what it said:
Complete. A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail.
REALLY?! What does it mean? Now, I have to wait for a letter. Hopefully it will be here soon. Hopefully I have fingernails left by the time it gets here.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Adventure is worthwhile in itself. - Amelia Earhart

Here we go!...

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not really a daily tracker/journalist. However, I will definitely want to be able to keep in touch with friends and family as much as possible throughout my Peace Corps adventure (knock on wood), hence blog.

For those of you who have not heard about my decision to apply to the PC, here we go, from the beginning:

I applied to the Peace Corps at the end of September 2010.
I interviewed and got a nomination to teach english in Central Asia starting as early as March.
I have passed the legal and dental reviews.
I am still waiting on medical clearance.
Add in a lot of nerve wracking waiting over the past 4 months.
--Now you're caught up.

I feel like I have been waiting forever to hear about the medical review. Though, I actually have been waiting a lot less than a lot of PC applicants. They did request one extra form for the medical review that they received last Thursday, January 20th. Which, really it's sad, I was so excited to hear from them at all! I should hopefully hear something again really really soon, I think. My plan is to give them through tomorrow morning, and then I am going to try to get a hold of someone about the possibility of making my March departure.

The minimum amount of time that I will have before they ask that I leave is 6 weeks. According to the peace corps wiki, the only program left (given the 6 weeks) leaving in March for Central Asia is the Kyrgyz Republic departing March 25th. That means that my 6 week deadline is February 11th, 2 weeks. Commence freaking out!!!

Today I spent an un-disclosed amount of time searching other peace corps blogs trying to figure out if my situation is normal. Generally, I found the answer is yes, but that most people have more time between nomination and departure date (as addressed in the nomination). As it happens, finding this out does not really make the waiting that much easier! Imagine that. We are really cutting it close.

I have decided to start this blog now, because it really was a huge help reading about what other people have gone through. Hopefully this will help anyone else in a situation like my own.

** I added the fish to help pass time waiting...**