Invitation arrives --- overwhelming feeling ensues...

Nearly a week after a surprising call from the Peace Corp placement officer, I finally received the official invite. In between that, I read many a blogs, became way too excited over the 1st day of March Madness, screamed as my bracket was busted, went on a skiing weekend 300 miles away from home, and watched 8 straight hours of politics as health care reform finally passed!

So this arrived in the mail today!!

I'll be serving in Georgia (as suspected) leaving April 26th (to Orientation)! That's so soon!! OMG, where has the time gone! I just made a to-do list and there are sooo much stuff I have to get done. First, I'll have to accept the invitation. I think I gave declining it a second thought, but a very short second. I've been chasing this dream too long to stop now and I want to see this through to the end no matter how my expectations has changed. My to-do list included a lot, including learning the Spanish guitar and the a little Russian. GULP! I'll have to scrap a lot of that and focus on finishing the paperwork required for the invitation, taking my GMAT's before I leave the country (which I have yet to start studying for), and gathering the supplies for my little 2+ year trip. I'm a notorious over-packer, so this will be a challenge. I also have to see if I can get a deferment on my student loans. Finish my tax return. Also, in between, I planned a one week trip to DC to see my friends and I don't think i'll get anything done there as I'll be drunk most of the time I reckon. Anyways... I'm pretty overwhelmed...

I'll be serving in Georgia as a "Business Advisor, Consultant" within the Business and Social Entrepreneurship program (forever now known as BSE). More on that later...

last time on slopes? I heard Georgia has lots of slopes and snow...

Phone call after the quake...

So there was a Earthquake which had an epicenter 2 miles away from my house. It was only a 4.4, but in LA, everyone feels it. It was probably the 2nd biggest I've felt in my life, the Whitter 95' one being bigger at 5.9. I was awake at the time and I quickly went into earthquake mode, meaning I panicked... went to the doorway... then heard glass braking, car alarms going off, and ran outside. I've felt many earthquakes, so thats usually what I do. Earthquakes happen when you live right above many fault lines in Los Angeles. So its pretty expected.

Whats not expected is a phone call from the Peace Corp. I was expecting another one month wait because the last correspondent I've had was basically to inform me they were doing April departures and to be patient. So when I got a phone call from the DC area code (I know this because I used to live in DC) I thought either it was a friend who changed their phone number, or the Peace Corp. So I answer the phone excitedly and it was the PC! I had strongly hinted that I was "flexible" to leave earlier than June if they wanted, and I guess they got my hint. My placement officer told me if I wanted, I could leave in late April to somewhere in the Eastern Caucasus. I immediately said yes and then she said she wanted to confirm my address to fed-ex my invitation. I was excited! I even jumped up and down, it was as I felt when I got accepted to college.

Between the short phone call, my phone disconnected (it's been doing that a lot lately) and I had a 1 minute break to check where I might be going. Peacecorpwiki says Georgia. It's the only logical area thats in late April. When I got reconnected, I wanted to ask if its Georgia, but knew I would find out in a matter of days anyways. I wander why they are so vague still about the country. I mean its one thing to be vague when they haven't placed you, because they don't know exactly where you might go, especially if its a big region. But to be vague in an invite, that's just unnecessary. I just don't understand what purpose its for since you'll know in a matter of days. But, for now, unofficially, Georgia here I come!

I'm actually kinda conflicted about this now. I've spent the last month trying to hype myself up for Mongolia. I was nominated for early June in Central Asia, and all signs pointed to Mongolia. I have no thoughts on Georgia, but I guess thats why they tell you not to think about where you're going till you get invited. I'm going to reframe from hyping myself up about Georgia.

After the initial excitement of finally getting an invite after waiting more than a year, I'm very overwhelmed by the lack of time now I have. I had all the time thought I would leave in June. Now I have less than 6 weeks to prepare and do everything I wanted to do. I have to cancel a few vacations. I was planning to learn the guitar (although the odds of doing that in 3 months was slim to begin with) and to take the GMAT's (i've been obviously procrastinating), and now thats all up in the air. So now I feel overwhelmed, by a quake of news following a minor quake in LA.

The Long Wait Continues...

I didn't really want to write anything new until I had something new to write about. Alas, I couldn't help myself. I have no invite (yet!) but I do have some new info for ya'll. I recently went to Peace Corp event in downtown LA where there was a bunch of us applicants and a bunch of returned volunteers. It was cool chatting with the volunteers and even cooler to chat with the applicants. Its nice to meet people in the same situation as you--we were all anxious and excited. I even found myself answering a lot of questions because there were people in earlier stages of their application.

I also relented and finally called my placement officer. Well, actually placement desk, since I no longer know who my placement officer is. I called the business desk and I think the basic jist of what they told me was to be patient, and that they were currently working on May invites. I asked if they wanted anything, and offered an updated resume, which they happily accepted. So now i'm just waiting for spring to come and news to arrive. I'm determined to not pester them, so I might just wait for them to call me. Hopefully I'm patient enough.