I have been invited to serve in....LIBERIA!! *Happy Dance*

Wow I am absolutely horrible at updating this blog. To update you all on a few things. I received my invitation on monday!! Happy President's Day to me!!! The wednesday before (on the 16th) I had to much anticipated email from my PO. All she wanted to know more about was my parents not wanting me to join. I told her they still don't want me to join but it's because they are scared and don't want the baby of the house (mind you i'm 25 years old) to finally leave the nest. I also told her about what I have done to inform them about being a PC. I have met a few PCV's through friends. My neighbors nephew is in Ghana right now so we have reached out to him to see what it's like. So I submitted that about 2pm on thursday and at 430pm (while I was at work of course) she emailed me back thanking me for my response and told me she issued my invitation packet that day. She said she thinks I will be very excited and happy with my assignment (which I am), and that I will be a great asset to the program. Woo-hoo. That makes me happy because I was worried about not having enough work experience. I even told her if I didn't get a job now I would go to grad school and build up my resume, then reapply.
Of course I had to wait all weekend to get that packet. To all you restless applicants out there....the wait for the invite is the most anxious part of the process. I was so restless. I swore every car that came down the road was going to be the UPS truck. Finally the packet came monday just after I left the house to go pay a bill and hang out with a friend for a few hours. When I got home it was sitting on my bed. I opened it to see the name Liberia highlighted. So there it is. I'll be heading to Liberia on June 10th. Staging dates are the 8th and 9th. Pre-service training is June 10th - August 2011. Service dates are August 2011 to 2013.  And i'll be teaching science. My invitation is exactly what my nomination was! Science Teacher/Africa/June.
I was reading through some of the stuff they provided and had my fist experience of nervousness. It was a "damn this is really happening" moment. But I'm am getting more and more excited as I read about Liberia and read current volunteers' blogs.  I know I will be just fine over there. I'll be in the 2nd group to go back to Liberia since the war ended, which is very exciting. Liberia definitely needs and deserves the help. They've come through so much.

I need this RAS cured.

Well it's been 18 days and no word from my PO yet. (yes I have been counting the days, lol) As with most of you out there, I don't even have a name. I hope I hear something soon. I'm so miserable at my job and I just don't know how much longer I can last. It would be nice if I had an invitation so I could have something to look forward to. It would help get me through these next couple months, that's for sure. But the days go by and I have nothing. I'm starting to regret not doing the Master's International Program. I'm asking myself why didn't I look into that sooner. Oh well. All I can do is continue to be patient and take each day one at a time. If I don't hear something by the end of this month, I will probably call the Placement office to see if I can get some information. I hope I don't get the run around and a reprimand for not being more patient.
Anyone else tired of winter yet like me? They're calling for more snow this week. I hope it doesn't mess up my dance class. That's the one thing I look forward to every week. :)

I'm officialy 25! And I've had contact from placement.

So yesterday was my birthday. It was pretty low key, but fun and relaxing. I went to my stretch class in the morning like I do every saturday. It's such a great way to start off a day. Except for the fact that I'm least flexible in the morning. Luckily my modern dance class is at night and so is the ballet class I occasionally take.  After stretch class I had cake with my family. Then I got dressed up and met up with my friends and sister at my sis's boyfriend's house. He was nice enough to offer his house as a meeting up place for everyone. We had a couple glasses of wine and went to a nice restaurant for dinner. After dinner we went back to my sis's bf's house and chatted and drank another glass of wine, then called it a night. All in all it was a pretty good bday. I will be scheduling a massage and facial as a little gift to myself after I get my work schedule for the week.

To make things even better I had heard from the placement assistant the week before. She just wanted an updated resume. I sent that to her a few days later. I had a minor freak out thinking I was not qualified since I had no work experience in the biology field. But I have a degree in biology, and that alone qualifies me to teach science and english. I was freaking out for nothing. And I have some pretty good volunteer experience on my resume too. I'm not too worried anymore. So I finally finished tweaking my resume and sent it back to her. I can always apply to grad school or the master international program if PC doesn't work out now. Although I would really like to do the Fellows program after PC. I haven't heard anything from my actual Placement Specialist yet, but I am patiently waiting. Hopefully it will only be a few more weeks at most. At least I know whoever he/she is, they have my file on their desk (probably at the bottom of a mountain of other applicant's files).

Medically Qualified!!! Woo-hoo :)

So I actually found this out on Christmas Eve. I had gotten my urinalysis redone that Monday. Thankfully it came out normal this time. Tuesday I faxed all the additional info PC requested, including that lab test. Wednesday I received  an email that all my paperwork was received and would be given to my medical officer. Thursday I had an application status update saying my medical file was under review. Friday I had another application status update...medical review complete, look for a letter in the mail. About 2 hours later my Dad walked in with the mail and tah-dah! He handed me a letter from PC OMS which stated that I am medically qualified to serve with the Peace Corps! *Happy Dance* Placement should have my file on their desk now and I am patiently waiting to hear from them :)
What a great gift for the holidays. Also I would like to make a shout out to my East Carolina Pirates playing in the Military Bowl today in D.C. against Maryland. GO PIRATES! Heading down to DC to meet up with some friends from college after the game is over. I probably should have gone to the game since I'm only an hour away from DC, but freezing my ass off outside watching a football game just isn't my idea of a good time. lol
Have a Happy New Year every one!!

Monday Hurry Up and Get Here!

Of course last friday when I could finally go back to the lab to get a third urinalysis test done, I started my period. Doctor said to not go if this happened so I have waited a week. Damn my body for having a full 7 day cycle. At least PC gives me 60 days to get all this stuff back to them. (It's looking like I need it at this point.) With any luck, my test will be normal this time and I can fax everything in tuesday morning. If not, then I will hopefully not need anymore testing done, and I will be begging my doctor to hurry up with report of my lab results despite the holidays being just a few days away. I still have until the 25th of January, but I hate waiting until the last minute to get things done. I had no intention of having to wait this long and it's driving me crazy! I expect the waiting game when it comes to hearing back from PC since they have so many applicants, but I don't feel that they should have to wait on me to get information back. I know I had no control over this waiting game I'm having to play, but it still makes me anxious and annoyed.

Unless I have some more news to post about sooner, I may not be posting here until after the holidays. So I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Finally heard back from OMS

Well I finally heard from OMS. I received a status update saturday morning of the 27th. Then got a letter in the mail on wednesday the 1st. There's a few extra things they need. Only one item was a stupid mistake. Dr. forgot to put that my hearing is normal on the exam paper. They also want me to elaborate on a few things I put on my HSR application forms. They aren't major problems though...more annoyances than anything. Easily manageable and not hard to explain. Now the frustrating thing...my urinalysis was abnormal. Well I was on my period at the time so they found blood in my sample which made it abnormal. Never listen to the appointment person when they say that isn't a big deal because it will make the result abnormal. And then the PC will make you go pee in a cup again. Well I did again (this time I was not on my period) and they found a "trace" amount of blood this time. Abnormal result again. Rats! I was a little panicked at first not knowing why the test kept on coming out abnormal but she explained that is was just a little blood (not anywhere near what it was when I was actually on my period for the first test). I was thinking it was something really serious. She said this is usually nothing to worry about. She ordered another test for a week later. She says if it comes out abnormal again then she will write a report saying it is nothing to be concerned about. Depending on the amount of blood she might look into it further if needed. My dad told me if I am not drinking enough water and eating too much protein that it could cause blood in urine. Note to self. Chug some H2O and stick with pasta the night before. I do eat a lot of yogurt, cheese, meat and vegetables and not many carbs. But I am just not a bread person/starch person. There are just other things I prefer to eat if I have my choice.  And I am kinda bad at drinking water which is why I try to drink a lot of herbal teas. Now lets hope I don't start my period before this saturday. (Actually it's suppose to start any day now which means I will probably have to wait another week before I can actually do the test again. At least the order will stay in the system and I can just show up and do the test anytime after this friday.) Wish me luck (and clean pee! lol )

Timeline

June 30, 2010: Started application
July 23, 2010: Submitted both parts of the application
August 31, 2010: Application Status update...fingerprint charts and legal review forms sent.
September 8, 2010: Mailed Legal Review Forms back to PC.
September 21, 2010: I was called around 8:40 am to schedule an interview last minute for 8 am on the 23rd.
September 23, 2010: Left my house at 5:30 am to go to the DC recruiting office an hour away. And yes as odd as it seems I did hit rush hour traffic that early in the morning. It was stop and go all the way to the metro which is luckily only 30 minutes away. Took metro from Shady Grove to Rosslyn and then walked 2 blocks. Hey I made it 30 minutes early (go me!). After 10 minutes of waiting a guy came in the building and let me into the PC office then put on the recruiting video since it was a pretty good way to kill time. Then a lovely woman showed me into her office for the interview. An hour and 20-30 questions later she told me I was the perfect candidate for the Peace Corps as long as everything was good medically, and that I would likely be sent to Africa to be a science teacher (and that most of those groups leave in June). Sounds good to me!!! I was practically dancing with joy the whole walk back to the metro station.
September 24, 2010: Application status update...I am officially a Nominee!
September 29, 2010: Application status update...PC medical packet mailed.
September 30, 2010: Medical packet received.
November 4, 2010: After spending the whole month of October visiting med doctors, a dentist, and an optometrist and being poked and prodded more in 2 weeks then I have been in my whole life I finally mailed back the bulging medical packet.
November 17, 2010: Application status update....PC received medical packet on the 16th. Dental clearance! And my medical status is now under review. My legal status is also still under review.