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).