What A Difference A Day Makes!

May 4, 2009

OMG!! This is unbelievable! So I just affirmed yesterday that I was going to be hitting my P.O. up hardcore until I got some answers! Well. I called her twice and only got her voicemail, I was starting to feel ridiculous and sad, like I'm not going to know anything all month long, this really sucks! THEN I get an area code 202 number phone call. I quickly answer thinking...snap, they have caller ID and they have figured me out. It was some one in the Placement Office calling to talk to me about and assignment. There were 3 "wrinkles" about the situation. First of all he described the assignment. Although he was talking 1,000 miles a minute everything he said was more on target for what I wanted than that next. I couldn't believe it! The rub? First "wrinkle" they assignment departs in June! Hi, it's May! I have a ton of trips to take between now and then. 2nd my language which is really a tough one. They want someone with 2 years of college spanish or the equivalent. I have plenty of Spanish in my past and I actually tested out of Spanish in college. I have taken some Spanish since and was enrolled in a class during the time I was interviewing. They took all of that into consideration and asked if they sent me Rosetta Stone would I commit to getting to the level they needed from me. ABSOLUTELY. The other "wrinkle" he stated was that I would be living with a host family the entire time. No problema (ha Spanish! lol) I think I would do well having a family structure around me, so that's no big deal.


Next steps? He is going to go back to "the board" and see if they can work with me under the condition that I brush up on my Spanish. He will let me know no later than Wednesday! Argh, this is more agonizing than waiting all of May to hear anything. I'm happy because I know that they are looking at my application, they have liked what they see and I'm in the running to be invited somewhere. I'm leaving for Miami tomorrow and I'm staying a week. Hopefully I can chill out for two days until I hear something.

June! That would be in.sane. More updates to come.

P.S. He did not say where...he was very tight lipped about the whole thing. He just said Southern Central America....

Pest Control

May 3, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo weekend. I will be in Miami for the actual holiday so I'm posting now. This weekend I found myself speaking with a stranger and somehow Peace Corps came up. He imparted a lot of wisdom and for some reason after speaking with him I felt more hopeful. I feel like he was a little Peace Corps angel sent from the heavens to encourage me to faint not. When I was describing where I was in the process and my plan of attack from this point forward, his advice was don't wait "you gotta really stay on those people". I was going to wait until after my Miami trip to start calling and checking my status, however now I'm most definitely kicking off Operation: Total Pest tomorrow. It can only speed things up at this point. He was saying not only is there so much red tape, bureaucracy and back log in the DC offices, but they also want to see how interested you are in your nomination. Some people apply for Peace Corps and go through the motions as a back up plan. They want to know who has their eye on the prize and is intensely serious about going. They don't wanna send someone somewhere for two years who has a lackluster attitude about the whole thing. I can agree... I do have examples in my process where I became quite the stalker and that IS when I got results. So if that's what I gotta do this last stretch of the process I have NO. Problem. doing that. So tomorrow is the kick off. One week "premature" so I'm interested to see if a) I am even able to reach anyone b) if I the response/attitude will be that I'm still worried about it too early in the game. Sheesh It's May! This waiting is agonizing!

March Madness!

March 22, 2009

March is almost over and boy have I been out of the loop. I caught my alma mater win a game today, but that is NOT what has been holding me up all this time. I wrapped up my life in LA and made the trek to STL at the beginning of the month. I've taken two weeks to get back into the swing of things. I have managed to pack a lot in the past 14 days (per usual) but I am back on it. I exhaled after being medically cleared and I needed a bit of a break. So I just sent an email to my P.O. with and updated resume and some other updated information about myself. I hear from this point on it's nothing but a waiting game so I wanted to get that information in her hands as soon as possible. I'm not sure if she's just going to receive the information and say nothing, or if she's going to hit me back and we are start dialog. We shall see. Hopefully I have at least one more update this month!