Waiting on the invite.

Oh the anticipation! Where am I going? Nothing is posted for the first week of Oct yet. I looked at previous years and the only country I saw was Ethiopia. I am down with that, actually I am down with just about any country. I know I probably wont get it until the end of the week or the beginning of next. After 8 months of patience this should be an easy wait...haha....or not.

Invite in the mail!!

AHHHHHHHH!! That is how I feel right now! My placement specialist e-mailed me yesterday and set up a 10:30am phone interview for today. At 10:30, as I nervously paced around my apartment making sure my phone had service, all I could think was budget cuts....budget cuts..no wait, think positively! Well, I got the call around 10:45, she mentioned how a lot of youth and development programs are getting cut but with all my HIV volunteering experience that I qualify for a Health extension program in Sub-Saharan Africa. Wait! Sorry, my brain is scattered- first she asked me things like what will the biggest obstacle to overcome , about covering my tattoos, dying my hair a normal color (I have bright red highlights now) and what I have been doing to prepare...THEN she went on to what I am qualified for. Anyways, I am leaving the first week of October for Africa!!! Nothing is on PC wiki timeline for the first week of October yet, so I have no idea where I am going! More to come!!! AHHHHHH

Placement (assistant) Contact.

With my nomination departure date of  early June quickly approaching  I decided to e-mail placement, and let me tell you I am SO GLAD I did. I e-mailed them on April 28th and I received a quick response stating they e-mailed (the wrong address) on April 19th asking for an updated resume, skill addendum and volunteer supervisor reference, and were waiting to here back from me. I have no idea how they got the wrong e-mail , it wasn’t one that I had in the past, so it was strange. The very nice placement assistant said something along the lines of "As you probably have guessed you will not be considered for you original nomination due to timing and open slots. This is not unusual and there is no need to worry." She also stated that flexibility in geog preference and leave date is a great thing and my leave date will be July-Sept 2011 at the earliest.

Honestly Sept is the month I want to leave in,so I am feeling good about this....for the most part. I really hope my original monination to Sub Saharan Africa sticks, but I am trying to be ready for anything. I did have a short bittersweet moment when I read the e-mail thinking " If I would have gotten this  in my correct e-mail on April 19th maybe I would have my invite now." However, I need to not think like that. I do believe that everything happens for a reason. I will have extra months to become more financially stable and enjoy the summer.

missed 202 area code call! boooo

I sent my updated resume Friday evening and really had no idea when they would contact me next.My leave date at nomination was early May/June but I know that can change, a lot. At work I ATTEMPT ;) to keep my cell phone off my desk so I can't partake in my facebook addiction...I mean I try to actually work while at work....most of the time. On my first break I pull out my phone and had a missed call with a 202 area code, my heart skipped a beat or 2. There was no voicemail and when I called the number back it was blocked. Maybe it wasn't the PC , maybe it was a sales call?  If it was the PC I think they would have left a voicemail, or hopefully they will call back soon. I know it's very silly to think "oh I missed the call so I missed my chance to go" I am not sure why that crossed my mind. I am going to keep my phone on my desk now...lol. I am done rambling....I'll post more if/when I hear backl!

I am READY.(click on journal title to view properly)

A conversation over pizza and beer last night with a good friend made me realize just how ready I am to leave. I think all the waiting has really jacked up my patience level so I have been sort of holding back all the anxious,excited & nervous feelings while waiting to hear form placement.I used to get a nervous lump in my stomach when talking about leaving but that is gone! I now get a really excited tingly feeling..along with anxious. I am SO READY....but I'll keep being patient ;)

Question-is this what legal clearance looks like? Just a check with no complete? I am not 100% since it does not say complete.( you have to click on my journal for it to show correctly)

Dental

Complete. Peace Corps has completed your dental review. There are no dental holds on your account at this time.

Legal

There are no legal holds on your account at this time.

Medical

Complete. A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail.

Place

There are no placement holds on your account at this time.

Also, my recruiter sent out an email updating everyone about time frames for different steps of the application process. It says that if you have received clearance on medical, dental and legal to send your updated resume to the email address based what what part you were nominated for. She lists them all. I was waiting for an email requesting my updated resume.... but hey, if that is what is says to do, I am all over it! I was wondering if anyone else sent their resume without it being requested?

Congrats on everyone getting invites!! It's so amazing and exciting..until next time!!

Waiting on Legal?

I thought I had cleared all the hoops when I got a tool kit update email, bur when I logged in nothing had changed. Dental & medical say complete with a check mark, legal does not say complete, it DOES have a check and just says no legal holds at this time....so back to waiting on that! fun.

medical clearance! and a ?

I received the oh so famous letter in the mail stating I passed the medical review. I was a little nervous about my broken ankle/surgery/plates and tons of screws that went down last April, since it hasn't quite been a year,..and the fat tests/questions made me wonder, ha! According to the standard BMI charts I am obese??!!? I find that a little crazy, my doc laughed at it too. I am a curvy person. ...BUT I do understand their reasoning for wanting to make sure you are as healthy as a horse. Horses must be pretty damn healthy.
Shortly after I sent my medical packet in my toolkit updated and my dental said "complete"..in the medical clearance letter it said I would receive correspondence about dental as well... So my question to my fellow PC applicants who have already been through is process -did you receive a letter via mail about dental or just a toolkit update that said dental was complete? Well..until next time,peace out.