I am so excited, I wanted to share! My placement officer called me this afternoon to offer me an earlier spot*, I accepted, and she’s FedExing me the paperwork today. I’m going to Mystery Location, Eastern Europe on April 14! I’m going to be teaching English to primary school aged children, but as you can probably tell, most of the details are still fuzzy.
Eeee! This process has really been a trial, it’s such a huge weight off my shoulders. My potential logistical nightmare is solved, too; the lease on my apartment is up on March 31 and I’m going to spend the intervening couple weeks at my parents’ house. Although I knew I was supposed to be leaving on my assignment in “the spring”, not knowing the exact date was making me very anxious. Lord knows I love my mom and dad, but if I had to spend a month or so at their house I just might go insane. Two weeks is perfect, though!
Now, to figure out what to ship to mom and dad and what to give away and what to put on Craigslist and what to throw away and…shit, I have too much stuff.
So excited!
*Apparently, I was slated for some other, later program, but they never bothered to let me know. I was shifted from one placement officer to another and I guess they each thought the other had done it. Yay, bureacracy! Doesn’t matter anyway now, fortunately.
Thanks, scout! You’re welcome to stop by any time you get a hankering to visit Ukraine or Albania or wherever.
I’m just dying to tell everyone, but I haven’t given notice at work yet (and am not ready to), so I’m sort of boucing around my cubicle, trying to pretend nothing’s up.
I hope so, Cheese! I’ve been to a few countries in Western and Central Europe, but never Eastern. I can’t wait to find out more specific information on where I’m going.
That’s really exciting news, Kyla! I’m a lover of things Eastern European myself (currently limited to attending things like Bulgarian festivals here in the Bay Area).
I hope you can easily stay on the SDMB and post “from the field”!
I really wish you the best of luck; you already know how I feel about Peace Corps Volunteers from this post in even sven’s recent Peace Corps thread.
Not actually a Slug myself, Kyla, although with several Sluggy connections (an ex-girlfriend who was a Slug, collaborations with some UCSC faculty, been to the campus many times for cultural events). I even had a Slug T-shirt before John Travolta made them popular.
[I’ve admired banana slugs *as mollusks* since they were described in Cecil’s early books, courtesy of the *“redoubtable Joyce K. of Seattle”* before I ever saw one in the slimy flesh.]
I’d say that I’ve liked every UCSC alum that I’ve known, and there aren’t many academic institutions of which I’d say that!
Congrats!!! I’m just so thrilled for you, and I’m glad everything will work out logistically. I know how it is to have to keep things quiet at work, too- at least you don’t have too long of a wait. Best of luck!
I’m still waiting to hear back about medical clearance. I hope I hear from them soon- well, I hope I hear good news from them soon.
That’s so exciting! My mother was in the Peace Corps (way, way back in it’s very early days) and spent two years or so in Hoonduras - she’s said many times that she’d definitely a better person for having done it.
(And I myself am heading abroad for a few months in April [not through Peace Corps], and am [quite literally] counting the days. So be warned - whatever urge to travel you have that drove you to the Peace Corps may well be some genetic quirk that will cause your future children to go to school on the other side of the country, then decide that’s not far enough away and flee the country!)
