Offically invited!

I received my Peace Corps invitation packet today. The online toolkit said that it was mailed on the 27th, so I didn't know when I'd receive it. A week? 5 days? Nope, only two. I guess the PC gets shit done when they are in a rush.

Whose got two thumbs and is going to China in exactly two months? This guy.

The packet is thick! Three booklets, one around 90 pages, another a little slimmer, and another even slimmer; they shrink in size as they grow specific. On top of those, there are a few letters, one of welcome, one of congratulations, and then a series of documents that need to be filled out and returned in the addressed envelope included at the bottom.

I've got ten (or so) days to call the HQ and tell them I want to go. One of the letters says that the person on the other end of the phone is going to quiz me on the stuff in the thick booklet. We'll see what this brain, steeped in the hoop-jumping routine of American public education, can do with that quiz.

So, anyways, I am stoked. This will be an adventure, once I'm done wading through the paper work. What that you say? The paper work never ends? Well, at least that's another constant, on top of death and taxes.

Unoffically invited

I've recieved unoffical invitation to the Peace Corps, and it has put the ENTIRE prospect of going away into a brand new light. Before yesterday, the PC was a possibility, a tenuous, vapid possibility that existed in the clouds of the future, partly visibile, and mostly obscured by all the things that laid between then and now. But now, with a definite (albeit unoffical, I'll get to that in a second) date of departure and at least a nation to aim at, rather than a continent, things have became far more tangible. I am going to China. I am leaving in 64 days.

I missed a call last thursday from the PC placement office, and I didn't check my messages until Sunday morning. A placement officer had called, hinting at a "special oppertunity" for me if my schedule fit the timeline. I called the PC office back on monday, and after some phone tag I got in touch with the officer. Ihad a 20 minute conversation while pacing in the Wal-Mart school supply aisle. I've never enjoyed being in that store more than during that call.

Long story short, the PC had an opening in the Chinese program leaving June 29th that needed to be filled before it got to late. My window of placement was from July through September, but I don't mind being bumped up a little. My summer plans will change, but I can't wait to leave. A definite date is what I was waiting for; now i've got it.

SO now I'm waiting for the offical paperwork. My PC account has been updated, and I'm waiting to sign the volunteer papers. More later, my roomate wants to play ball.