I leave for my pre-departure orientation on September 11. I'm not particularly superstitious, but really, what a day to leave!!! The Peace Corps likes to be mysterious so they don't tell you where your state-side orientation will be until just a couple of weeks out, but based on my top-notch sleuthing skills, I think it will be in Miami. Then on September 13, we (whoever we is — don't know that either!) leave for the Dominican Republic where I'll be working on Community Economic Development projects. Click on the image to learn all about it. This is the Welcome Book they send you when they (eventually!) tell you where you'll be serving.
The whole application process is quite an ordeal. I think they make it that way to weed out the weak and faint of heart. It's been exactly a year since I started the application process, and I'm still not leaving for two months. To be fair, they do say it takes about a year to leave. Applying for the Peace Corps is like applying for college, except you spend a lot more time at the doctor, dentist, optometrist and so on getting checked out. It is several brief but very intense periods of activity, appointments, phone calls, paperwork and anxiety followed by long periods of (im)patient waiting for news — any news. Inevitably you hit a snag or two along the way that make you think the whole house of cards is going to fall and then you start coming up with contingency plans of what to do if this falls through. I think it's for the best though, because just as much as I think the process is designed so the Peace Corps is confident in volunteers' commitment, it has forced me to make sure I am as well.
My life is very much in the calm before the storm. I've started sorting my apartment into various piles. Store. Sell. Donate. Trash. It's a disaster. I look like I'm moving in or moving out, but I'm doing neither for EIGHT more weeks. I'm going a little crazy. I'm also tackling the un-fun process of creating a Durable Power of Attorney so my mom can handle my business when I'm gone and then communicating that information to all my credit cards, student loan institutions, banks and insurance companies. Also, figuring out student loan deferrment is a treat too. I don't want to cancel my credit-generating accounts, because that hurts your credit score, but it sure is a pain to set things up to be okay while I'm gone. Oh yeah, and most of my stuff that I'm keeping, including my car, are going to be stored in a city other than my "official" home. I say "official" because it's my mom's house, but I've never actually lived there. She's handling my accounts but doesn't have room for my stuff, so that's going to be in Seattle, 3 hours away. Another logisitical challenge.
More later!
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