PEACE CORPS!!!!

So, I just got the word: I've been invited! Whew!!

Let me update you all on what has happened in the past couple weeks.

You all know that I've been going back and forth with Peace Corps for about a year now (actually, a year to date! Wow!) with medical and dental clearance as well as location disagreements. The last four months or so have been the most confusing though as I've heavily considered staying in Korea a second year (the money is SO good!). Lately I've even considered taking a friend's apartment and hogwan job when they leave this summer (the same time my contract ends). Other thoughts and opportunities crossing my desk these days: grad school overseas (S. Africa or Australia?); a job offer with ELIC in Ft. Collins, Colorado; perhaps going back to that Puritan Colony (a.k.a. Northwest University) as a recruiter; and even just picking up my backpack and hitting the road (silk road?), the tracks (Siberian railway?), or the trail (Amazon Rain Forest?) to fulfill my nomadic heart's desires. But one thing has been pretty constant on my mind for a while now: Peace Corps, and as time ticks down towards the end of my contract and as I grow more familiar with South Korean culture, the desire to escape this peninsula increases.

So two weeks ago I decided to call Peace Corps and check up on my application status. I currently subscribe to a rather active PCV/RPCV forum and started seeing a few invitees for September post their good news about three weeks ago. I figured that a gentle reminder that I want to go too might hurry things along and I put in a call.

They assured me that only special circumstances (with regard to September nominees) were being considered so early in the year (most September invites won't go out until May) but when I told them I'm living in SK and may need a little extra time to get all forms filled out and mailed, they started singing a different tune. All of a sudden I was getting tons of emails and apparently even a few phone calls at my mom's house from the Easter Europe placement office. I started to get the feeling that I had been upgraded to "special circumstance."

However, it was with great surprise when I received an email from my placement officer Monday morning (Sunday night for you guys) saying that she had called me a couple days earlier but hadn't heard from me and wished for me to call her back. (Ahem, Mom! Thanks for telling me about the phone call!!) So Monday night I stayed up late to reach Peace Corps headquarters as soon as they opened (that's Monday morning for them). You should know that when you're nearing an invite, PC always calls to discuss location with you...

My PO had just that in mind. We talked about the where and when of my departure--me suggesting Central Asia (yes, that's the -stan countries!) and confirming that yes, I will certainly be available in September. She let me know that while Central Asia has a very limited number of places available, she would ask anyway and call me back if there were none so we could discuss other regions/countries of interest (perhaps the caucuses?). But has she called back? That's a negative... Which suggests that a place must have been found.

Which brings me here: about 20 minutes ago I got an email from PC saying that my application status had been updated. And with shaky hands, shouting, "I know what this is! I know what this is!" I moved my browser to my PC account page and found the confirmation I was looking for: "An invite has been sent."

I'm sure the big question you're all asking is where and when. I don't know anything official yet but from what I've gathered, it's probably either Kyrgyzstan or Turkmenistan leaving either September 19th, 20th, or 25th. But I won't know for sure until my invite package arrives in the mail (hopefully within a week of now). It's been sent FedEx so I hope it arrives quickly! Until then, you get to wait with me!!

And the saga continues...