As pretty much anyone who listens to me blather on about myself knows, I am joining the Peace Corps. After realizing that I didn't really know what the hell was going on in my life and that I had memorized the Peace Corps website, I decided to act on something that had been rolling around in my head for a while. Want to live in another country? Yup. Want to experience a lot of awkward situations? Yup. Want to learn another language? Yup. Want to adjust to potentially gut-wrenching foods? I have innards of steel, bring that shit on. Want to not be able to blow three hours on Facebook looking at some strangers' pictures of their seemingly kick ass ski trip to Aspen? Um, yes, please. Want to avoid working for the Man for two more years and do something much more fulfilling? Well, hopefully I can keep this up my whole life, but yes. Sign me the hell up, I have no idea what took me so long.
That being said, you're probably wondering 'But Sara, what about this whole soccer thing you have been pursuing your whole life?'. Answer: OVER IT. I will explain further in a future Frosty Llama blog post which will most likely be titled 'Divorcing Soccer'. Suspense.
I turned in my initial application mid-May, got an interview, and received my nomination in early June. Apparently that is sort of fast. I like fast. I am supposedly going to Eastern Europe for environmental education in May of 2011. I was given a choice between the Pacific Islands and Eastern Europe; I obviously went with the latter. Almost everyone I have told this has given me a look that says "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!!?!!". To which I reply, "Have you thought about this for longer than five seconds? I don't like being wet, hot or covered in sand. Islands imply all three will be occurring all at the same time, all the time. Also, where the hell am I going to travel and explore when I have time off? I can barely stay in the same state for three months, I don't see myself doing too well stuck on a small land mass in the middle of a vast ocean. Eastern Europe is conveniently located smack in between two massive continents, which means I will be overwhelmed with exploration options. Oh, and I actually enjoy snow." And there's that.
Right now I am in the middle of the medical review process. I went to the VA in Cheyenne, WY yesterday for my physical exam. I didn't feel out of place at all, surrounded by old, white men in cowboy hats. I got called 'partner' within about three minutes of being there. I got poked, prodded, blood-letted and poked again. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was really excited when I learned I would have to schedule another appointment with the VA in Boise because I forgot my immunization history and needed a two day window of staying in one city to get tested for TB!
I also get to collect all of my medical history for all of the weird shit that has happened to me over the past few years. Hernia, hip surgery, mole removal, ovarian cyst...yeah, that's it. At least for things I can actually retrieve history for. I've always enjoyed paperwork.
That's about it for now. More later, when I am in the process of waiting for everything to go through the bureaucratic governmental machine that is actually a black hole that bends time backward into reverse.
