It's kind of hard to imagine that almost exactly a year ago I began my application process for the Peace Corps. I started volunteering as an English teacher in January or February (in order to have a competitive application), I submitted my application sometime in April, I went for my interview in Atlanta in May, and soon after received my first nomination (different from invitation in that it is not a guaranteed placement) to serve in the Peace Corps in Sub-Saharan Africa in June. July 20th I received my second nomination for TEFL secondary English teaching in Central or South America or the Caribbean. It wasn't until November 27th of 2012 that I received my official invitation to serve in the Republic of Georgia.
The process as a whole was very trying and tedious. Primarily because until November 27th I had no idea where I'd be going or even if I was for sure going to be invited to serve. Just that little pinch of doubt drove me nuts! Since receiving my invitation, the most stressful task was the medical paperwork. Mainly tons of health questions, blood work, and vaccinations. Lucky for me, I'm as fit as a fiddle and the main obstacle was getting up to date with my vaccinations (since I received no shots until college - yeah, thats right, NONE, and even then I only received the ones required for enrollment). So I had some catching up to do to say the least. In addition to the medical paperwork, I'm having a blast learning the Georgian alphabet...
Future Peace Corps Timeline:
The next step for me is on April 20th when I leave Pensacola to go to Staging in Philadelphia. I will have the night of the 20th and until noon the next day to explore Philly, then I check into staging and Peace Corps business officially commences. Here I will meet my fellow volunteers (I think there's about 40 of us), sign some last minute paperwork, listen to lectures, and receive my new spiffy Peace Corps passport - I don't know what makes it special yet, but I'm hoping it involves less time in customs!
On April 22, we depart for Georgia. First we have to take a bus from Philadelphia to NYC's JFK airport. Then we have a 6 hour wait until our flight takes off. I really hope there is something planned to fill that time, but nothing has been mentioned as of yet. Then it's a 10 hour flight to Istanbul, where we pick up a connecting flight to Tbilisi, Georgia. Total travel time comes out to about 15 hours (not including waiting time and layover in Turkey). We arrive in Tbilisi on April 23rd at 4:25PM.
We are told to try and sleep on the plane, because we'll be going straight to business upon arrival. The next day (the 24th) we start a three day orientation where we receive (more) vaccines -YAY- as well as a phone, some money, and loads of info. At the end of the three days we'll be assigned to a small group of 4 or 5 people (called a cluster group) which will be the group of people we go through the three month pre-service training with.
Then the real fun begins :)
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