The VA Hospital nearest me back home no longer does PC physicals. Which means I’ll have to get this all figured out in Japanese… fantabulous.

My brain hurts

So, of course I’ve been obsessing trying to figure out what country the recruiter had in mind for me.

In the last post, I mentioned having narrowed it down to one country. That was Nicaragua. And then I realized, oh my god, Colombia. The first new group of Colombia volunteers left this fall, and there are TEFL volunteers. Ok, so maybe she wants to send me there?

Then I started going through the list again at Peace Corps Wiki, trying to figure it out again. Colombia isn’t really in their system yet because the program is so new, so we’ll leave that aside for now. Otherwise, there are apparently only three countries (in their admittedly imperfect database) in Central/South America with secondary English teacher training programs: Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, none of which have had September departures – except for 2007 and 2008 for Nicaragua, and 2008 for El Salvador. Guatemala never has, but it has had August departures for the past few years. But the PC Welcome Book for Guatemala doesn’t talk about English teacher training (only primary education health training), and the El Salvador one doesn’t talk about teacher training at all. I want to bang my head against the desk now.

So I’m royally stumped. I have NO FREAKING IDEA, which is probably good since I’ll end up getting sent somewhere completely different anyway…

No-mi-na-tion, nomination is the name!

(Bonus points for title reference.)

I’ve been nominated to train English teachers in Central or South America, leaving mid-September 2011!

Totally different from the region I expected (Eastern Europe/Central Asia), seeing as the info the recruiter sent me about what she thought I’d be eligible for (secondary English teaching/teacher training) said no programs were available in Latin America… umm, ok. But I speak Spanish, I’m all for it!

However, I know it’s likely to change once my medical kit is in… ugh. But that’s ok. Yay!

I’ve been trying to figure out what country she’s thinking based on countries where my program is available, and that groups have left between late August and early October for the last two years. If I’ve got those correct, then I’ve figured the country out (there’s only one). But I assume it won’t be that country just because I think I’ve figured it out… hah. And just because they’ve left at a certain time the last two years certainly doesn’t mean they will next year. So, anyway. Ho hum.

Tick tock on the clock

Got an email from the interviewer saying he was accepting my vegetarian questionnaire answers and sending my application back to the recruiter for placement. Said I should hear within about two weeks.

Well, one week down, one to go, then I e-mail her to start the nagging.

And now, I wait.

My final recommendation was submitted last night. Insert crazy baying-at-the-full-moon-and-flailing type dancing here.

So, they’ve got my vegetarian questionnaire, they’ve got all my paperwork, they’ve got the recommendations, they’ve got my family’s reaction to the news (well, at least my parents’), and they’ve got an interview that went well. So…….. please oh please oh please nominate me. I promise I won’t let myself starve or get sick if I can’t get enough food without including non-vegan things. I promise I’m committed to building strong relationships with my community regardless of the food involved. I promise my family will support me once they see how important this is to me (and they’re getting there, slowly). So, yeah, uh, lemme know? Kthxbye.

10 year plan?

I think this may be the first time since 12th grade that I didn’t have a 10 year plan and multiple back-up options. Here’s what I have to say to that:

Bring it.

I always know my next steps, and I always know what I’ll do in the event of A/B/C occurrence. But now that I’ve applied to Peace Corps… sure, I have ideas, I know where my interests lie, and am considering a couple of career options, weighing the pros and cons of each. But I have no plan B if Peace Corps rejects me, which, if they do, will probably be because they think I’m not really grasping the reality of having to become an omnivore during service (which I most definitely AM grasping, and have accepted as a necessary likelihood but can’t seem to convey very well). I can’t remember not having a plan B. Normally I’d have one thought through in 20 minutes, but now… well, my mom asked me that this morning. 14 hours ago. And I STILL don’t have one. And I don’t want to make one.

That is a huge deal for me, and it feels freaking awesome. Pat myself on the back, methinks.

Question for the (zero) of you who are reading this: are you an obsessive planner like I am? Have you ever intentionally not had a plan?

Talented people are awesome.

Yeah… why am I good at a lot of things but not great at anything? Sigh… I need to pick one thing and stick with it. But that’s no fun…

Vegetarian questionnaire

I’m vegan, so I had to fill out the vegetarian questionnaire. But the interviewer wasn’t convinced by my answers that I had really thought this through. Fantastic.

I’ve been vegan for a year, vegetarian for almost three, and had tried to go vegan just before coming to Japan but since I couldn’t read or talk I stuck with vegetarian for a while here. I realize three years isn’t all that long, but at the same time it kinda is.

Since I decided to apply in August, I’ve been preparing myself for the fact that I’ll probably have to eat meat. People have mentioned that in a lot of countries, the typical diet is, in fact, high in vegan foods. But that doesn’t mean it’s a healthy diet. If I show signs of malnutrition, Peace Corps will probably kick up holy hell. What if I live somewhere so cold that barely anything grows? What if I live with a host family and I need to eat what they eat? These are things that I had thought about already, and which are similar to the questions on the questionnaire.

But the recruiter has asked me to think harder, and to rewrite my answers. I’m not sure how else to answer the questions, though. I’ve thought about it a lot. I DO NOT WANT to eat meat, but I have wanted to join the Peace Corps for a long time and it’s something I’m prepared to do to make that goal happen. I’m vegan, yes, but I’m willing to go back to vegetarian and eat eggs (no milk, though, I’m super lactose-intolerant). Meat, though? That’s a lot harder. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it, but I’m willing to try – which brings up a whole different issue; should I really be vegan (or vegetarian) in the first place if I’m willing to put it aside for a couple years? That’s an issue I’m not ready to tackle.

I’m rewriting it and I’ll send it to him this weekend. We’ll see what he thinks of it next week.