The Waiting Game (PC#6)

wooooohooooOOOOOOOOoooOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111oneoneoneoneone

It's out of my hands, baby. The evil medical clearance packet of death from Hell is on its way to Washington, where it will surely gather dust for the next month or two while I wait nervously for an answer and watch the calendar move ever closer to mid-February. For, my friends, if I am indeed to go to Asia in early April, the last day I could possibly receive the invitation would be approximately February 14th. If things aren't squared away by then, chances are I'll be going someplace I haven't been mentally preparing myself for.

On Tuesday evening I got a Polio booster shot, and on Wednesday I mailed away the medical packet, including the dental stuff. The person at the UPS store said it should arrive the middle of next week. I eagerly await the thrill of seeing a change in my application status on the Peace Corps web site. But I pretty much dread the waiting game. So many people just get stuck here. Not hearing anything. For months. And the fact that I've got 2.5 months to go before my "cutoff" date makes me wonder if I won't be left hanging for most of that time.

But whatever. I've done what I can do. I'm healthy and there's no reason in the world for them to deny me, so I'm going to trust that this is going to work out.

And now....what exactly? I've got more than four months before my earliest possible departure. What exactly do I do with myself? Maybe save what money I can and go on a trip. I've already saved some, and I've already proved to myself that I can travel cheap and lightly, so a bit of cash could go far. These tutoring gigs that I've got going have been a veritable cow, and I've been milking those metaphorical cash-teats for the last month.

As I pointed out in some earlier post, Indonesia seems the most likely destination at the moment. Accordingly, I've been reading the blogs of current PCVs in Indonesia. The program is really new, so the current batch are the first batch. It's made me excited for spicy food, crazy landscapes, nice natives, and the necessity of warp-speed friendmaking. I am also jealous that the Indonesia PCVs got to meet Obama on his recent visit. That must have been damn cool.

One thing left (PC#5)

Mmmm, today I went back up to the VA hospital for my appointment there. I got the doctor's final sign-off on my medical packet and picked up all the lab reports from the blood work and the x-ray. The only thing left to do is take care of either getting a polio booster shot or a polio titer, neither of which they do at the VA. But I looked on passporthealthusa.com, and they have a center like five minutes away from my house where I can get a booster. So that's the last thing. I'll just have to get that as soon as possible next week, and then...fertig. By the end of next week, this packet will be in the mail and out of my hands.

Hopefully, I'll never have to see it again. But I'm afraid of the waiting game...other people go nine, ten weeks without hearing anything.

It'll all work out.