(no subject)
Woo hoo!
I've begun hoping every morning that when I check my email, I might have one of the elusive "Peace Corps--Application Status Update" emails. So when I do get one, even if it's only dental clearance, I am ecstatic!
That being said, I got dental clearance!!! That leaves me with only one more check mark, and then I can finally start hoping for an invitation! And the excitement doesn't wear off, you see, because now as I wait, I know that the next one will be my placement review, and then the next one should be an invitation!!! :-D If I could make a big long smiley face, like the exclamation points, I would.
I can't believe that I've been in this application process for five months now. It gives me hope that I can wait it out just a few more for an invitation. I think that the application/time leading up to an invitation is really the impatient part (for me, anyway); then I won't be so impatient to leave so much as nervous and generally terrified. Plus, after 5 months, the guessing game gets pretty old. I've pretty much guessed all that I can, and reconciled myself to the fact that...I just don't know. When I finally get that application, I can start the next process of learning about the country and the job. So that'll be nice.
***
All right, I imagine you're getting tired of hearing about that. What else? School started on Monday, meaning that I started my internship (which is where I am now, in fact). So far it's going well. However, this week is not really the norm, as my internship boss is in Armenia until the 14th. So I've basically been assigning myself jobs and doing them. Most of my time has been concentrated on building 3-4 databases that cover just about every aspect of these seminars. I'm proud of them, and I think that Dr. A. will appreciate their value. There are more people working here than I realized there were, and it seems that Dr. A. didn't really tell them that I would be working here (minus the secretary), so people walk by me sitting here and look at me like I'm some stranger from the street that wandered into the office, and probably hoping that someone else knows what's going on. I've met and introduced myself to some people, robably more than half, but as I'm working here right now with no supervision and nobody else to help define my place here, I don't think that they know quite what to make of me. Luckily Dr. A. is coming back on Monday (though Monday is a holiday, so maybe Tuesday?), and hopefully things will become more "normal."
In the afternoons I go to work-work (i.e. paid work), and that's pretty much same as always. I still can't seem to motivate myself, but at least now my shifts are only 3 hours (and one 4 hour shift), so that helps the time pass. So that means that I work from 8-5:30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 8-5pm on Wednesdays, and 8-3:30pm on Fridays (yes, it seems to be unnecessarily confusing, doesn't it? but I promise, there's a method to my madness). I wake up at 6:30am every day and usually don't get home until 5:45pm. I go to bed before 11:30pm every night. Although I don't have any "homework," I need to write 5 short anatomy & physiology essays (I want to finish them before March), and I need to study for my oral exams, which are scheduled for March 6. Right now that means answering the 82 questions on the study guide (all short essay questions), and then I will just be studying that all the time. I really need to push myself to answer those questions so that I can just carry the guide around and study when it's convenient, but right now I'm not feelin' it. I did manage to sit down and type up all the questions last night, and they no longer seem quite so daunting (still very daunting, mind you, but I no longer wnat to vomit when I think about it).
So assuming that I do my oral exam on March 6 (and pass it, which I'm really hoping that I will), and actually manage to finish my A&P essays before March, I will be looking forward to a nice, relatively relaxing second half of the semester. Just finishing up my internship and putting together my portfolio, working, and then GRADUATING! Cross your fingers that the semester goes as planned, and that this schedule doesn't wear me out.
My boss has offered to hire me on for June and July as a Program Specialist (as I will no longer be eligible to be a research assistant). As much as I dislike the job, I have to take it--where else am I going to earn $17.60/hour (after taxes), especially givien that I will have a total of like 2.5 months to find a job, work, and then hopefully quit to go to the PC? Nowhere. So I'll stay here and at least get to hang out with Wayd and Rimo for a few more months before I leave. Plus Dr. C. said that I might me able to increase my hours to 1/2 time, in which case I should be able to save a LOT of money (much more than planned, anyway), and be able to afford anything I need to go to the PC. Either way, I'll be able to live, either working 13 hours/week or 20, and how can I complain about that? (I'm sure I'll manage ;-)).
***
So that's my current life in a nutshell (a really big nutshell). Although now that I think of it, much of my "current" life is actually just waiting for my future life--the majority of it, I would say. That's no good. I need to find a way to enjoy my current situation, as sleepy as I am because of it...