A few details about the timing of the invitation: it was Thursday of my last ever Dead Week, I had a graduation ceremony and grad party on December 14th, Finals started on the 16th, and my senior capstone project and a grad school application were due on December 17th. This is not for complaining purposes - I just never ever want to forget that week, and looking back, I wouldn't have had it any other way.
I was offered on December 12th and I was given one week to decide. My gut was yes, and I knew that with an opportunity this life-changing, it is best to always go with the initial instinct. After talking with friends and mentors, my decision was solidified after a few days. A new favorite quote was given to me by Jesse Bartlett, an old high school history teacher at my grad party. "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day" -E.B. White. I will never ever forget standing in my living room surrounded by friends and family, chatting with Jesse as he said "... it sounds like you have the opportunity to do both."
On December 17th, I accepted my offer, and completed my last ever undergraduate exam the following day. Since then, I have traveled through the UK for the month of January, 2014 on a one-month study trip abroad through PLU that I pass/failed, to get one last credit taken care of. I have also been frantically trying to get all of my Peace Corps (PC) medical paperwork sent in to make sure I am approved and good to go. This has been somewhat of a nightmare. My TB test came back positive - thankfully I do not have active tuberculosis, I am healthy and not contagious. But somewhere along the line (I am guessing in the UK), I interacted with someone that did have active TB. This has very little effect on my life, except I will be taking medication for 9 months (to kill the bacteria that are latent in my body or something like that). For this 9 months, it is strongly recommended to minimize alcohol consumption. My Peace Corps reading suggests wine is quite important to Georgian culture, but this is certainly a minor detail in the grand scheme of the experience. I am thankful I still get to go! Plus, within 4 months of being with my host family, I will be able to enjoy wine with them. (Also I am now medically cleared! WOOO!)
For those friends who may not know, the Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment to volunteer abroad. Living expenses are covered (a stipend to get food and housing), and I will receive 24 vacation days a year. The first 3 months are spent training and learning the language (Georgian). I have slowly started to work on some of the language lessons the PC has provided me - this is something I will continue to work on until I leave. Mostly I just want to try and get the alphabet down (Georgia has it's own alphabet). My 3 months of training will be spent in Khashuri, a town in central Georgia. Our Pre-Staging site is Washington D.C., and we will meet there on April 27th. I am not sure exactly how many other PC volunteers will be going, but our Facebook group has over 40. All of us will be either IODs or English language teachers.
Safe to say, I am very excited, nervous, and it is ever so slowly starting to feel real. Now is an opportune time in life to live in another country, experience another culture, help people, and learn a new language. Peace Corps is a safe and structured way to do all of that and potentially much more! The situation in Ukraine is obviously not ideal, but Khashuri is nearly 1000 miles from Kiev, and Peace Corps ensures that the safety of volunteers is a top priority (although I'm not sure how much that reassures Grandma or my mother). I have not heard of any issues from current Georgia PCV's regarding Ukraine yet.
Grad School or work will still be here when I return, the toughest part will certainly be leaving all of the wonderful people who have become important parts of my life. But I hope that for the vast majority of friends reading this, we will find a way to stick around and be a part of each others lives. Not having Christmas with my family, and missing out on get-togethers with old friends will suck. Things like missing my brother's high school graduation will suck too - a lot is going to happen while I am away, which is exactly why I hope to stay connected with as many people as possible. This PC thing will be incredibly challenging and frustrating to be sure, but what better time to be challenged and frustrated than in my early twenties? And to go along with the frustration, I am hoping for an incredible amount of adventure, excitement, and satisfaction from my work in Georgia. Thank you so much to everyone who has been there for me thus far. I am incredibly excited to meet my fellow Peace Core Volunteers (PCV's) and eventually, my host family. I doubt that any of my following blog posts will be this long- but I do hope to blog about once a month while I'm in Georgia. We will wait and see if I hold true to that! I hope to see as many friends as possible before I leave at the end of April!
Nakhvamdis! (That is goodbye in Georgian)
