Friday, July 24, 2009

Whoops! (or: B-I-T-C-H)

So, anyone who has been reading this blog knows the story now: I meant to stay in Korea for a year, but because of Peace Corps difficulties and technicalities, I am leaving after only 7 and a half months.

What I haven't mentioned is that during this whole time, I've been in the process of convincing a very good friend of mine to move to Korea. (I won't say her name, just in case things change and she doesn't want her employers to know about this. Let's call her K.)

Since, uh, well, since almost a year ago, when I visited her in DC while I was living in Philly, I've been trying to convince her to move abroad, because she even admitted it's what she probably wants and just wasn't giving into. In my defense, I wasn't devoting all my energies to convincing her to come to Korea, in particular. I mean, once K expressed an interest, whenever I was joking around, I would tell her "Come to Korea!" But really I was pushing a foreign country, any foreign country, and when she was focusing on Greece, or the Czech Republic, I didn't try to steer her away from those and towards Korea; I supported her going anywhere abroad.

But yeah. Ultimately, K settled on Korea, and I'm not just flattering myself that the fact that I lived here was a large factor in that decision; she admitted it readily. Especially considering that she also requested my particular province.

Fast forward to, well, now. When it turns out that if I want to do Peace Corps, it'll be in September, and when K finally gets her job acceptance to EPIK-- in Gangwon-do (my province).

The long and short of it?

She's decided she's probably taking it.

I'm leaving Korea August 21st.
She's coming to Korea around August 17th.

Yeah.

As my (wonderful and wonderfully supportive) supervisor, Sarah, put it: "Wow, you're a bitch."

Whoops!

As we've comforted ourselves: It makes a good story! After all that, K's arriving in Korea the very week I'm leaving.

But still. If she doesn't like Korea, I am going to feel soooooo guilty... (And I'm, technically, Jewish. I know guilt!)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Jambo!

That (the title) means "Hello" in Swahili!

I've officially accepted my Peace Corps invitation! My place in the Tanzania Secondary Education program has been confirmed! Squee!

As you can see, I've changed the layout and format of my blog, and added a picture of Mt Kilimanjaro! Yes, Mount Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania, to the north! Know what else is in Tanzania? The Serengeti (well, northwestern Tanzania and southwestern Kenya). You know, what's probably the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world? Where The Lion King took place? (Though it's pretty dangerous to visit, and not just because of the lions and such, but rather because of the tsetse fly. God, I am going to be neurotically terrified that I have African Sleeping Sickness while I'm in Tanzania, I'm sure of it.)

Also, Zanzibar is in Tanzania! In fact, did you know that Tanzania didn't used to be called Tanzania? It was called Tanganyika until it merged with Zanzibar in 1964 and combined the two names to get Tanzania. My mom is sillily (I'm pretending that's a word, deal with it) excited that she'll get to "stand on Zanzibar" (also the title of a favorite book of hers) when she comes to visit me.

Plus, Jane Goodall's chimp research all happened in Tanzania, as well! Very few of you knew me when I was very young, but I used to be obsessed with chimpanzees, after a read a Zoobooks magazine about them. So this piece of information is also exciting to me.

In summation, Tanzania sounds a bit like Quintessential Africa, at least while I'm viewing it from afar. Who knows what it'll be like up close, but I can't wait to find out!

There have been some complications with my documentation, mostly because I'm living in a small town in a foreign country right now, far away from the embassy, and also because I don't currently have my passport (I had to give it to my travel agent so I could get my Chinese visa). But the Peace Corps office has been pretty good about helping me out and extending deadlines and stuff to make sure it can all get done. Right now, unless my passport gets held up and doesn't arrive in the mail early next week, it should be okay. I'm just going to keep doing whatever I can to make things happen! And if something COMPLETELY unavoidable happens (and I do mean COMPLETELY unavoidable... I'll even skip my trip to China if necessary to make Peace Corps happen), then I'll just try as hard as I can to get a second invitation as an "extraordinary" circumstance. Of course, I've started to get my heart set on Tanzania, but any Peace Corps is better than no Peace Corps.

When I woke up this morning, my free Peace Corps online subscription to Rosetta Stone: Swahili was there!! I have to complete 40 hours before staging. I've already done 37 minutes this morning before work (plus 15 minutes on the phone with customer support first since it said I needed a plug-in that wouldn't install). Watch out Swahili, Mel's learning ya!

I'm also trying to convince all my friends to visit me in Africa! One friend is trying to make it happen already, but I want tons of visits! Barring that, let me know when/where we can meet while I'm in America from August 21-September 21. I miss you!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Invitation!

I went to Seoul today just for a few hours, just to hand my passport and money to a travel agent so that I can get my visa for China. (My mother and I are going to China together August 3rd-August 16th.) They told me that I should get my passport in the mail by next Tuesday, so that's cool.

Actually, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. In order for the next bit to make sense, I'll have to fill you in on what's been going on in my life for the past couple of weeks.

I was medically cleared by Peace Corps in early June. I told them then that I didn't want to enter Peace Corps until February 2010, and I expected this to be just fine. Well, I get on the phone with my Placement Officer, and no, that is actually not fine. My application is no longer active starting April 2010, and all of the education programs leave June-September. All those nice February-leaving programs are non-education.

So I gotta go in September.

I got notice on Monday that my invitation packet was in the mail, for Math Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (but that was the extent of my knowledge). On the strength of that bit of info, I gave my one month's notice at school. And proceeded to go CRAZY waiting for my invitation packet to arrive so that I'd know where I was headed in two months!

So I got home from Seoul this afternoon, and my heart fell to see that there was nothing in my mailbox. Then I went up to my apartment and discovered my package waiting inside!!! I was too excited to even be annoyed at my landlady for going into my apartment when I wasn't there. (As this problem will not go away in Peace Corps, I am learning to deal with it.)

So, here's the news:

I'm going to Tanzania, as a Secondary School Mathematics Teacher!! Staging is September 21st, and we get to Tanzania September 23rd!

I'm very happy with this placement. Tanzania is supposed to be an amazing place-- it's Eastern Africa, directly south of Kenya. I'm going to learn Kiswahili! That will certainly be a useful language to know, especially if I work for the UN or a human rights NGO. It got very high scores for volunteer survey about how personally rewarding the experience was. I've also been reading some blogs of Tanzania volunteers, and it sounds like they're having some insane but very, well, amazing times.


So here is my schedule for the next couple of months:

July 28th: My mom arrives in Korea.
August 3rd: She and I go to China together*.
August 16th: We leave China. She returns to Philadelphia, I go back to Korea.
August 21st: I leave Korea and go to Philadelphia.
September 21st: I go to Peace Corps staging (also in Philadelphia, I'm pretty sure).
September 23rd: Get on the plane to Tanzania!


So this is going to be a little bit crazy! I'm very glad I'll have a whole month to just chill with my parents (and prepare for Peace Corps, of course!). I'm going to be darting all over the world in the next couple of months, aren't I? A breather will be very welcome.

I am just so excited! I am a Peace Corps Invitee! Woooooo!



*Mom and I planned the China trip well before I had any inkling I would be leaving Korea early. So we thought that after this trip, I wouldn't see her again for six months. As it happens, I will see her again five days after she leaves.