Saturday, January 10, 2009

Nomination!

After much thought and internal hand-wringing, I re-activated my Peace Corps application. I had made an application to WorldTeach's Bangladesh program and was very excited about it but ultimately decided that I needed something different and somehow bigger. It looks like I'll get what I asked for because I've been nominated to Central Asia/English Teacher Training/September 2009. These are the possible countries if my nomination does not change:

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyz Republic
Turkmenistan

A woman told me she had the same nomination and was sent to the Kyrgyz Republic/Kyrgyzstan. According to the PC site, I'm in for a bit of culture shock (and cold winters! Why did I ask to switch from the South Pacific to Eastern Europe/Central Asia??)

I'm excited :)

Wikipedia entry on Kyrgyzstan (the EU has banned KR airlines from flying in their airspace due to low safety standards. Umm...)

PC photo gallery of Kyrgyz Republic

Flickr search of Kyrgyzstan (look for the curious squirrel! them's some ears!)

Flickr search of Kyrgyz Republic

I still need to go through dental clearance (expires after one year) and can't see my dentist until March. Tom Petty was right - the waiting IS the hardest part. I know that anything can happen between now and invitation and that even after invitation the destination can change. Regardless, I am going to start learning Russian. Gives me something useful to do during the long wait!