My Aspiration Statement and Resume

One of the first steps upon accepting a position with the Peace Corps is writing your Aspiration Statement and reformat your resume. These two documents will then be sent directly to your country of service (Senegal in my circumstance). This is the first real information that the country will receive about you and so its important that you include all relevant experiences while sounding intelligent. The following are my answers to the questions for my Aspiration Statement to introduce myself and my experiences. (The interesting part about posting these answers is to see how my expectations and realizations of the experience compare to my pre-service expectations.)

Its Official.... IM IN! HELLO SENEGAL!

This last week has been absolutely crazy! Upon returning from my brothers wedding in California, I came home to a wonderful package from the Peace Corps. I was expecting something, wasn't sure what, because I had an interview with my placement officer on Friday (Nov 4th). She told me that she only had one question for me. At this point I was really nervous, only one question? Well, I can't really afford to mess it up then can I?

Medical Kit Accomplished! (and cleared!)

Alright, its official, I have sent in my medical kit! I was scrambling around on Friday trying to get a Chickenpox shot (Vericella #2) because somehow I missed it while I was getting all my other tests and immunizations in Menomonie. I was told that it will take about 10-12 weeks before I hear anything, which may be the longest 10 weeks of my life! I don't think I would be denied acceptance to be a volunteer with the Peace Corps based on my medical history but you never know.

It's just the beginning...

And it starts now... I am in the middle of my medical clearance in order to be cleared to serve abroad! Of course all of the tests came back just fine, except... the pap! Sorry for my male readers but I am just being honest. That was the one thing that I could not have even imagined would go wrong out of all the tests that were performed! I gave blood, twice, got a Polio and Chickenpox shot, got a TB test, gave a urine sample, took an eye exam, hearing test and pap. Only one test came back and I had to get a follow up exam and test, but it all came out fine!

"We Will Be Friends Until Forever, Just You Wait And See"

It is my last day in Rouen. This past week has FLOWN by! It was filled with last minute shopping, people watching underneath the Eiffel Tower, feeding the swans at the pond in Rouen and just hanging out with the ones we all have grown so close with. We had our last night at Emporium on Tuesday along with every other exchange student. Not everyone is done with their classes so people are still sticking around for another week or so depending on how long they are going tour Europe when done with school.

A Week With My Girls!

After we all got back from the South of France Erica and Sarah still had a week with me between Paris and Rouen. Monday the 12th of May we spent in Paris. We tried to get a lot of the touristy things done but the ATM ate my card so we could not rent bikes. It sucked really bad cause we were all looking forward to seeing the city on bikes since it would have been cheaper and more time efficient.

ROAD TRIP: Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Antibes and Aix-en-Provence

I met Erica and Sarah at the airport when they came to visit me here in France. The first mission that we had while they were here, Roadtrip! It was myself, Erica, Sarah, Kristen, Katie, Danielle, Jess and Cathy. Erica, Sarah and myself caught a train from Gare de Lyon to Marseille and then from Marseille to Nice. We had an hour layover in Marseille so we caught some lunch but of course the train was late so it turned into a two hour delay. When we finally arrived in Nice we caught the shuttle to our hostel and met Kristen, Jess and Cathy.

Dublin and London: The nicest people EVER! (part 2)

After arriving to London it was already 7pm by the time we got to our hostel. Within about 5 minutes of being there we were told that the bar crawl was staring in like a half an hour and we should join them. We forgot that everything in London closes around 2am which would be fine in the states but we were used to, like the rest of Europe, everything closing around 4 or 5am. We decided to call a guy that Catherine met in Barcelona. He was from the states and he was studying in London and he told her that when we came he would show us around. We met the guys(Dave and Pete)and we went to went to a few pubs.

Dublin and London: The nicest people EVER! (part 1)

Just Cathy and I. We both left for our little adventure on the 30th of April. A lot of this trip was just pure luck. We went to Dublin not having a clue about how to get to London (we knew there were ferries....somewhere) and not having confirmed tickets from London to Paris. I guess we just figured it would all work out, or we hoped.

Barcelona here we come!

After a long trip in Greece and one day in Rouen it was now time to go to Spain!! I was meeting 5 other girls in Barcelona (Cathy, Danielle, Katie, Lauren and Jocelyn). Driving into the city was an amazing site! The city was beautiful, right on the beach and the weather looked great. Little did I know we were in for rain.