Attempting to start a blog... someone make me witty and interesting... quick!

I graduated from Miami University in May of 2008 with three majors, Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs, Spanish, and Latin American Studies. Sounds great but I still had no idea what I wanted to do, and my job search was getting me nowhere. This does not come as a big surprise to any fellow poli sci majors. I have always felt a pull toward travel and volunteer work and the Peace Corps seemed like a great fit but I felt the need to supplement my Bachelor’s with something more. I discovered a great program called Master’s International that allows you to combine Peace Corps service with a Master’s degree. Since I wanted to continue on the international studies track I applied to the two schools that offered the MI program in Political Science, George Mason University and the University of Denver. I was accepted to both GMU and DU. As much as I would have loved to move to Denver it just wasn’t practical since with the MI program you go to school for a year then serve in the Peace Corps for 27 months then go back to school to finish your degree. Moving to Colorado would have meant finding a place to live, furnishing it, leaving for two years then coming back for a semester. George Mason on the other hand meant living at home in Maryland with the rents and commuting to Fairfax. Bad drive but overall the right choice financially. I moved to Peru from January- April 2009 to get some travel, volunteer work and language skills under my belt to help my chances of being accepted into the Peace Corps. When I got back from Peru I had my interview for the Peace Corps and was ‘nominated’. Then came the dreaded medical packet. A million doctor/dentist/lab visits later and I got my clearance. Wait… no I didn’t. They needed more information about that mole I had removed from my arm in 2007. Then I was cleared. Wait no, I wasn’t. What about the time I used an inhaler for field hockey in high school… and the hearing test that said I was deaf in my right ear. Well turns out I don’t have skin cancer or asthma and I can hear just fine. So yes after a year and a half I was cleared. (To those of you considering becoming a PCV this was not the normal time frame, yes it takes a long time, but they put my application on the backburner knowing I had a year of grad school to complete.) So in the meantime, I went through many different phases of wanting to go, then not wanting to go. By the start of summer 2010 I was pretty sure Peace Corps was not right for me. I just wanted to finish my degree and get a job. I started an internship at DAI in Bethesda and was saving up money to move out. Then one day in the middle of June, I got a phone call from Jason at the Peace Corps asking me if I was ready to go. At this point I had already taken out student loans and registered for fall classes. But something about that phone call reminded me of how much I was looking forward to joining the Peace Corps. So I told Jason, “Yes. I’m ready, where to?” He said they had an opening for West Africa that was scheduled to leave in September and a program in Latin America that leaves in July. Wow! July? I told him I had to check with my new job since I was supposed to work until September but that I would prefer Latin America. My boss Helen was very supportive as was everyone else at DAI and I called Jason back and told him Latin America. I had to wait two long weeks to get my invitation and welcome packet to discover I was headed to the Dominican Republic. So here I am with one year of graduate school under my belt ready to start my new life in the Oldest City in the New World!