Timeline

• January 2011 - start online application
• March 2011 - initial application completed, letters of recommendation sent
• April 14, 2011 - initial interview with the UC Davis Peace Corps representative
• Late April, 2011 - send in transcripts, background check, and fingerprint forms
• May 2011 - I receive my "nomination" to be an Education Volunteer in Subsaharan Africa, with a handwritten note that tells me I will be required to learn the local sign language (in addition to the local spoken language!)
• Summer 2011 - I procrastinate getting all my medical, dental, and optometric paperwork done, with the result that I go back to the doctor in Davis about 5 times getting additional papers signed and further vaccinations.
• July 29, 2011 - I get an email from the Peace Corps placement office letting me know that because of budget cuts, PC is sending fewer volunteers in 2011 than initially intended, and that if I am still interested, I will likely leave in early 2012.  They give me a deadline of a week to let them know if I still wish to continue with this process; otherwise, if they receive no response, they will throw out my application.
• Um, what?  I'm definitely still doing this.  Way to be melodramatic, Placement Office.
• August 2011 - I send in an updated resume and final transcript.  Because UCD is a quarter school, my official final transcript isn't available until October, so I have to remember to do that in the future.
• October 2011 - I finally finish clearing up the medical paperwork, and officially gain medical clearance for service!
• November 2011 - I have a phone conversation with my Placement and Assessment Officer, basically another interview, to help her determine where to place me.  She follows up a few weeks later asking about my interest in being an "Early Generation Volunteer" - most likely one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers to enter a country - and I take about a week of thinking to decide that I would probably be better off not being an EGV.
• December 13, 2011 - I receive an email update that my application status has been changed to "Invitee".  I spend the next week freaking out and frantically checking the mail, before . . . 
• December 17, 2011 - My mom finds my invitation packet on the front step as my father and I drive off to a Peace Corps Information Session.  She opens and reads it aloud - Malawi!  Biology!  Secondary School!  JUNE - not quite early 2012!  I quickly start googling Malawi on my phone, trying to find out more about it than the fact that Madonna adopted a baby there.
• December 26, 2011 - I officially ACCEPT my invitation!  I follow up by sending another updated resume and aspiration statement to the PC Malawi Country Desk.

And now for the exciting part . . .

• June 18, 2012 - I fly to Philadelphia for "Staging" - basically a day of orientation with the Malawian education volunteers in my group.
• June 20, 2012 - Fly from JFK to South Africa to Malawi!
• June 20, 2012-August 29, 2012 - Pre-Service Training
• August 30, 2012-August 29, 2014 - my very own Peace Corps Service!  

 You can start planning the welcome back party . . . NOW!