I've never been so excited to get a physical. Hahaha.
I went to my physical yesterday, bright and early. My doctor was awesome and filled out all that needed to be. She was more than happy to let me go else where for the blood work. And she was happy to read my tb test from the health department, but I haven't gotten it yet.
Here are the costs I'm looking at:
Health Dept -
TB test ($12)
Hep panel ($65)
CBC ($15)
HIV ($25)
no urinalysis or G6PD
Polio Booster ($55)
Pap - Free


UGA Health center -
TB Test ($18)
Hep Panel ($46)
CBC ($22)
HIV ($30)
Polio ($65)
Pap ($50)
G6PD ($41)
Vision ($55)

But I did get a letter from the VA hospital saying I could get them to do the tests for free and they would be reimbursed by the PC. I need to call them now and tell them that and see what they say. Otherwise I need to mix and match the various tests to get it to be the cheapest. Looks like I can't get it cheaper than $200. Anyone know if you get your dental exam free, if you can get fillings reimbursed? I may just head over to Mercy Clinic to see if I can get free fillings from them.

On other news, I finally started my job at the Y. I've only worked a couple days and now I'm trying to get Y certified so I have to take a class (unpaid) for 12 hours. Sucks, but I'll get a pay raise. I have been going and working out every day. I'm glad too, because I was really unhappy with the weight on my physical.

Congrats to everyone getting their invites! I hope I'll be saying the same thing in a few months!

I switched up my itinerary after my mom decided albania and bosnia were bad ideas. I personally don't think so, but I'll go with her on it I guess. Now I'm going to go Frankfurt and Nürnberg first then fly Ryanair (yuk) to Athens or Pula, Croatia. Then I'll just travel around from there. My cousin is going to try and meet me in Greece. I really hope she can, it would be awesome. She also wants to try couch surfing, which I would love to do because it would save me a ton of money. I need to start working on my profile so people will let me stay with them.

On the PC front, I got my nomination packet it. They sent my medical stuff on the 22nd. I called a bunch of dentists from this list and most wouldn't pick up or were the wrong number. I ended up getting a guy in Lawrenceville so I'm staying overnight at a friend's house and going to the appointment early early. I called many VA clinics in the Athens area and most had no idea what I was talking about and were so RUDE!!! Like hanging up on me and really pissed me off. I was just trying to figure out if they knew what I was talking about and I asked for many supervisors but they didn't want to give me that information or I got the run around. I finally called the main office in DC and the guy there found something online that he's going to mail me. Hopefully I can get somewhere now. It sucks but I really can't afford all of those shots and blood tests. It's just too expensive for me since I'm uninsured and my mom is unemployed. I hope this letter will help out some but we'll see...

Speaking of being uninsured.... Nope. Not opening up that can of worms. I'm probably one of the few applicants not in favor of the health [insurance] reform. But we're all entitled to our opinions and that's mine. But man, the tension is really heating up over it. It's getting a little ridiculous. I will say that I think requiring all chains of greater than 20 restaurants to post nutritional information. I am worried that most Americans won't understand what 600 or 500 or 300 calories means and how much they should have. I remember when I was flying through JFK where calories are posted very visibly. I went to starbucks and a muffin was 550 cals so I decided not to buy it. I wonder how much other stuff I wouldn't buy...

School sucks. I'm ready to travel.

- L

So this is the basic itinerary of where I want to go this summer. I don't really have any money but I do have a free ticket (yay delta skymiles!) and a credit card. I just sent a message to the girl moving in after me asking if she wanted to sublet. Hopefully she says yes because otherwise I'll have to find a random person to move in. I really can't afford to pay the rent and utilities all summer, especially if I'm not going to be there. And I hope my roommates aren't too lame about it. Oh well I can't worry about all that now. I'll Scarlett it and think about it tomorrow.
These are the cities I want to visit:
Munich (flying in, I've already been there) → Verona → Firenze → Roma → Bari → Dubrovnik →overland route through Montenegro and Albania) Athens, thessalonki, istanbul, edirne, sofia, bucharest, belgrad, zagreb, ljubljana, venice, nurnberg (to stay with friends), Frankfurt to see a friend. I should have 12 weeks so that seems like plenty of time to do all of that. I want to go now!

Timeline -

Volunteer and Health Status Application - 26 Jan 2010
Ref 1 - 29 Jan 2010
Ref 2 - 3 March 2010
Ref 3 - 9 March 2010
Interview - 5 March 2010
Nominated - 16 March 2010
Legally Cleared - 17 March 2010

Now I'm just waiting on my medical and dental packets. I want to get those done ASAP because I'm planning on leaving the country at the end of May for the whole summer to go check out Eastern Europe. It's good that I'm planning a trip otherwise I would be obsessing about the Peace Corps until the Fall when I hope I get my invite.

Oh yea, I was nominated to Subsaharan Africa, Science Education for Feb 2011!! I haven't received my official nomination yet but I did stop by my recruiter's office to give her a copy of my lifeguard and CPR certifications. She told me then because I was too excited to wait.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!