Accepting my Invitation

Called up Peace Corps headquarters yesterday to accept my invitation. Went over preliminary details with the Placement Officer on staging, passport, visas. Yes, more paperwork from them. I also have to send in an aspiration statement and a revised resume specifically for my line of work, which isn't too bad because I had time to prepare for these in advance. After that, I can only wait for staging on May 31st. 80 something days left right?

So I guess its official, can't back down now. To Mongolia, land of my boyhood idol: Genghis Khan! It will be an interesting experience to say the least. Over these last few days I've been searching far and wide on the internet to find anything that pertains to the country, and the more I look, the more I am excited to go.

Things I'm looking forward to doing in Mongolia:

1. Ride on those tiny horses that homeboy Genghis Khan and his Mongolian horde used to conquer more than half of the known world.
2. Take in all the beautiful sights and sounds; the miles of open grassland and mountains.
3. Mongolian wrestling, you've seen it on the travel channel.
4. Real Mongolian BBQ, basically any offering of meat: goat, lamb, horse.. whatever they dish out, I'm willing to take it.
5. Living in a Yurt/Ger.
6. Learning the Mongolian language, take a gander... this will take time.
7. Meet my host family and immerse myself with the culture.
8. Teaching... thats what I'm there for right?

Things I'm not looking forward to while in Mongolia:

1. Negative degree weather is never a good thing.
2. Learning yet another language, lets see... Khmer, Vietnamese, English, Spanish, Japanese.. now Mongolian? I find myself mixing too many languages together already, now its going to be even more dysfunctional!

I guess the Pros outweigh the Cons. If I think of anymore, I will add to the list. And here's a picture of the tiny horse I was talking about: