It's true. I've had the most wonderful week. It started on Saturday, when I awoke to find an email in my inbox from the Peace Corps - "Your application status has been updated. Please log into your account for more information." A sure sign of good news! I logged in to find that I have officially been cleared by the Office of Medical Services. The medical clearance is by far the most difficult part of the application process for the Peace Corps. Lots of forms, lots of poking and prodding and shots, then requests for more forms and more poking and prodding and shots. Even so, it only took me a month and a half - I feel like that's pretty good time. The exciting thing is that the medical clearance is the last major step before placement. Woohoo! When I got up on Monday morning, I had another email, this one from a girl in the Placement Office. Double woohoo! Things are going well. I just submitted my resume updates (since it's been almost four months since I submitted it with my application). Who knows how long this next step will take. The only thing I know is that the person I'm in contact with is from the Africa placement team, so we're heading in the right direction.
So what else has happened this week to warrant such exuberance? Well, on Monday morning, the university posted class listings for the spring semester. While there is only one undergraduate course that I'm interested in taking (and it's a cool one - an entire class devoted to FILM NOIR!), there were a number of graduate courses that caught my eye. Namely, Dr. Redman is teaching a course on James Joyce. Yes, I'm going there - going out with a bang by taking a graduate-level Joyce class my final semester. At first I was bummed because it was at the same time as Dr. Hatfield's Latin American Short Story class, but then I realized that Dr. Hatfield is also teaching a cool graduate class - "Neruda, Vallejo, and Guillen". It should be pretty fantastic - I went to talk to him about it and he was more than happy to give me permission to take it. He also agreed to be my second reader for my honors thesis.
Which leads me to the other good news. Things are going really well for the thesis. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of movies for it. During my meeting with Dr. Towner this morning to discuss my progress, she suggested that I visit the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University - as they have a wonderful archive of scripts and notes. She's even trying to get me a catalog of it from her friend there! Woohoo! And I have enough money left in my McDermott travel fund to pay for the plane ticket.
Over all, things are going fabulously well. I have a lot of paperwork to fill out (surprise, surprise - that seems to be the theme of the semester), as all but one of my classes next semester require special permission. But it's worth it.
I've been walking around all day with a smile on my face. Wonderful weather. Soft grass and bare feet. Things falling into place all over the place. What more do I need right now?
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