Paperwork: It never ends

I thought after getting invited, the paperwork was over. Quite the opposite! There are so many things that have to get taken care within the next two months and I don't understand half of it.

1. No-fee Passport application: complicated because we must apply from overseas, that complicates things always :)

2. Student Loan Deferment and Consolidation: I really don't understand how this works. If you are deferrring your loans because of "finacial hardship"--which the Peace Corps will surely be-- why on earth would they ask to you pay interest? You can't apply for deferment until your grace period has ended, but if you want to consolidate your loans you have to request early repayment. But if your loans are consolidated, you still have to pay interest on some loans and not others. This is one of those times when I wish I could just hand everything over to my dear father and have him figure it out. I really don't want to have to pay interest while I'm in Peace Corps...

3. Personal Items Insurance: This could come in handy. Again, more paperwork because it's through a private company.

4. Aspiration Statement & Updated resume: The aspiration statement simply requires that you write about your expectation of your Peace Corps service, your strategies for adapting to a new culture (easy one!) and your personal and professional goals. The resume is a resume, I haven't done much between the time I submitted it with my application last year and now. Except for continue on with grad school, take up Spanish tutoring and travel around southeastern Asia. Not much at all...

5. Flight reservations to orientation...this only requires a phone call and waking up really early or staying up quite late.

The adventure never ends...