Hello darlings! You may have noticed that I’ve finally changed my URL to reflect the new focus of this blog. Yes, I am no longer at journeyintothepeacecorps2015, but I am now lifeofanamericorpsvista.wordpress.com! How exciting!!! This isn’t to say that I’ve stopped preparing for the Peace Corps application. Quite the contrary! I’ve applied to AmeriCorps partially because doing so makes my application more competitive! So…for those of you who haven’t been reading my blog in a while or are possibly new to the site… I just got accepted into a VISTA program! VISTA, if you don’t already know, stands for Volunteers In Service To America! This blog will now detail all of my experiences before, during, and probably after my year of service! Yes, that includes my Peace Corps Application towards the end. So lets dive on in!!!
First off, when you accept an assignment in AmeriCorps VISTA, you better be prepared to do some research. The moment I hit “accept” I was sent an email informing me that I had been enrolled in a PSO (Pre-Service Orientation). Now, I was expecting this, truly, but when I looked at where my PSO was… I was a bit shocked. I was fully expecting to go to Dallas. That’s where my two supervisors told me I was going, and that’s somewhere I’ve been before. It was a comfortable idea. I really, really like comfortable experiences. Yeah, don’t judge me. I’ll say it. We’re human beings. Human beings like to be comfortable. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found out I was going to COLORADO. I couldn’t imagine a better place to visit! To those of you who don’t know me personally (it’s funny because of the five followers I have, at least one of you do), you know I absolutely adore moose. It’s a weird animal to like, especially if you’re a young lady in Arkansas. While Arkansas has numerous species of deer, we don’t have a cold enough climate for moose. Talk about a sad place to be. Anyway, in Colorado, there are a lot of moose. No doubt I’ll come home with several souvenirs! Mom will be lucky if I don’t just come home with a new pet, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, this blog post is about the TRP, or the Travel Request Profile. The TRP is just a quick, maybe five question form you can do online. It sounds simple. You just write which bus stations (that are used by Greyhound), rail stations (must be Amtrack!), and MAJOR airports are near you. Do you see my problem already? Well, if you don’t, then let me help you out. I live in a small town in Arkansas. Yeah, it’s bigger than most, but it is NOTHING like Little Rock. It’s a sleepy, kinda hippy, beautiful town with the state’s best University. It’s mostly untouched by Walmart, unlike our friends 20 minutes to the north (Bentonville – Yuck!). Now, we do have a Greyhound bus station, known simply as the Fayetteville Bus Station. There’s no Amtrack, only Ozark Rail, and the closest “major” airport in Fayetteville is four hours to the south. That’s right. Little Rock. Gross.
Yeah, most towns/cities in Arkansas are gross in comparison to Fayetteville. It’s not my fault I was born and raised in a paradise neatly seated in the Ozark Mountains. Everyone else is just unfortunate not to have lived here. If you’re looking for a cheap, amazing get away – come visit Northwest Arkansas… Namely Fayetteville and Eureka Springs. Those “Freakin’ Eureakans” are fantastic people! And it’s a great place to visit, too!
So, this form gave me a little trouble. They don’t tell you what to put on your application. It just says “closest major airport” and such. I tend to over analyze everything, so I called the hotline to ask if I needed to put the address or the name or if there was a special code I had to write in. Why can’t people be specific in what they want? It makes the whole process so much easier! After two days (the only two days you have to actually fill out the form, that is) I finally got an answer! Don’t get me wrong, the hotline people were very, very helpful, but they didn’t know the answers off-hand, and I had to call again the next day to reach the VISTA people who were doing something else the first day I called. I did leave a voicemail and was assured they would call back, but around 3:00pm, I got worried… The point is, you need to write the name of the airports/stations. No addresses needed. I also found out that XNA (the airport in Bentonville) works just as well as the airport in Little Rock. Better Wally-Ville than Little Rock. No one wants to drive 4 hours anywhere, am I right?
What’s that? You want to know a little more about the TRP? Well, let me tell you! What happens after you fill it out, I’ve gathered, is that the VISTA travel workers look up where you are and then they compare the rates of air travel vs. bus travel vs. rail travel. They’ll take the cheapest option. It gets tricky when you live a little far from your PSO location. See, if I were going to Dallas, I would leave day of as per the rules. You always depart from your home on the day of your orientation. As long as you can get there before 3:00pm, you’re golden. Of course, it’s different since I’m going to Westminster, CO. See, now they have to get me all the way to site from Arkansas. Either they’re going to pony up the money to fly me, or they’re going to send me on bus the day before and pay for an extra night at the hotel. Honestly, I could care either way. I just want to be there! But do you see how complicated things can get? I HAVE to leave on the day of, unless it is less expensive to bus me over the day before and pay for the hotel. I think that’s a little silly, don’t you? Of course, that’s only my humble opinion.
Are there other options than air, bus, or rail travel? Of course! You could drive yourself and get $0.49/mile you drive. I really don’t want to drive, though. If I do, I’ll leave a few days in advance so I can do some sight-seeing, though. I hope we get extra time to explore a bit during orientation! Probably not, but there’s no harm in hoping!
THE RULES FOR THE TRP (just to review)
1. No addresses, just name the places. I.e. XNA Airport, Fayetteville Bus Station, etc.
2. Remember, choose the cheapest option. They’ll force it on you anyway.
3. You only have TWO BUSINESS DAYS to fill this out!
4. Answer all the questions – Tee shirt sizes and everything. It’s important.
5. Call the hotline if you have any questions! They’ll work with you! Remember, that’s how I found out XNA works. Now I don’t have to potentially drive to gross Little Rock. My potential gross travel is now limited to Bentonville.
Well, I’m signing off for now! I hope that helped some of you in the present (unlikely) and in the future (more likely). Feel free to comment!
So Maybe I Have No Idea What I'm Doing 