Waiting Game
Finally, finally, finally, Jared and I both received our paperwork packages from our recruiter in Canada. I had been sitting in my parents’ living room, battling writer’s block (but really tracking my package on DHL’s website), when the doorbell rang. Unfortunately, my sister’s weird cat had also been sitting on my lap, licking my cotton t-shirt. She licked so obsessively that she left two wet circles right near my armpits, which I feel really impressed the delivery man. To his credit, he pretended not to notice.
I know you are thinking, “Why did you let your sister’s weird cat do that?” And the answer is I don’t know.
What you should really be getting out of this is that we are finally confirmed to go teach English in Gangwon Province.
Oh – except for one more thing. Now we have to get visas. Oh, and flights. And I need to chase up my tax residency certificate and look into travel insurance. Plus there’s practicing Korean and maybe, just maybe thinking about preparing for the actual job – teaching children a language they do not speak.
As with anything, multi-tasking is really best achieved in baby steps. Today, I sent my visa application and passport to the Korean Consulate in Chicago, essentially grounding myself in the United States. It is an unnerving feeling, knowing that my passport is lying in a cardboard envelope somewhere in the Fishers post office. I just got heart palpitations. I feel like I intentionally abandoned my unwanted baby on somebody’s doorstep. Best not to think about it.
Jared has personally dropped his application off at the consulate in Sydney – a four hour round trip journey for a four minute interaction. But I bet he’s not having heart palpitations right now.
Then again, he’s got to book flights to the States, sell the car, cancel our phone contracts, pack, finish work, go back to Sydney to get his passport, practice Korean, practice ASL and go to guitar lessons.
Maybe I don’t have anything to stress about. As long as my passport comes back unharmed and stickered with an E-2 visa.
