In just a few days, Monica and I will be whisked away to South Korea. We will be leaving out of San Francisco. I, however, get to spend about 5 hours more on an airplane than Monica because I'll be leaving out of Newark, NJ. Even though Monica and I were recruited by the same agency, we are flying on the same airplane, and teaching at the same school, our experiences of getting to the point of leaving have been VERY different.
While I have encountered road block after road block, Monica's transition to move to Korea has been seamless. She has taken complete charge of communicating with our recruiter, highlighting important notes in our travel books, and making sure that I am getting things done. In all honesty, this wouldn't be happening without her and she has my gratitude and thanks.
Monica had everything ready about a month ahead of time and sent the recruiter a nice neat package of documents to be sent to the school in South Korea that would sponsor our visa.
I, however, took about 3 weeks longer than Monica to sort everything out and get my transcripts and diploma sent. My intention were good but @#$% happens.
About a week after I promised the recruiter they would get the transcripts they finally arrived. We knew were were going to be leaving around the end of February or beginning of March, my transcripts were received almost 2 weeks late and threatened to postpone our voyage until April. Because I had so much difficulty getting my act together, Monica took every opportunity to remind me "we should be there now," "I am leaving with or without you," and "this should have been taken care of three weeks ago."
Joyous was the day we received our pin # to get our visa. Laura booked a hotel room in LA and she and Monica drove 7 hours to the LA Consulate (last minute) and had her visa in her hands 2 days later.
Living close to NYC, I called the Consulate to schedule my interview for my visa and the soonest I could get an appointment was March 2nd. I excitedly called the recruiter to let her know when my appointment was, to which she replied, "that won't work the school wants you to start on March 2nd." I finally got worried. I called the Consulate and was able to move my appointment to February 25th and everything was going to be smooth sailing from then on, until the news let us know the north east was about to be struck with a huge snow storm. So I prepared to get on an early train into NYC. I braved the storm and walked 25 blocks in snow that melted and soaked me to the bone. I got to the Consulate and they were kind enough to interview me several hours early and told me to return at 3pm the next day to pick up my passport.
I woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to head casually into the city to pick up my passport. The foot of snow on the ground worried me, so I called the consulate at 9:30am and the conversation went as follows:
Kyle: "Hello."
Consulate: "[Korean hello]."
Kyle: "The storm is bad can I pickup my visa on Monday?"
Consulate: "We are closed on Monday."
Kyle's inner voice: "Crap"
Kyle: "Ok I'll be there at 3 then."
Consulate: "We might be closing at 12:00 today."
Kyle's inner voice: "$^%#!"
I then called my father who took my car and he drove me to the train station where we arrived as the conductors were walking up the stairs. After a tense train ride, I was relieved to have boarded an express train. I grabbed a cab and I was lucky enough to get an aggressive drive who knew the city and got me to the Consulate at 11:40. My visa was ready and waiting for me.
Monica and I are, at long last, on the same page and ready to leave on our adventure into the unknown.
-K