The Visa

This past Wednesday, Andrew and I drove up to Chicago (a 3-4 hour drive from where we live) in order to interview at the Korean Consulate for our visas. Our journey was uneventful and long, but thankfully we JUST missed a major winter storm that hit that night.

I'm still not exactly sure what the interview is for, since one has already acquired a job, signed a contract, and paid for the visa. I don't know what someone could possibly do to screw up the interview and get denied a visa into Korea.

Anyway, we met some people in the lobby waiting for their interviews. One girl was going to be teaching in the same city with another school. Another girl was Asian and laughed about how difficult it had been for her to get a position teaching English in Korea because she wasn't white. She was also completely baffled about how Andrew and I and another guy in the lobby had gotten jobs without being completely TESOL certified. We told her it was because we graduated with the great old English degree. They were all nice besides the quiet anti-social one sitting next to me, and I hope my coteachers in Korea will be the same.

We are currently waiting on our visas to arrive (with our passports, plz). And we have been told the school wants us to arrive in Korea on the 19th of February. So I finally let my landlord know our last day will be the 17th, and he's only making us pay two weeks rent :)

I'm excitedly counting down the days until I get to quit my job at the bookstore. My last day is the 29th, the same day as our going away party, and I hope that goes well. Andrew and I are slowly going through our books deciding which ones to store for a year and which to sell. Goodbye my beloved books.

I'm getting more and more nervous as the time approaches. I hope this experience will be as amazing as I'm hoping.