DISCLAIMER: Talking about long and boring paperwork leads to long and boring blog posts. There's a decent paragraph at the end of this post (2nd to last) that summarizes things adequately and won't dry out your eyes/make you never come back to my blog again.
Turns out getting invited to a country aint the end of applications and paperwork for PC, it is really the beginning of the bureaucracy. As I sorted through my packet I realized the stack of paper work facing me was worthy of any college level course work. Passport application, visa applications (two of them!), insurance forms, an aspiration statement, yet another updated resume, and I’m still receiving questionnaires in the mail to answer. So I’ll break it down for you piece by piece:
-Passport: Lots of fun this! Filling out the detailed passport application (irritating but not really time consuming), attaching my old expired tourist passport, getting two 2x2 passport photos from CVS ($8.95, seriously?), attaching my PC passport letter, and sending it out of the one post office here that does passports. Here’s the catch, because I couldn’t do the DS-11 passport-renewal-by-mail I had to fill out the DS-82 form. Don’t know what that means? No reason you should unless you’re also waiting in line at the amusement park called getting the government to give you something. Here I made a mistake, which I now realize. PC provides you with shipping materials to send your paperwork into DC. Unfortunately, I thought that due to the fact I was filling out a DS-82 I couldn’t do this, which I could. So instead I sent my passport application to Miami’s passport office, where there’s a chance a nimwit down there could not recognize it as a PC passport application and give me the tourist passport instead of the government passport, leaving me up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Here’s to hoping they know how to do their job down on South Beach.
-Visas: I need two visas according to the Philippines. Why? I dunno, but they require two. I guess there’s less chance of em’ losing two than one. These are fun little applications, similar to the passport applications. Anyways, I needed four 2x2 passport photos (at $8.95 per two yet again), a notary, and some forms to fill out. Shipped those out to DC, they received them the next day no problems.
-Insurance forms: In progress, check back later. Although I will say the life insurance part is ominous.
-Aspiration statement: It is actually a bit more ridiculous and redundant than it sounds. Professional goals, personal goals, expectations, strategies for success, etc etc. I got tired of writing ‘being patient, flexible, integrating as much as possible, and keeping a sense of humor’ repeatedly. Here’s the breakdown of what I wrote: Professionally I want experience teaching abroad to use as a stepping stone to my future career teaching English. Personally I want the unique experience of living abroad in an unfamiliar culture for two years. Expectations are that I expect what I can’t foresee, who knows what faux-pas and difficulties I might run into, but I’m okay with that. Strategies for success? See above. On a funny side-note, I’ve been talking to another Gator grad who’s already serving in the Philippines, and she just went to her Close of Service conference where they brought out their old Aspiration statements and they had to circle which goals they’d achieved etc etc. She said everyone really had achieved far different things than what they thought they would in their Aspiration statements and weren’t circling much at all lol.
-Updated Resume: #3 to date. I literally submitted one in May and June…not much changed during that time from one to the other…but as Stu Scott would say these resumes must be going to the department of redundancy department.
Questionnaires: Basically abbreviated forms of the Aspiration statement. There are some new ones in terms of what type of Host family I’d prefer and what kind of site I might want to be placed at. In short I put I don’t care how old my ‘parents’ are, I’d prefer having kids in the family (kids are wonderful ways to integrate into a community), and if possible as little seafood as possible. I’m a bit skeptical about whether or not this is actually taken into account much once I get there.
All of the paperwork and government red tape are irritating, time consuming, frustrating, but necessary. In terms of actually leaving I’m almost a month away! I’m beginning the process of moving out of my apartment by essentially giving away/selling/trashing everything I’m not taking with me…which leads to the question of what should I take/can I fit into two checked luggages and two carry-ons. Everything I need for two years, a daunting task. I welcome any and all suggestions of things I might forget! This summer has been amazing though. I truly appreciate all of my fantastic friends who have helped make this summer the best and most memorable yet before I leave!
Finally, I’d like to welcome the new followers and especially my fellow volunteers who have commented on my blog! I’m excited to meet ya’ll and start this adventure! If you have a blog drop me a link so I can check it out!
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