Sorry That I’ve Abandoned You
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007Hi everyone. I doubt any of my readers are still checking in since I seem to have abandoned my blog. I feel bad about it, and I’m sorry for abandoning you. Especially to those who don’t know me personally who have followed the blog. I want to thank you guys for reading, and for the nice comments you left. It was a great feeling knowing that people who didn’t even know me enjoyed reading my posts, and that they had been following my travels. I wish I had answered more of your comments, and perhaps gotten to know you as well.
Anyway, those who know me (and I also thank you guys for your loyal readership and comments) are already aware that I am back in America now. I’ve been back for almost a month. But soon I may be on another marathon flight, heading back to Asia. This time to South Korea.
I’d mentioned in previous posts about looking into going to Korea to teach English, and I have finally found a job. But there have been some problems getting my visa. I had to send my college transcript to the recruiter in Korea 3 times. The first time I had sent it from Thailand, along with my other documents, and when they arrived in Korea, the transcript envelope was opened. I don’t how that happened, it was sealed when I sent it. They won’t accept open transcripts.
So I had my college send them another. Now this screw up was partly my fault. When the college sent the transcripts to me in Thailand, they arrived fairly quickly, and it didn’t cost me anything extra. I figured I had time, so I took the risk and didn’t have them FedEx it to Korea, saving me lots of money (I am running very low on money). What I didn’t know was that the recruiting company had moved–they never told me–so it was sent to the wrong address. The envelope is still floating in oblivian as I write this. So then I had to have them FedEx another transcript, costing me lots of money, and the procedure was a pain in the ass. Anyway, it was supposed to arrive on a Friday, but when I checked the tracking online, it said “undeliverable: wrong address.” Unbelivable! It turns out, not only did the recruiter move, but they changed their name as well, and the FedEx driver didn’t deliver it to the address anyway. He could have at least gone in to ask someone.
So they finally got the transcript last Tuesday, and I’ve been waiting for them to get back to me with my visa number. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would. If I do end up going to Korea, the term will have started already. I’m making a bad impression on the school already and I haven’t even stepped on Korean soil yet.
That is where I’m at now. Waiting in my sister’s house in New Jersey for the word that I can go to the Korean embassy in NYC to get the visa stamped into my passport.
Since I’ve been back I sold my car, but I still have it until right before I leave. But what I forgot to tell the guy was that it is not a 100% certainty that I will be going to Korea. Immigration could reject my application. Another crazy thing is that my college diploma has my middle name spelled wrong, so immigration could reject me because of that. Hopefully the guy who bought my car won’t be too pissed if the job falls through and I keep the car. I’ll give him his deposit back, of course.
So if I do make it to Korea, I may fire up my blog again. I really did enjoy writing it, and reading all the nice (and some not so nice) comments. I may not be able to write much in the beginning, because I’m sure I’ll be plenty busy with tryng to figure out the whole teaching thing. But hopefully I’ll keep the blog going, and I can win back my readers, and hopefully gain some new ones with more exciting and funny stories. This time from the frontline of the classroom.
Meanwhile here is a video I made the other day after a snowfall here in New Jersey. Man do I miss the warm weather of Southeast Asia (and Florida, where I lived before I went on my trip)! It’s nothing great, I just wanted to see if my video camera still worked, but I think I made something out of nothing.
Thank you again for reading.
Mark
Mark