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#3

Rebecca Salonek
Aug 18, 2014
2 min read

Departure day is so close. I mean, like I could be heading out tomorrow. Tuesday. On a plane. To Korea.

Let me give you a little run down of the last week.

Sunday (the 10th) 7:36 pm. I receive an email that has my visa issuance number. This number is important because it is placed on your visa application, which is sent to the Korean Consulate in Chicago.

Monday (the 11th) 1:47 pm. Andrew and I drive down to Madison to meet Dan and spend the evening at his parent’s lovely abode. These are two guys that will work with while at Southlands Christian School International. They both graduated from a neat Christian university not far from the University of Northwestern. :)

Tuesday (the 12th) 11:28 am. We arrive in Chicago to hand deliver our visa applications. What a relief it was to officially begin our last step before boarding the plane to Korea. We were informed that our visas would be mailed back to us on Monday the 18th. This was a wee bit of an issue being that new teacher orientation starts on the 18th. It’s all in God’s timing, I keep reminding myself. Dan, Andrew and I send an email to our school in Korea and said the quickest we could be there was on the 20th. Our school contacted the Korean Consulate in Chicago the next day, and they were able to get our visas expedited. Our passports would now be sent by mail on the 14th. We were anticipating the arrival of our visas on Saturday.

Saturday (the 16th) 1:36 pm. As I confidently walked to my mailbox, I expected to open it and find my precious blue booklet-drove to Chicago and back-golden ticket-visa approved-passport inside. Well, I didn’t. Given that the following day was Sunday, I knew Monday would be #deliveranceDAY.

Sunday (the 17th) all day. I was able to go to my church’s baptism service. What a delightful time that was to celebrate with my church family! After that, my dear cousin had a welcome back party. It was sweet to spend time with family.

Monday (the 18th) right now. I am packing like it’s my fulltime job. I’ll have you know that packing for a year has proven to be quite difficult. Who know clothes were so heavy. Never before did I realize how much weight was contained in a jar of Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. In fact, I may have to sacrifice it and fly over peanut-butter-less. [Okay, sacrifice may be a bit strong.]

Also, it’s my youngest brother’s birthday. He is five and alive with energy. What a joy he is.

With all of that said, I am excited to make the trek but sad to leave the wonderful, supportive, and loving people here in Minnesota. Wow, I am only blessed lady.