Five Days!

I can't believe I will be leaving in five days! I guess I should be really nervous, but I'm just really tired. I got back from New York/Philly a few hours ago. I got my visa in New York and got to see Hadley and Derek before I left, and then met up with Liz while I waited for my train at 30th Street. I am going to miss everyone so much! But I guess now we are all grown up and need to do our own thing. It was really weird seeing the Bryn Mawr R5 station as the train went by it. For the first time in four years I won't be going back at the end of August. Instead, I'll be in Seoul! Crazy. I thought about this for like 2 seconds on the train and then decided I should fall asleep while listening to my Swedish Pop iTunes playlist instead of having some Really Deep Thoughts.

I almost didn't get my visa because I hadn't brought the right type of extra "passport-sized photo." I guess I just assumed it could be any photo that was the size of a passport photo, so I just cropped my face out of a picture of me on Facebook where I looked OK. I think I was supposed to get some taken at Rite-Aid or something. But it worked out OK and I didn't even have to go in for an interview because EPIK teachers get special treatment. Plus, I met a guy who will be teaching outside of Busan while we were waiting to pick up our visas today and we got lunch and made plans to hang out so now I have four American connections in Korea!

Now the only thing I am worried about is providing my diploma or proof of graduation when I get to orientation. I requested a confirmation of graduation from Bryn Mawr but they sent me to the National Student Clearinghouse website and I ordered a confirmation but just realized tonight that the confirmation was just online and not a paper copy. And I am pretty sure you can't notarize and apostille a page that you printed from the internet. Tomorrow I am going to call the Bryn Mawr registrar and plead for them to send me a letter overnight, and then hopefully have enough time Friday to get the letter notarized and apostilled (good thing I live in Harrisburg.) If that doesn't work then I will just have to take my humongous diploma which didn't come with a case or holder to Korea in my suitcase and it will probably be destroyed. Oh wow this is a really dramatic story. HOW IS IT GOING TO END??!! Look out for the exciting conclusion.