I'm leaving in 10 days! A week and a half. I don't have much more to do-- just pack. And I'm still waiting on my visa. I checked the Border Agency website and it has updated its visa processing times-- now they say that 93% of visas will be processed within 10 business days. It has been five. I will wait until 8 and then call to see if I can pick up my visa at the British Consulate in Chicago. I feel like this is something they will not allow, but I'll try anyhow. They told me they would send an e-mail when my visa has been shipped. I hope this happens sometime between tomorrow and Wednesday because Jana and I are going to Chicago on Thursday. At any rate, the visa is my last and only travel worry, and once it is safely in my hands, I will be able to relax!
I can't wait to be back in Leicester! Jana has never been, but I know she'll love it. The university has such a great feel to it, especially the brand-new library (where I saw the Queen of England come to cut the red ribbon!)-- it is very modern and has lots of study space. It is also full of textbooks and relevant materials, unlike the outdated Kent State library where dust lines every shelf from nonuse. Well, I can't say the KSU library is all bad-- we did catch a glimpse of the Rosetta Stone tucked away behind locked doors one fateful afternoon... ha ha! Ancient secrets are hidden here. Or maybe just ancient references, whatevs.
All of England feels different. It's just different, in a very very good way. It's old and green and temperate and beautiful-- all of it! Even London with its constant smog cover. Even the small towns comparable to Streetsboro (you know, connection towns, just going through to get from one place to another) have fifty times the charm and beauty and history.
I've been reading blogs lately about young people who teach english in Korea. More kids than ever are doing it fresh out of college, because it's so darn easy. All you need is a bachelor's degree, preferably in english (but it could really be anything). And there's such a demand right now for english teachers, academies will pay for your housing and plane ticket on top of giving you a job with a salary and benefits. I applied last year when I didn't want to work at Borders for another year, but it never came of anything. I admit I didn't try very hard. But I fantasize about life in a non-western country... and Korean food looks AMAZING. I will have to take a trip someday, at any rate. But I am a little jealous of the adventurers who travel across the world to submerse themselves into another language and culture for a year...
I might still do this one day. :P
I've realized that I tend to dream of distant lands, and every time I reach one, I dream of something even further. Should I be grateful that I've traveled twice overseas? Yes, and I am. But I will not settle-- not until I have explored the whole earth, and probably not even then! This yearning that I have to travel to other countries is deeper than almost any other-- it's a constant ache, like a soul ache (not a soul cake-- LOL Sting!)-- and I know it will never subside! I feel like it is instict, that kind of everlasting, primal, powerful feeling. How is that human nature? How is that evolutionary? Isn't a creature supposed to stake out its territory and roam within those boundaries? Most people end up living and dying within 20 miles of where they were born, but already I have shaken that statistic. Maybe I have the blood in me of the ice age travelers who crossed the Bering land bridge- my heart is running on the blood of the restless.
Okay, enough poetry. I'm going to go vacuum the house.
T-minus 10 days!
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