The last few weeks have been a little bit of a blur to be completely honest; Ems has gone back to England, I have been offered a new (and jolly good) job and it has reached that time of the year where I need to sort out my medicals for the really-actually-properly-staying-here visa.
I’ll start with the new job…
Before Christmas I sat on the internet for about one week solid applying for potential new jobs; most of which were the type of job that I sort of knew that I could do; temp jobs and office jobs very similar to the one that I had just finished up.
Then there was an advertisement for an opening of Educational Designer with Open Polytechnic; a job that I knew would test me and an employer that I knew I would enjoy working for. In the back of my mind I didn’t really think that I would get a look in, so when I received an invitation to interview I squealed with joy…only to realise that I couldn’t make any of the interview dates. Frantically phoning and emailing returned no result, so I took this as a sign and decided to leave it there: this job was a little out of my league and I thought that it was probably fate.
So when I received a phone call from the Open Polytechnic to discuss a Skype interview I was ecstatic to say the least. So to cut the incredibly long story down into a little manageable chunk: I got the job and I start on Monday (17th March).
Getting this new job offer has kick-started me into ‘Visa-Acquire’ mode, which has been made a lot more stressful that it would normally be due to the fact that I have just sent away for a new passport; mine will expire before the extension date.
The actual new-passport part of it wasn’t too hard; you just fill in online forms and then send the UK Passport Office (in England) your old passport. When you receive both the new passport and the expired one you then have to get the visa transferred into the new passport. And this is where the stress kicks in. I only have about eight weeks left and so have to pay over $100 dollars to transfer the visa which is going to be extended anyway! Oh well I guess if everything was easy that life would be a lot more boring.
In order to process the next part of the Visa I have had to get a medical, never one to just go into these things lightly I booked a pre-medical doctors appointment to have a quick once over. A few of the routine tests that would normally have gone on had I not been travelling the world hadn’t been completed recently (or ever) and so she gave me a thorough poking and prodding in places that I would rather she hadn’t, just to be sure.
I am terrible when it comes to these sorts of things; I know that I’m reasonably healthy and most likely have nothing wrong with me, but waiting for the doctor to get back to me was literally the longest three days of my entire life!
Needless to say I am fine and healthy, albeit a little stressed.
I had to have my contraceptive implant taken out this week as well…yes I am a sucker for punishment. When I had it put in there was a horrible bruise that extended from the side of my left boob, across to my side and back, up the inside of my left arm (where the implant was inserted) and right out and up over my left arm, totally encasing my bicep. To say that I was worried about having it taken out was a vast understatement; I was shaking so much that a lady had to be called in to feed me jelly-beans to get me to calm down. Yes I am THAT person 🙂
The whole process wasn’t actually half as bad as I thought it would be, it took a long time but wasn’t painful or scary, just a little odd; you can feel that something is happening in your arm but you can’t tell what. I chose not to look!
The bandage was left on for almost three days, in which I had to refrain from getting the area wet…have you ever tried to have a shower without getting a whole arm wet, it’s almost impossible!
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