Prague Prep.

In two weeks I should be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on an Iberia flight to Prague via Madrid. In three weeks I'll be starting my first day of graduate school classes. Last month I was starting to think my plans were falling apart, but somehow things are coming together.

I left Korea in early June after a wonderful 21 months, and came back to Madison to get my Czech visa. Unfortunately I didn't have a background check from Korea...so I spent the whole summer waiting for that one piece of paper to arrive and watching the deadline to get my paperwork in get closer - until it passed.

Now, I have my background check from Korea, as well as one from the USA, along with the other stack of papers I need to get my student visa - but it's too late to get it from the US. Instead, I'll be arriving in Prague as a tourist, taking a day trip to Vienna to go to the Czech consulate there, and then waiting and hoping for everything to go smoothly. If all goes well, I'll have my visa about 60 days after I arrive. If it takes longer than 90 days...well, I'll be seeing stateside sooner than planned...

I'm practicing "Don't be worry," on the advice of the woman in the international office at my school. Seriously, she said this, in her latest reply to my somewhat panicked email about the airline (which claims it will not let me on the plane with a one-way ticket unless my visa is in hand).

So on that advice, I have paid for Czech health insurance, paid for my flight, set up a visa appointment in Vienna, reserved a hostel for my arrival, and (just today) secured a room in a flat near my school. I found a roommate online (...) and put aside my paranoia when she wrote about being a semi-vegetarian, with similar interests, and a willingness to live with me. How could I say no? This room is for four months, so even if it turns out to be awful (which I don't expect it to, but you never know) I'll be able to look for places in the meantime.

The only thing left to do is pack, which is going fairly smoothly since I only ever half unpacked from Korea. Still, I should probably get to it...