There’s a famous saying about waiting. Though I can’t remember exactly how it goes. “Life is what happens when you’re waiting….” For….. Something. I don’t know what.
But certainly at the moment my life is waiting.
Our story begins way back at the end of April when I received a letter to say I was shortlisted for the Jet programme. Due to events in Japan this notification was understandably quite a bit later than was originally intended…the due date to get all documents in however was not pushed back along with the notification.
To make matters worse Britain was faced by a glut of bank holidays around the end of April/beginning of March- how about that? Bitching about too many holidays…wow I’m out of sync with the world at large!- which meant getting my medical form in on time proved to be a crazy mad dash of a situation. Due to my Doctor not having my tuberculosis vaccination on hand, and possibly my idiocy in saying to my doctor that TB was a big deal in Japan, I was forced to get an x-ray to confirm my lungs were fine. Luckily Jet proved to be flexible and I was granted an extension to get my medical form in- something which I eventually managed to do!
In the months before receiving my notification letter I had been looking forward to/dreading that moment. Yet when it actually came…nothing really hit me. I’ve read that shortlisted does mean you are 99.999% accepted but as of yet it just didn’t feel real. Maybe it was the medical fiasco, maybe it was the long wait before I would be going to Japan, maybe it was that I was already pretty set on being in Japan this year; For whatever reason short of a little ‘yey!’ things just haven’t felt real for Jet yet….
And they still don’t, for though I have been notified of my acceptance I am still waiting.
The first thing I’m waiting for is my police reply. Now, the deadline for getting this into Jet isn’t until the very end of June. The police have to get it back to you within 4 weeks of receiving the request (I sent in my app a day or two after getting my shortlisted letter), yet still…other people have their replies already. Why don’t I have mine? Maybe something has gone wrong? This is me afterall…. Wouldn’t that be just my luck?
I also had to request a foreign police reply and despite the major problems I encountered in applying for that my reply came within a week or two of posting it….
So why are the British police, taking so long?
Did I commit a crime at some point without realising it? Is that time my friend smashed up a car when I was four years old on my record? Will it doom me? Am I actively under investigation for something dodgy? Aggh!
But anyway.
The second thing I’m waiting for- placement notification!
Since the deadline for getting documents in to Jet wasn’t pushed back I guessed they would be on time with placement notifications and we would know by mid May….nope. Some people know; through unofficial channels. But I’m not one of them. Official notifications aren’t due till the beginning of June apparently.
I’m really quite worried about this. Its nothing I can control of course, but still…maybe my saying I could adapt in a super rural place and the fact that I am from a small town will mean they’ll put me somewhere ultra rural? Perhaps they will even put me in Okinawa- this is my biggest fear. I really, really don’t want to go to Okinawa at all (a hellishly hot island cut off from civilization at large, covered in America soldiers and deadly animals…no thanks)
I’ve got my fingers crossed for getting one of my placement choices. I think I was quite wise with them. Or at the least somewhere in southern Honshu.
But….well this is me. The worst could happen.
So yes. Welcome to my blog where I will be detailing my adventures in Japan.
I’m not always a nervous wreck. Honest. Even here bare in mind when I say ‘worried’ its not a quivering in fear worry, just a ‘I hope not…’.
But then that’s the trouble with my life right now…nothing to do so too much time to think. No job, rural area so not much to do, not many friends I can go out with living around here. Life is quite lame at the moment.
So roll on Japan!
