here i am in Manila. the work toward new zealand is limited to conversations between myself and my love about when we can make it happen! impatience is the theme.

Manila has been nice, too hot for my northern blood, but enjoyable nonetheless.

just thought i should type something...

Tasty

Brief update. I am leaving tomorrow to Makati City in Manila for three weeks. Off to see my partner in the quest to move to New Zealand. Three weeks of rest, relaxation and life planning :-D (plus reacquainting ourselves).

It is very exciting. The travel itself is not quite so exciting. I must be getting old, but flights have gotten to be much less interesting to me. I just want to be where I am going. Back in the old days I loved flying for its own sake.

Once I return from the Philippines I figure it will only take another week or so to get everything ready to send in. Then the real waiting game begins. Ack!

Today was my last day at my current job. What this allows me, at least theoretically, is more flexibility in my life with which to work harder on getting to New Zealand. We will have to see how that aspect of it works out in the end. Nonetheless, it is a great stress gone from my life. It still has not all left, but hopefully, before the end of this weekend in Vermont, the stress will have melted away.

I feel very close to complete with all of the application materials.

So, Vermont for the weekend. Then on Wednesday I fly to San Fran then on to Tokyo and finally to Manila. I will stay for three weeks. By that time Celeste should be so sick of me that she will never ever move to Enzed to be with me.

Not so in to writing right now...so i'll stop.

Visit the Philippines

Today I applied for three jobs in NZ with three different universities. I really would like to be in Wellington or Dunedin and those two jobs seemed most likely, but I also applied to a position in Auckland. I am sure Auckland wouldn't be so bad either.

The jobs are all good fits for what I want to do, though they are mostly a big step down from the responsibility I have in my current position. I am willing to take that though, it would be nice to have more contact with students and be working in a larger institution.

Finally made some more progress on application materials. Portland State was totally simple, just faxed me a letter. I also had Barbara write me one from IPSL. Also received a fax of my immunizations so I was able to get that info completed.

The other step was to get the money order finally for sending my fingerprints to the FBI. They are in the envelope and will be on the way tomorrow!!!

I am moving forward. And next week I plan to go to the Philippines for a couple of weeks. :-P

Today I called to try and get proof of employment from my job at New York University to send with my application. They contract an outside agency to provide proof of employment. I call to ask what I need to do and they tell me that I am not allowed to get it myself. Whoever wants it must call and request it themselves. I am not able to verify my own employment? What on earth is the logic behind that? Am I going to find out that I wasn't really employed there? Seems very very odd to me.

Not only is it odd, I worry that it might cause issue in that it seems pretty inconvenient for NZIS to have to call this employment verification agency to prove that I had this job. Blech!

In my last entry I mentioned the email I had received from someone I had written a thank you note to at a NZ Uni. Well, I have not heard back from the woman at Otago that I wrote hoping she would look at my resumé. No big rush at this point is there?

Life has been throwing me enough curves lately that I am willing to take NZ slow for a bit. Though I have to be careful not to let too much time pass before sending in the completed application as the medical forms expire after a certain amount of time.

It is fun having chest x-rays to look at though. I was trying to find where I broke my collar bone as a high schooler but can't seem to place it.