Waiting, Part II

I did it! I got all of my papers to Korea, AND I completed them correctly.

Unfortunately now, I just have to wait for the director of my school to submit the papers to immigration. Once he does that, I wait for them to send me a visa number. THEN I can go to Seattle and apply for a visa.

There is so much that could still go wrong. I hate having my life in someone else's hands!

In the meantime, the only thing I could do was call the Korean Consulate to confirm which papers I need to bring when I get my visa.

Great, more phone calls.

I found a phone number for the one in Seattle on the internet, and swallowing my phone anxiety, dialed the number.

A robot answered, as expected. Usually I'm slightly relieved when a robot answers, because that means I don't have to talk to a real person right away.

Unfortunately this robot only spoke Korean.

I waited a few minutes (it was probably only 30 seconds) to see if they gave a "For English, press 1" option, but they did not. I hung up in a panic.

Those of you who are familiar with my phone paranoia will not be surprised by the illogical conclusions my panicked mind came to.

I must have called Korea! This wasn't the Korean consulate at all! This was a place only Koreans are supposed to call!

I did another internet search, and confirmed that I was being ridiculous. I had indeed called the correct place for visa information. There is no reason why there would not be someone who spoke English there.

It took me 10 minutes, but I finally gathered enough courage to try again. I promised myself I would not hang up until someone answered, Korean or American.

I called again, and listened to the Korean robot for about 10 hours (probably 2 minutes). Then the robot said, "For English, press 1."

Feeling like a paranoid idiot, I pressed 1.

Someone who spoke English answered the phone, I got my questions answered without incident.

It helped that she didn't have a stupid West Virginia accent.