visa

Update and Snow

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Photo for visaA brief update: Waiting is hard. I’ll have to wait a bit longer to leave than was first anticipated. Today I used my photography skills to set up a mini-studio in my parents’ home to take a photo of myself for the visa. It was specified that said photo needed to be 4cmx6cm and have a red background. So I set up tripod and camera, then crafted my background next to a lamp and ran back and forth using the self timer. I suspect not many people would have as much fun taking a self-portrait like that.

Now, to the snow. The state of Washington has been hit with a winter storm, bringing snow across the state. Earlier today I frolicked in the white powdery landscape, knowing a month from now I’ll be daily experiencing much warmer temperatures, trading the winter season for the wet season.

Below is a video I made at the end of December. Although with the most recent winter storm, the mountain pass has a lot more snow, I post this to show the beauty of the mountains in Washington state…and the snow. In the future, I hope to post more videos, as time and bandwidth from Indonesia allow.

Of Visas and Paperwork

travel

My old visa from when I studied in Germany.

Let the paperwork begin! This post is a quick update about my progress to Indonesia. I am now in the midst of completing the necessary paperwork for the ELCA as well as assembling some initial documents to send off for the visa.

For the visa, what I need at this time is diplomas and my TESL certificate. Then, I shall wait to hear what other stack of documents I’ll need to produce.

The photo is the student visa from the year I studied in Tuebingen, Germany. That visa is in a well-loved and well-used passport that expired earlier this year. Yes, I have a close relationship with all of my passports lined with the varied stamps and visas I have acquired in my travels throughout my lifetime. Like a photo album, each stamp has a story or multiple stories.

I am eagerly awaiting the stories yet to come from Indonesia and the other travel I may make in SE Asia while I live there. My renewed passport has empty pages and a stiff newness that needs to be broken in, stamped, and a fresh visa to cover the ueber-patriotic background.

Stay tuned.