The joy of waiting
It’s quite a big decision to leave everything behind and live a year on a different continent. You could argue that it’s so big, you can’t really understand its consequences beforehand. I have the feeling that we still don’t know what we’re up against, even if it’s something we have considered for quite some time. And our friends and family will agree the impact isn’t any smaller because of our careful deliberation.
According to our schedule, my wife and I left for Florida two weeks ago. We spent extra time with our friends and family during the holidays, threw a goodbye party, hugged, kissed, exchanged firm handshakes and left instructions for the things we leave behind. So you might expect I am having a hard time describing my current state of mind, noticing I’m still here. Just waiting for our visa, enjoying a good rainy day from what might be the most boring Dutch winter ever. No gathering of district heads, no emergency railroad snow plan and of course Sven Kramer winning. (Yay)
Applying for a visa is like your average boring process, but it gave me an interesting first hand experience with filing U.S.’ paperwork and signing contracts. I always knew legal work is somewhat different, but I was still surprised by some of the statements I explicitly had to agree on. Yes, I understand there is a chance that meeting relatives from home might make me homesick and is therefore discouraged! Really, are you questioning my common sense?
It is all too tempting to make fun of a foreign culture. Even worse, besides the occasional smile, I catch myself being judgemental about it too. But it usually makes sense when you take the time to figure out why we’re doing things differently. The apparent silliness of these contracts points back to the difference between common law and civil law. One is typically used in the UK and most of their former colonies. Civil law on the other hand was introduced by the same dictator that ‘gave’ us metric. Not really your average Land of the Free guy.
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the first snow of the season, still exchanging goodbye gifts and hugs. I’m restlessly wandering around the house and my wife is doing her nails every other day to kill time. They say all good things come to those who wait. Well it has to be something extraordinary once we finally board the plane, right?
