Now that my morning job is finished, I have more time. It also means I have no excuses not to get things done that I've neglected for months now. So last Friday I got to it. For my teaching permit, I needed a letter from a doctor saying I was healthy. I called a few places but none of my usual places had openings for weeks. So I decided to try my luck in our town - we've only gone to a doctor in our town once or twice maybe.
The first place I walked into was packed with people. The receptionist said I could wait or come back in the afternoon (and probably wait just as long). I opted to try another place. The second place I went to recently moved. When I walked up to the main door, I could see inside there was nobody inside. The doctor was actually outside chatting on his phone. When he came in and found out I needed a health letter, he asked fro my ID and who to make the letter out to. In chatting, I found out he was a friend of one of my teacher's husbands - I think, and he knew who I was. 10 minutes later I had the letter I needed - without a question about my health, cough cough. This is how things are done here. Some people get formalities and others make a big deal over things.
Monday was my day to submit the teacher permits. I drove up, delivered all the forms and the guy said thanks, it'll take about 2 weeks. I chatted with the head of private schools for a bit, and during the chat, someone else came back in and said the applications needed to be processed at the national office, not the state office. To add to that, the lady I was chatting with seemed less than positive about getting the approval because my type of school is not under them. She told me it would have been easier if I had gotten a permission letter while I was working with the government, but I had tried and tried and to no avail. The man I asked drug his feet and in the end didn't help me (probably because he was scared he would get in trouble for granting permission, something very common here - fear of getting in trouble).
On the way home I thought, why not try the university. If all she needs is a simple letter, even though I consider the language center my full time job and the university a part time job (thus, why ask the part time job to grant permission to work the full time job), maybe that would suffice. I asked the state education office lady and she seemed to think that would be ok. I asked my boss at the university and less than 24 hours later I have the letter I tried for months to get from my previous job. Funny how things work.
Also, with the stairs done, the fire department came, had a quick look out the back window (didn't walk down the stairs or really look at them) and said it was all ok. He said he'd try to get the approval letter this week or next.
I'm also waiting on the health department letter, which the guy said he'd send today - still waiting.
So this is how things work here - wait for 100 approvals and procedures. Oh, and also the DMV changed their policy and must add USA after all licenses, so I should have known that and brought my passport when renewing the license. So I got to make a second trip there to settle that, but that's done.
Never a boring day, unless you don't like paperwork.
