Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Harvest Moon<\/p>\n
Oh.\u00a0 Visas.\u00a0 I think I shall never see a visa lovely as a tree.\u00a0 Or something like that.\u00a0 Anyhow, the Saudi visa saga took an unexpected and unpleasant turn this morning.\u00a0 Turns out there are two steps to the process for teachers, certification of the degree and qualifications, then, the visa process itself.\u00a0 This introduces more days, perhaps as much as a week more.<\/p>\n
We’ll find out tomorrow how the school takes this news.\u00a0 I’m not sure why the school didn’t alert us to this fix since the Saudi visa process is the same the world over, but they provided no help at all.\u00a0 In fact, we’re still down one vital piece of paper, something from the Saudi Foreign Ministry inviting Mark to Saudi, a piece of paper the school was responsible to produce.<\/p>\n
Dispiriting.\u00a0 Mark and I had a heated conversation about the appropriateness of my way of addressing the school’s administrator in an e-mail.\u00a0 Mark felt my wording was rude, boorish.\u00a0 American.\u00a0 To my ear the e-mail had nothing unpleasant or confrontational in it at all.\u00a0 Mark says I don’t understand and he can’t explain it to me.<\/p>\n
Well, maybe.\u00a0 He and Mary both have a keen sensitivity to Asian cultures and their ways are not our ways.\u00a0 I’ve only visited and studied Asia, not immersed myself in it as they have over the last 20+ years.\u00a0 Of course, their knowledge is better than mine.<\/p>\n
Even so, I believe Saudi culture different from Southeast Asian and enough so that whatever slight Mark felt I might have delivered will not be felt there.\u00a0 We’ll see tomorrow.<\/p>\n
He certainly has a broader and more direct experience of world cultures than I do.\u00a0 If he turns out more right, I’ll have learned yet another lesson from life.\u00a0 If I turn out more right, he will have learned one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Harvest Moon Oh.\u00a0 Visas.\u00a0 I think I shall never see a visa lovely as a tree.\u00a0 Or something like that.\u00a0 Anyhow, the Saudi visa saga took an unexpected and unpleasant turn this morning.\u00a0 Turns out there are two steps to the process for teachers, certification of the degree and qualifications, then, the visa … Continue reading Visa, Visa. Where Art Thou?<\/span>