Are We There Yet?

I have decided that JET (at least this stage of it) is nothing but a long waiting game. A long, excruicating waiting game. Let me illustrate:

-early September to mid November: Wait for the application for the next year to go online.

-December: Wait for notification that your consulate received your application.

-rest of December to early January: Wait to see if your application has been accepted, and granted you an interview.

-early January to late February: Wait for the interview, and soak in your nervous sweat.

-late February to early April: Wait to see if you are accepted. Convince yourself 15 times a day how well/poorly/undecided you did on the interview, usually in a rotating fashion.

-early April: Get accepted!!! Hurray! Then here comes the avalance of paperwork.

-early May: Wait anxiously about whether the consulate has gotten your paperwork. (Darn you Post Office!)

-mid May: Wait anxiously for various government agencies to get your paperwork, and return their own paperwork to you so you can return it to the consulate.

-late May: Wait for placement. This is where I am sitting. The word on the web is the South Africian and Toronto consulate received their placements within the last two days. Chicago's placement list goes up today at 5, so right now I am twiddling my thumbs, trying to pretend I am thinking about something else when the only thing occupying my mind is," Come on clock. Faster! Faster faster!"

Still, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. It'll make applying to grad school in December feel like a breeze. ("Only a two month waiting period? No problem!") And what a relief to finally be nearing the end of it! Or, at least, the end of the waiting period for the placement. Now there's just the actual waiting for Japan.

Well, that, and the whole Visa-application, CO-contacting, predecessor-contacting, box-mailing-fiasco....