Two weeks notice

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I got my e-ticket and work visa on Aug. 4!!!!!!
Well, actually what I thought was my e-ticket and someone else's work visa.

We got an e-mail from Footprints on July 30 detailing information about upcoming e-tickets/visas and departure dates. The e-mail stated that Footprints EMT's (English Medium Teachers) should be on the lookout for an e-mail from Abu Dhabi travel agency Nirvana NTravel the week of Aug. 11. We were advised that the e-mail might be sent to our junk mail folders, so to keep a close eye. Departure dates on said coming e-tickets were going to be Aug. 20-24 and we were told "to be prepared to leave any time during those dates."

So started the incessant e-mail checking by myself and every member of my EMT Facebook group. Posts were only about how many times someone was checking and questions of if anyone from other agencies were receiving their tickets! It was all anyone could think about.

But not me. I knew I had some time before I was suppose to get mine, so I reveled in the slice of time I could enjoy before becoming paranoid and crazy.

That didn't last long though, as Sunday, Aug. 4, I was at my friend's apartment with my laptop watching Sex in the City 2 (appropriately enough), when I saw an e-mail notification pop up on my screen. From Nirvana NTravel.

WHAT?!

No, seriously. WHAAAAATTTTT?!????!?!

I stopped breathing. And I must have been making some sort of noise because my friend said, "What? Kait? What is going on?!"

I start clicking through the e-mail, my name was on the e-ticket, departing Aug. 19 out of Phoenix (connecting to Chicago and then allllll the way to Abu Dhabi), but there was a TeachAway (a different recruiting company) attachment, two TeachAway reps that the e-mail had been forwarded to, and an attached entry/work visa for a woman (not me) from New York.

My emotions, that had been soaring, plummeted. Was this e-ticket even mine??? Ugh. Rollercoaster ride #526.

I e-mailed Nirvana and Footprints immediately and all was sorted out by the next morning when I woke to the same e-ticket and the correct visa.

Boom.

So excited. And so scared! After confirming information was correct with Nirvana, I received another e-mail saying my reservations had been confirmed. I was booked.

Holy cow. Felt like I was practicing that breathing they teach pregnant women to do during labor.

I spent the whole day walking around in a fog. A mostly good fog, but felt off-balance all day.

Al-Qaida threats toward US/Western influences are closing down US Embassies and Consulates in the middle east. Am I being naïve??

Walking a thin line between not wanting to let fear paralyze me and wanting to be well-informed and smart.

More to come...