our superfun trip to the doctor!

It seems like every time we work on our immigration paperwork, we find more things that we have to do. I filled out forms for about an hour last night, making barely a dent in the pile, and discovered towards the end that we'll have to prove that we're in a genuine and stable relationship by providing a certificate of marriage, bank statements, and a notarized statement about our relationship. We keep pushing back our timeline for submitting the applications, but soon we'll run out of time should they be declined. Our new goal is to have at least most of the application in this coming Tuesday, as that leaves us 2 weeks after the month that it takes to process the forms to pack up and buy plane tickets if necessary.

This afternoon we signed away the greater part of a thousand dollars to take care of our medical paperwork, which included a medical exam, urine samples, blood samples, and a chest x-ray (to prove we don't have tuberculosis). We had to fast for 12 hours for the bloodwork to be accurate, but couldn't get an appointment in the morning because of work, and so spent a very long day lusting after everything edible that crossed our path until we left the doctors' office at 4 pm. What a good exercise in self-discipline. The medical evaluation process wasn't actually all that bad - the staff was friendly and incredibly efficient and I barely had time to pick up a magazine in the sunny lobby before being called back to the x-ray room. No matter what happens with our visas, at least at the end we'll have a pretty accurate picture of our current state of health. They're incredibly thorough, as is understandable when approving us for a visa also means approving us for government-funded healthcare.

Today was my last day of work for my landlord, which is more than a little exciting, although for the next two weeks I'll have to get acquainted with the early(ish) morning again as I'll be caching the 8 am bus up to Rangiora for my job with Outaskool. I secretly love commuting on the bus, as it means plenty of reading time, and I'm currently flying (pun totally intended) through C.S. Lewis'  Space Trilogy series. Wish me luck!

-Rachel