I figure now would be a good time to do that post I wanted to about what exactly I needed to get done before I started this little trip. This may or may not interest you, but I got to say, I wish someone would have given me a list the second I thought about doing this. I might have changed my mind!! There’s SO much to get done! Fortunately for me , I have been planning this for over a year and a half, so I’ve had plenty of time to get things done. And thankful as I ever am for the ‘last-minute’, I got everything done!!
- Passport
Seems like a no-brainer, but hey, you gotta do it!
- Visa
I chuckled a bit to myself when I told some people about this visa thing and they thought it was a credit card. I feel justified in laughing at them because I thought the same thing when I first started wanting to travel (some time in grade 11). I thought it was perfectly reasonable to need a credit card to travel to some countries, not everyone uses the same currency!! Now I know better!
Interesting thing about getting the visa (which I got no less than 10 months ago!) You have to go to a designated location to get your visa processed. I figured that I could go get it done in Winnipeg, where I had to go for my passport. WRONG! You have the option of St. John’s, Ottawa (possibly Toronto too, I don’t remember), Edmonton or Vancouver. Seriously, that’s it. Do they not realize that I live 1860km from Ottawa and 1663km from Edmonton? It’s not exactly a day trip! Ah well, I got it done.
**ALSO** Did you know you need to have money to get a Visa? I mean $$MONEY$$ Somewhere around $2600 as far as I recall. Not really much when you start tapping into it to pay for Travel Insurance, power adapters... But I don’t think that’s what it’s for.
- Health Check
I assume that if you were to go work internationally without the aid of a company like Scotia Personnel, you might not need to get the letter from your doctor saying you’re “To the best of my knowledge, in good health”... But I would also assume that a person hiring you, sight-unseen would want this piece of mind. I got mine ages ago. Lets hope I haven’t gotten cancer in the last 9 months!!
- Criminal Record Check
Same applies to the criminal record check as the health check, not everyone will necessarily necessarily want this, but they might! No murders or parking tickets on mine! :)
- Travel Insurance.
This wasn’t “required” to have to leave the country but, like I’ve been saying “If I don’t get it, knowing my luck, I’ll end up falling in front of a train as soon as I get off the plane.”
Better safe than sorry!!
Make sure you put a bit of money aside for this, it can be pricy!!(I mean a whole paycheck for me this summer)!! (But trust me, your health is worth it!!)
Big thanks to Debbie Lang (http://www.debbielang.com/) for helping me out with this!! True to form, I left one of the most important things to the end (insurance) and Debbie helped me figure it out the day before my flight and in about one hour too!!! Can you say LIFE SAVER?!
- A sense of adventure and some super supportive friends and family!!
Yeah... sounds cheesy, but seriously, I don’t think I could be doing this if it weren’t for my family and friends. Everyone is really supportive and it helps! It’s kinda daunting thinking about a whole year (and a half?) without the comforts of home!
- A camera!!
Ok... now we’re branching out from what you NEED to what you SHOULD have! I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of photos I’m going to be putting up here!! Going to be good!
Well I think that about sums up what I’ve had to do for the trip. I left out things like “Plane Ticket” Because unless you have feathers, I think that’s implied.
If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve already started the trip. From now on I’ll be posting about the trip on here along with some ‘select’ photos. For the full spectrum of photos, refer to my facebook page where I’ll be putting up all the goods (and even some of the bads!)!!!!
Cheers!
-Shelly
YAY =) Glad you got everything figured out - i did all of those things in 5 weeks time, so im glad you had 9months ish! its a lot less daunting! Cant wait to see ya here =)
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