On moving solo through the world (hint: we don't)
Dear Void,
[Last Friday]
I’M BUSY. Too busy to write to you, Void.
I’ve been orienting myself for travel in mid-May. First, I have to arrange for passports. The kid is coming with me. My passport expired nearly 20 years ago! And so, if you are a post graduate (PG) student or a higher degree by research (HDR) student, I highly recommend gathering your passport together now, just in case you decide that life is too short to have such a fear of flying that you think you won’t want to present at a conference that is about the very things you’re researching, because you will. You will want to attend in person because you know that everybody else there is interested in that topic. And it will feed your mind and your soul and your research. Well, that’s what I’m hoping/planning for in May, in Coventry. I’m trying to keep a cool head as I plan the paperwork, the itinerary, the accommodation. This is exactly when a wife would come in handy!
As for organising your passport earlier rather than later, it will save you hundreds of dollars! The difference is huge: $308 for a slow, take-your-time-Dept-of-Moving-Around-I’m-in-no-hurry passport OR $533 for a quick-I-didn’t-expect-I’d-be-going-but-now-I-am-and-I-can’t-wait-6-weeks passport. Same passport but one you can put the application in before 11:30am on a Monday and have it ready to be picked up by …WEDNESDAY!!!! Maybe they should split the difference, charge a bit more and a bit less, and have the turn-around 3 weeks not 2 days or 6 weeks?
[Monday]
PS. to the passport info: skip the cheaper photo place across the way from the post office bc inevitably their product will not match official requirements for the pic. The post office will take a very unglamorous* (scarily so) official passport photo for $20 and you’ll save wasting $17.50 on a photo that meets nobody’s criteria.
*there are NO glamorous passport photos anymore. They want to see your resting face, all your blemishes and your ears.
* * * *
Soundtrack for today is BBC 6 Music: The Cat Power Playlist
* * * *
[Tuesday]
Wow! That was fast!! I just received notification that my passport is ready to pick up. It took ONE DAY. That's what an extra $225 on top of the standard fee of $308 will get you.
* * * *
[Today]
Next: to get my kid’s passport. An easy endeavour it is not. A good friend has offered to endorse the passport application, verify the photo as being a likeness of the kid and act as contact. For those who, like me, move through the world sideways hoping to not make any waves (well, not huge ones anyway) please know that when someone acts as your emergency contact that means in the event of some misfortune, they will be the first port of call. Yes. I can hear you, Void, saying, well of course that’s what they mean by emergency contact. But I’m talking now to those people who sail solo through the world. When you travel you are not travelling solo. I welled up yesterday at the thought of the amount of pressure that puts on your contact back home. I had some naïve image of our consulate, in whatever country I was in, being fully aware of my presence like a good guardian angel and jumping to sort out whatever ‘misfortune’ had occurred (maybe look after my kid, maybe get them back safely). Stop shouting at me! Yes, as I said: naïve! Then my friend and I had some serious words about wills and insurance (which I was going to do closer to the time, but my friend advised to get the insurance before booking anything). As far as I can see that will cost in the region of $350-$400. DO NOT SKIP THIS!
So, Void, here’s my advice to you were you to find yourself accepted to present at a conference in another country and you had 8 weeks to get yourself sorted to walk into that room ready to connect and talk with your fellow presenters and participants in that way that you imagine without having really given thought to what might be involved administratively to get you there:
1. Get your passport application in now. If you don’t have to apply for the speedy turn around you’ll save hundreds!! And I mean: $308 not $533 (adult) and $155 not $380 (child).
2. Now this is big (to my mind): on the application you’ll be asked for a contact. This isn’t for the passport (like, if it got lost this person will vouch for you. O, no!), this is for if you DIE or get injured or can’t be contacted for any reason while you’re overseas, this person will be the first port of call. So, not only do you need their details (which is already a big ask) they need yours because if they get *that* call, they are going to be the one cleaning up, dealing with the aftermath. This is big news for solo journey-makers who move through life sideways. In the end there will be someone who has been good enough to say: I got you. And that, Void, is bloody humbling.
3. Right about now I should tell you that I’m a solo mother, and if you are one too, then when you get to the post office to hand in the application for your kid’s passport, a couple of things to know:
Your kid needs to be there with you as you hand the application in. Even though your friend has endorsed the photo of the kid and acted as guarantor (same friend as the contact? Yes. Thank you to that friend). So, kid in tow (after school) and you have to sign another document to explain yourself and why the hell you’re on your own, you selfish mother--
Have I done any deep reading lately? No, I have not. It’s been passports, passports, passports. For days. (See pic above for what I would like to be reading deeply and what has been getting in the way). Again I say to all post grad students: please see item 1. above for what you should be doing right now, this week or next week (hint: it’s organise your passport).
* * * *
Right now I’m off to visit Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s commonplace book in the Rare Books Section of the Fisher Library. Pictures and responses to come, Void.
Jx
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