And finally, I start my internship!

I entered the US of A under my work-permit visa on September 22nd 2008 and on September 23rd I walked in to my nearest Social Security office (contrary to my employers suggestion that I wait until 1st October) and applied for a Social Security Number (SSN) - the all important number I needed to apply to the California Board of Pharmacy for a full intern license, without which I couldn't start work. It took about a week to get a confirmation letter saying they confirmed that I had applied, and another 2 weeks to actually receive the card containing my number. I then wrote to the Board of Pharmacy informing them of my SSN and about 2 weeks later they wrote back saying they needed an actual copy of the card! I immediately emailed it to them and got an automated email back which said that the board were concentrating on processing pharmacist registrations, and would not be dealing with intern queries until October 20th. I then posted them a hard copy just to be sure, and just after the 20th I sent them another email with the card as a Jpeg attachment. By this time my employer had been in touch with me, and had sent word that there would be a 4-day induction training session held at one of their main offices, from October 27, with overnight accommodation and various gas, food and other expenses provided. By the time of the induction I had still not yet received my intern license, but neither had most of the other H1B interns either. (The others on the course were Americans who hadn't worked for this company before, and were there to learn the companies computer system). The 4-days was a nice opportunity to meet and chat with other H1B's from around the world, and find out how they had got to this point, with this company, at this time. Everyone had similar stories with minor variations, but the surprise to my mind was that most of the other foreigners (though not all) were quite mature (late 30's to late 40's), married, and had children. I had expected most to be single and about 25, but there you go, you learn something new every day After my training (which I would get paid for a few weeks later), I went home and once more emailed, and once more wrote to the Board of Pharmacy. Finally, on November 12th I went online (as I had been taught to do at the training) and could find my name listed on the boards search for interns. I immediately phoned the store I had been allocated to train at, and agreed to start the very next day! So that's about it for this update, and in the next one I will report on how it feels to actually work in a US dispensary. Farmacyst. Now please go down and slightly to the right and click on

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