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Very exciting business, today; I booked my appointment at the consulate! This appointment constitutes my official visa application. That whole bit where I filled in the visa application online and submitted it? Just a bit of bureaucratic fun. I had to go through all that just so they would tell me the web address, and I’ve had to essentially stalk that web address for the past week, continually refreshing, to see when new appointments were made available. You see, they’re released whenever the consulate gets the whim to do so, so you never know when one will appear on the website. Good thing I don’t start work until tomorrow, huh? Otherwise I might not have the luxury of refreshing every 5 minutes.
What’s even better is that the website, which shows a color-coded calendar of the current month, has been showing that the appointments for this coming Friday (August 31st) were not yet available. This morning I clicked over to September just for fun (since they hadn’t released Friday’s appointment yet, why would there be anything in September?) and saw that Wednesday and Thursday had already filled up. “What madness is this?” thought I.
It seems like the British Consulate in New York is taking a 5-day weekend for Labor Day. Silly me.
Since I discovered this, I’ve been diligently checking the September calendar. And lo! Around 4:58pm I saw that appointments were available for Friday, September 7th. I tried to book one, but my browser wouldn’t let me.
To be fair, the website states that you must use Internet Explorer to book. I don’t have this and hadn’t planned on downloading it, so I inquired around the internet, which never ever misleads information seekers. People told me they had no difficulty booking with either Safari or Firefox, both of which are browsers I use, so I figured myself quite safe. Needless to say, neither worked for me. I had to run into the den to use my mother’s computer, all the while praying Explorer would actually function for once. (It runs rather poorly on Macs.)
Success! I was able to select a date. But wait a moment, what’s my visa application number? I’ve got that in an email from the consulate that they sent to my .mac address. I had to run back into my room to look for it on my computer. OK great. Now what are the last 6 digits of my passport number? Well crap, it’s off to find that now. When I was returning I spotted my mother ascending the stairs towards the den. “Don’t touch the computer!” I yelled. I think I may also have run at the door like a fool, flailing my arms (and the box of visa stuff they were carrying).
In the end, she didn’t touch the computer and I booked the appointment. Now all I have to do is sit through the 5 hour process and hope everything gets approved. My financial information is a shoddy printout from Citibank that looks like I rigged it up in Photoshop (and I am no Photoshop pro), so I am cautiously optimistic, but more cautious than optimistic.
This is pretty much a placeholder entry, so don’t piddle yourself in excitement just yet.
Even though I have very little to say at the moment, still being stuck in Staten Island (yes, we have a landfill. Yes, you can see it from space. No, I cannot smell it from my house.) for another three weeks or so, this might be a good time to introduce myself and this blog.
First, the basics: Kirsten. 23. From New York. Went to the College of William & Mary in Virgina for undergrad, and majored in History and American Studies. Worked for a year. Going to grad school for Museum Studies. OK, go!
Because I’m such an Anglophile (also: Europhile, but tragically monolingual) I’ll be going to the UK to earn my MA. Actually, I’m going because the University of Leicester has such a renown Museum Studies program. And because I’m an Anglophile. And because a one-year program is a better option for me financially, even after getting brutalized by the exchange rate.
I’ve had plans to go for a while. Still, I didn’t start soliciting references until about March. And then I didn’t apply until May. And I’ve just filed my financial aid and visa paperwork in the past week. And I sent off my housing form today. Hence the “flying by the seat of my pants”-ness of it all.
I have never started so many sentences with “and” in my entire life.
This blog is going to be my attempt to document my year abroad narratively. I’m not very good at narrative entries, so it will be something of a writing exercise as well. Mostly it’s for people from home to keep track of what I’m doing so I don’t have to clog people’s inboxes with updates.
