GOING TO INDIA!

Hooray Hooray the visa has been obtained!!!
Now finally I can relax and know I will be able to get on the plane of Friday! The issue with the paperwork turned out to be very easy to resolve. Apparently the letter which I brought in was not the right one- there was a second letter which was from the actual University itself (not just CIEE) that I didn't realize existed. I hadn't opened the envelope when it originally arrived so I didn't even think that there would be more than one thing in it, since the one letter seemed to have all the necessary information in it.

A simple trip to Staples to fax over the letter took care of the problem and I was all set to pick up the passport with the usual crowd at 5:30 again. This time I knew the drill so I didn't bother rushing to get there super early to stand out in the cold. When I arrived, the line was down the street, away from the restaurant. When we were allowed inside at 5:30 I was expecting the same announcement about another 10 minutes to sort passports, but this time we were told that the couriers from the consulate were running late, so it would take 10 minutes for them to arrive and then another 10 or so to sort the passports. Of course they would be running late when I was trying to get a bus home at a reasonable time!

Standing on that line was about as stressful as finals week, but all compacted into about 20 minutes. As I stood there, I just kept repeating in my head, ' please let it be there, please let it be there'. Not that I couldn't have gotten it a day later, but it would have delayed our Christmas plans and not been very fun to go back again.

As I stepped up to hand Mr. Enforcer my receipt, Ingrid (the lady who had helped me out on Friday) said that she had just seen my file. Mr. Enforcer said I could move ahead to the pick-up window and as he handed back my receipt said ‘Merry Christmas’ with a slight smile. Although my inner Jew wanted to say, ‘And Happy Hanukkah’ , I was far too overwhelmed with relief to do anything but grin my thanks ( besides, at this point I didn’t want to take the chance that sarcasm would keep me from getting my visa when it was just inches away from me).

After that it was smooth sailing. I turned in my receipt, was handed my passport with visa sticker and went on my merry way! Next stop, Hyderabad!!!!