Frustrated

File this under "Venting"

This is getting really really frustrating. I've been so psyched about my Europe trip the last 3 months. Unfortunately, it seems like I misjudged the craziness also known as "visa applications". (These are the times I regret (not really) the fact that my parents decided to return to India from the US when I was a kid. If they'd stayed, I would've been a citizen by now and would be laughing in the face of all those annoying consulate officials!). So I was already dealing with the Schengen visa for Europe. Was gonna take a day off on Friday and drive down to a city far far away to get my visa stamped. I would then mail my passport to NY to get my British visa stamped and that would be the end of it. Ha. Or so I thought.

So first I wake up at 5 in the morning on Friday and start driving to make it in time to the promised land of the French consulate. An hour into the drive it strikes me that those lazy French might have decided to take "Easter Friday" (yes, there is such a thing) off so I call a friend to ask her to make sure they're earning their daily bread on that day. After cursing me for 10 minutes and ruing the day she met me, she finally tells me that the consulate was indeed closed. And was it just me or did I sense that she took some joy in telling me that....

So anyway, being the glass half full kinda guy that I am, I took it in stride with the attitude that at least I didn't drive the whole 5 plus hours before finding out. I came back, got breakfast and decided to set up my visa (to return to the US) appointment in India (I need to get my visa renewed) so that way the morning would not be a complete waste. So after filling out 3 forms over an hour, I find out that there are no dates available till September...say what?!?!... As Douglas Adams would say "Don't Panic". I recalled looking at something about "emergency dates". So I browse back to that page. I'm sure I'll be fine. So the "emergency dates" are available on the exact same days as the regular dates! WTF!

Okay, no worries. I'm an enterprising guy. I'm going to B school this year. I'm going to be a future leader yada yada. I can figure this out. So here's the plan. I'll drive down to get my Schengen visa on Tuesday. It gets mailed back to me the same week. I'll fly to NY and get a Canadian visa stamped sometime next week. The next day I'll swing by the British embassy/consulate (what's the difference? I could look it up but I'm too lazy) and get my visa to England. Then I'll be off to Canada, get my US visa stamped and be all set! Of course there's the minor problem of spending all that moolah and using all that PTO, but what you gonna do?

Of course it didn't quite work out that way. There are no dates available in Canada for AT LEAST the next 3 weeks. Hmm. Okay, maybe I should go the Bahamas to get it stamped....I'm exhausted.

Of course in the meanwhile I'm supposed to confirm my reservation with my travel agent by tomorrow which I can't do since if I can't go, I'll have to pay 500 bucks cancellation fees. Of course I've already spent money in getting tickets from London to Paris since I need to show those to get the Schengen visa so there goes that money. My friend (my ex girlfriend actually) who was gonna join me in Amsterdam backed out since she didn't want to get tickets till I was sure and now they're going to be too expensive.

There are a bunch of other issues but never mind, I think I'm just gonna go sit on my couch and watch tv. Seems more and more likely that I'm going to be doing a lot of that all summer.