American Visa Day.

Well today can only be described as THE most stressful day of my entire life! My day started at 7. This is because the blinds in my room don't quite fully close, and I need to be in pitch black to sleep!! Anyway I set off at 8.20, and headed straight into morning rush-hour on the tube! To even get onto the train I basically had to rugby tackle a women to move further into the carriage. The journey on to Leicester Square was like being in Hell, if Hell is a hot, sweaty and cramped place and in a suit believe me it was Hell. From Leicester Square it was onto South Kensington, This was because the US Embassy will not allow anything electronic into the building and I had a meeting about my gap year after my visa interview. So I underestimated the walk to the RGS. which didn't take 2 minutes, but more like 10, so I was stressing out as I made my way back to the tube to then get to Marble Arch, again I underestimated the distance from the tube and arrived at the embassy. Which with it being 9/11 was surrounded by men with guns, not the little ones you usually see, but big, huge machine gun rifle things!! So I was a little nervous.

Getting into the embassy is weird, You are made to stand outside the huge fence that surrounds the building until exactly your appointment time, which for me was 2 minutes away. Talk about cutting it close! Only one person is allowed to enter at a time, so going through security was fine, belt off, watch off, empty pockets. However you have to put your things back on once into the embassy, which is about a 100m walk, which sounds easy but with belt, watch, wallet and documents all in one hand while the other keeps your trousers up is not dignified!

Once in you have to sit and stare at these big screens waiting for your number to be called. The whole visa process was not what I thought at all! No interrogation rooms, just windows like I was in the post office. First up was a preliminary thing, showing the correct paper work and giving them fingerprints and your passport, no questions, then back to the waiting. Called again, I thought this was the interrogation part, but no, yet another window, fingerprints again and with a few more questions. However after stressing about confirmation letters from my placements, university and others, no proof of what I was saying was needed at all. I could have been making it all up!
Then the inevitable, them wanting more money from me. £14 to get my bloody passport back!! Bringing the total I paid them up £150! But on the plus side, I'm one step closer to America!