The past few weeks could be described as a lot of hurry up and wait. My official training here in DC ended last week and I was scheduled to depart for VZ last Tuesday. Well, I'm still here in DC so that obviously didn't happen. After some negotiations with the VZ government, apparently most of those waiting for visas received them last week, except for me. Nevertheless, I had to be prepared if by any chance the visa came through so I held to my departure schedule. Accordingly, last Monday I had the movers come and pack out all of my stuff. I didn't think I had that much, since they were only going to be packing out the stuff I had accumulated since moving here to DC 10 months ago. What I expected to be an hour or so project turned out to take most of the day. What really held everything up was all of the consumables that I purchased to have shipped down, namely glass and liquids, which aren't allowed though the diplomatic pouch. I had several hundred bottles of different sauces and liquids that the packers had to wrap individually and box up. For example, I had probably 30 bottles of spaghetti sauce, each of which they wrapped in about 25 pieces or wrapping paper, which more than doubled the size of each item, resulting in only about 4 bottles fitting in a midsized shipping box. By the time they were done, I had about 100 boxes of mostly bottles that filled up my entire apartment. I almost felt foolish as I watched these guys labor for hours on my BBQ sauce and Tabasco. Undoubtedly though, I will be happy to have it, assuming everything survives the trip to Miami, where it will be loaded into a shipping crate, put on a boat, and sent across the ocean down south. Similarly, my car was picked up later that afternoon. I stripped everything out of that could be stolen, such as the antenna, floor mats, license plate and even the cigarette lighter plug.
Furthermore, last week I took my cat to the vet to get his International Health Certificate. Talk about a nightmare. My cat is usually very docile, but he recognizes vet offices and knows that he hates them. I had to struggle to get him out of his cage, then the vet took his temperature rectally. I've never heard such a howl / screech in my life. By the time the whole thing was over, there was fur all over the room and plenty of blood and scratches to go around. The horror. The horror. Both the cat and myself had to take a nap when we got home.
The next day I had to drive out the Annapolis to have the certificate certified by the USDA. Why there is no USDA office in DC, the head of the Federal Government, is beyond me. Nonetheless, I made the hour drive to the USDA vet office, which was in a strip mall next to a liquor store. Not very impressive. For $35 bucks a vet stamped the paperwork, then it was an hour back home. The good part is, the certificate is good for a month, so if my visa comes soon, I'll be set. If not, I'll have to go through this entire ordeal again, including that rectal thermometer.
Ultimately, I was all packed up and ready to go, but by the time Tuesday rolled around, still no visa. I cancelled my airline tickets, and got a last minute extension to my travel orders, apartment lease, and training. For the next month, if the visa doesn't come, I'll be taking a load of bogus training. The past week I got out into a customer service class. Next week I have a class called Convincing Conversations, which I have no idea what its about. Then, if I'm still here I'm being put into a two week intensive regional studies class covering the entire Western Hemisphere. Also, after a few days without my car, I decided I needed wheels, so I got a three week car rental for $15 bucks a day, which for DC is incredible.
Now for the (possible) good news though. On Friday, I got an email from my future boss in VZ who told me that one of their contacts had informed them that my visa had just been approved, but not yet issued. Ideally what this means is that this coming week the VZs will print the visa and send it to me. The flip side is that even though it has been approved doesn't mean that they will issue it any time soon. Hopefully that's not the case though. I was told to check for my visa on Monday, and if its been received, I hope to be on a plane by the end of the week.
M
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