In Cambridge, longer than intended
I seem to only write these when things aren't going so well.
I returned to Cambridge yesterday from mathcamp, with all of the sadness entailed by the scattering of friends and the end of five/six weeks of awesomeness. Upon my arrival, I discovered that my passport and visa to enter Ghana, which I had expected to have arrived that day, had not arrived. I checked the tracking number online and found that FedEx had no record of such a tracking number, nor of any package being mailed to my address. I called: same story. I am not happy.
I sent off the application at the end of June. After not hearing anything (or receiving anything in the mail) for a month, I contacted the embassy sometime around the end of July. They said that they did not have a return envelope. I had included a certified mail envelope from USPS, but not a tracked package from FedEx, UPS or DHL. So I sent them an envelope and money order to pay for postage. Then this Monday morning I receive a call from them saying that they have not received the processing fee. I sent them a bank check with my original application for $50, but I didn't have a way to check to see if that had been cashed since I was in Maine and didn't have time to do so. So I sent them a new money order for $80 (the rushed processing fee) via overnight FedEx. They told me to call the next day and give them the tracking number of the package so that they can send it overnight and have it arrive on Wednesday. I spent the next day calling every half hour: Abigail (the person I talked to on Monday) is not at her desk all day, her voicemail is full, and nobody else on staff can do anything to help. Finally, she called me back at 4pm, saying that everything is fine and they are sending out the visa at that point. She gives me a tracking number.
This morning I called to the bank to see if the original check to them had been cashed (it had not), then the embassy to see what their story was. They said that I should check the tracking number again. Sure enough, the package existed, and was then on a FedEx delivery vehicle for delivery by 3pm. My flight is scheduled from New York JFK for departure at 4:45 pm. So I enter a flurry of packing (I had not packed the night before because I was exhausted and didn't think there was any chance of getting the visa in time to leave), trying to figure out how to get to New York in time for my flight, letting people know that I will actually have my visa. But it turns out that I can't get to New York in time: the last bus with a chance left South Station at 11:00, arriving at Port Authority at 3:30 with a 45 minute cab ride to JFK (it was then 10:00 and I hadn't started packing, returned the mathcamp rental car, gotten money...). The Delta flight from Boston to New York at 1:10 was sold out, and the Jet Blue flight at 2:50 doesn't arrive until 4:05 (while I'm inquiring to this option, I receive an automated call from Delta telling me the scheduled departure time has been moved up to 4:30), which leaved no time for checked baggage transfer.
I'm currently waiting until a west coast office opens so that I can change my flight to Saturday. With all of the additional costs that entails on top of the thousands of dollars I've already spent on this trip. It would make me want to punch a hole in the wall, but I'm already emotionally numb from the past few days. Besides, I already tripped and crushed my toenail this morning, and I own the house now and don't really want to deal with a hole in the wall.
I returned to Cambridge yesterday from mathcamp, with all of the sadness entailed by the scattering of friends and the end of five/six weeks of awesomeness. Upon my arrival, I discovered that my passport and visa to enter Ghana, which I had expected to have arrived that day, had not arrived. I checked the tracking number online and found that FedEx had no record of such a tracking number, nor of any package being mailed to my address. I called: same story. I am not happy.
I sent off the application at the end of June. After not hearing anything (or receiving anything in the mail) for a month, I contacted the embassy sometime around the end of July. They said that they did not have a return envelope. I had included a certified mail envelope from USPS, but not a tracked package from FedEx, UPS or DHL. So I sent them an envelope and money order to pay for postage. Then this Monday morning I receive a call from them saying that they have not received the processing fee. I sent them a bank check with my original application for $50, but I didn't have a way to check to see if that had been cashed since I was in Maine and didn't have time to do so. So I sent them a new money order for $80 (the rushed processing fee) via overnight FedEx. They told me to call the next day and give them the tracking number of the package so that they can send it overnight and have it arrive on Wednesday. I spent the next day calling every half hour: Abigail (the person I talked to on Monday) is not at her desk all day, her voicemail is full, and nobody else on staff can do anything to help. Finally, she called me back at 4pm, saying that everything is fine and they are sending out the visa at that point. She gives me a tracking number.
This morning I called to the bank to see if the original check to them had been cashed (it had not), then the embassy to see what their story was. They said that I should check the tracking number again. Sure enough, the package existed, and was then on a FedEx delivery vehicle for delivery by 3pm. My flight is scheduled from New York JFK for departure at 4:45 pm. So I enter a flurry of packing (I had not packed the night before because I was exhausted and didn't think there was any chance of getting the visa in time to leave), trying to figure out how to get to New York in time for my flight, letting people know that I will actually have my visa. But it turns out that I can't get to New York in time: the last bus with a chance left South Station at 11:00, arriving at Port Authority at 3:30 with a 45 minute cab ride to JFK (it was then 10:00 and I hadn't started packing, returned the mathcamp rental car, gotten money...). The Delta flight from Boston to New York at 1:10 was sold out, and the Jet Blue flight at 2:50 doesn't arrive until 4:05 (while I'm inquiring to this option, I receive an automated call from Delta telling me the scheduled departure time has been moved up to 4:30), which leaved no time for checked baggage transfer.
I'm currently waiting until a west coast office opens so that I can change my flight to Saturday. With all of the additional costs that entails on top of the thousands of dollars I've already spent on this trip. It would make me want to punch a hole in the wall, but I'm already emotionally numb from the past few days. Besides, I already tripped and crushed my toenail this morning, and I own the house now and don't really want to deal with a hole in the wall.