Today I went to the US Embassy to get my visa for the conference. I took the 9:00 am train to London via Leicester. When I arrived at Leicester train station, my 9:30 am train was delayed due to no available driver. So the delay took 20 minutes to get sorted out. Finally arrived in London at 10:50 am and went straight to meet Hafiz at Marble Arch tube station. He went ahead to look for the embassy as it was located somewhere far from the high street. Arrived there, took a number (wondered why is an appointment needed if you still have to wait for your number to be called), and twiddling my thumbs for 20 minutes for handing in my application form. Then after more thumb twiddling (4 1/2 hours to be exactly) they call me up and said "Because you are a foreign student, your application will take longer to process" and handed me back my passport. That's it? Waited that long and they explained to me in less then 2 minutes!! Hafiz and I missed our 2:55 pm train back (buying a new train ticket on the spot costs more then £50) and have to spend the night at Hafiz's place with only the clothes on my back. That night we went to Nando's Whitechapel (serves halal chicken, not many in UK, there's one in Leicester) for dinner. We both had 1/2 chicken to replace our missed lunch. So the next day, we boarded the 10:00 am train back to Loughborough. What a day....
Nando's chicken Yum yum..Update:
After going through all of this trouble, the conference date had passed and the US embassy people sent me an e-mail asking for a new date when will I am going back to the US. Hmmm...
After going through all of this trouble, the conference date had passed and the US embassy people sent me an e-mail asking for a new date when will I am going back to the US. Hmmm...
