Saturday, January 2, 2010

Disney: Friend or Foe? The countown begins.


Disney is growing ever closer. Looming is actually probably a better word. Glooming. I am getting the previously expected 'fuck-shitting-myself' feeling that I suspected would rear it's ugly head this close to leaving.

It is 11 sleeps now until I board a plane, and 22 sleeps until I get to Disney. From here on in this blog will move from informative to more, updating the friends and fam, but I will still do this post, and probably one more on packing, before I switch modes.

Visa interview. Holyshitballs. This was actually a ridiculous ordeal, simply because I booked a flight to Canada that transited through helL.A.

The first one was a breeze, but because I wanted to enter then leave the States in the 30 day allowance you get prior to the Visa starting, I had to get a whole new one just to sit in LAX for four hours. Very annoying, very costly, very time consuming, but I now have a passport that happily sports two visas with some very sexy looking mug-shot style photos in it. Yippee.

The actual 'interview' takes about 3 minutes, but the whole process takes around 2 hours. There is LOTS of waiting and you can't take in your phone, or even a book, to entertain yourself. Your documents and yourself only. Luckily in my second go I met some other Disney bound people so I had someone to talk to.

The consulate is very intimidating, but if you enjoy getting patted down by someone of the same sex (and hey, I'm not judging, whatever floats your boat), this is your place. The security is actually probably more hardcore than any airport I've encountered, and the inside is like what I imagine the interior of the White House to be like, flags, massive photos of American landmarks and pictures of Obama and all the past presidents. You also get treated to a video of stereotypical American people (think: cowboys) welcoming you to America, which is weird, since you are actually still in Australia, but a nice sentiment non the less. There is also a lot of babies in that video... a lot, it actually made me think USA may be 80% babies.

Once it was all done it only took around 3 business days to get my passport back, so thankfully the whole process is very quick, just very pricey.

Right now I'm getting around to seeing all my friends for the last time, and making my packing list. Once I get more organised I'll try really hard to do a packing update with some pictures and my epic list of what I'm taking. Unfortunately the list is huge despite my best efforts to be brutal and pack light, so wish me luck!

Until next time, have a magical day!

Until then, entertain yourself with this lovely blog: http://fuckyeahfacecharacters.tumblr.com/

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