A Whole Lot of Paperwork

A multitude of factors- not least a broken laptop- has resulted in little blogging activity over the past few weeks. Now though, we are back in business.

Following my visit to Berkeley, I made the classic error of burying my head in the sand and pretending that the remainder of my pre-departure admin would fall magically into place without any further involvement on my part. Now being well into June with still no sign of a visa, I have been forced to change my methods, and over the past two weeks have been wrestling with various forms and processes online in order to acquire myself accommodation, a roommate, and a means of legally making it into the country. I’ve since managed to score the bed and the roommate- but still no visa. I’m beginning to consider my other options: I have a friend who skydives. Perhaps I could persuade him to make a low flight across the Atlantic and toss me out over the campus.

It would certainly be a way to make an entrance.

It was one thing to apply for a Ghanaian visa- America is an entirely different ballgame. While completing the online section of the application I found myself faced with questions including ‘Have you ever incited or participated in genocide?’, ‘have you ever been involved child soldiers’ and ‘Have you ever committed, incited or otherwise participated in torture?’

I had to think about that last one: unsure whether subjecting the Glee Club to my choreography workshops counts.

Online paperwork complete, I was then stuck in the mud until my DS-2109 form arrived from Berkeley two weeks ago, providing me with the appropriate serial number to make an appointment with the American Embassy in London. I eventually managed to make this call three days ago, and the appointment is now scheduled for early July. Assuming of course, that I don’t get any papercuts between now and then, and mess up the necessary radioactive fingerprint scan.

Riding on the tenuous theory that I make it into America in one piece, I’m due to move into the International residential halls on the Berkeley campus on the sixteenth of August. 

(http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/) The house is a residential block which houses the majority of exchange and foreign students on campus, and in true USA-style rooms hold two people. International house policy is that you must share a room with someone of a different nationality to you, and to help select a roommate the application process encouraged people to post a short online profile about themselves. While browsing through people I would potentially be sharing a small enclosed space with for eight months, I realised most of the applications followed a very similar vein of ‘I enjoy sports, TV, hanging out with my friends…’ Nice, safe, neutral.

My own profile:

“I sing a lot, know all the moves to Michael Jackson’s Thriller routine, and drink endless cups of tea. Can be grouchy if I don’t get enough sleep at night, particularly with impending deadlines. I study creative writing, so rooming with me will probably result in you being written into a story. It is one of my lifelong ambitions to hail a cab with a wolf-whistle.” 

There were a few painfully silent days when it was apparent that no-one in the new Berkeley International community relished the idea of sharing a bunk bed with a tea-drinking zombie-dancing sociopath. But then, perhaps lured by the promise of genuine British Eccentricity, emails began to trickle in, and I soon found myself chatting to an Australian girl who informed me her lifelong ambition was to take over the world, but that she would settle for learning to ride a unicycle. Roomate acquired- bed 742B awaits me.

With eight weeks to departure, I now have to schedule my classes, obtain a legitimate visa, and start to think about packing.