Well, this was suppposed to be my last installment about my trip, and my first installment after I got back to the UK. Alas, I'm still in Boston. Stuck in America. No UK student visa. No passport. No timeline of when said passport containing a student visa will arrive. And man, oh man, I'm not happy about it. More on that later.
So, where was I? I finished my last email at my departure from New Zealand. I was really sad to go - it had been such a wonderful 6 weeks. I saw some of the most heart-breakingly beautiful scenery of my life, met some truly great people, and found that I'm a little stronger and a little braver than I thought I was when I arrived. And so it's natural that I was sad to leave, though probably for the best, I guess. I mean, my bank account was pretty heavily bruised by then.
Beyond that, I think I've adequately fed my newfound need for adrenaline and new experiences. I'm sure I would have found something new and stupid to do if I'd stayed longer, and I think it's best to leave on a high note, like my second skydive on my last full day in NZ. I mean, I double/triple-flipped out of the plane, went into a flat spin during the freefall, and was arcing so much during the parachute ride that my body was nearly parallel to the ground. Surely, THAT'S enough! So it's okay that I had to leave NZ the next day.
After a tearful goodbye to Seet and Pete, the last two left of our 'gang', I hopped a very early flight to Nadi, Fiji. I'd gotten a good tip from Pete, who is going around the world in the opposite direction, about where to stay on Fiji, so I'd sorted out my lodging before I arrived. It's a funny thing, round the world travel. There are TONS of people doing it, going in both directions. The majority of people I've met are going east, in the same direction I'm going, but I've met some doing it the other way. Those people have been great resources for me, as they've often been where I'm headed. And it's backpacker tradition to pass along information to other people who might benefit from it. Karma and all that, y'know.
Anyway, I arrived in Fiji around 9:30, got to the travel agent's office, sorted my travel out, and was on the noon ferry to Malolo Island - not bad, eh?! I went to a cute little place called Walu Beach. The hostel thing doesn't happen so much in Fiji, but the resorts cater to backpackers as well as more luxury-minded travellers. Walu Beach, not surprisingly, was a bit of a backpacker place, but a bit more mellow than some of the real party destinations (no toga parties or limbo competitions). After the craziness of my trip, I wanted to lie in a deck chair and order blue drinks and read mindless fiction. Walu Beach was perfect for that.
I won't run you through a day-by-day of this - although it was blissful for me, you might find it a bit boring. :) I met a few terrific people there as well, skinny-dipped in the ocean with a gaggle of other people (briefly, though, as there are horrid little crabs that come out swimming and night and latch on to your skin - especially risky in the buff!), swam with the fishes, drank several blue drinks, and read some mindless fiction. Along the way, I met an American sailor, Joe, who's been running charters around the South Pacific for about 15 years. He, a Kiwi named Mike, and I spent a day on his boat - we ran over to Smuggler's Cove, on the next island over, met a few locals, and drank away the afternoon on dark Fijian rum, which is REALLY scary stuff.
Most of these resorts have entertainment programs to occupy tired beach-goers. Walu is amusingly low-key. Evening fun included frog races, hermit crab races, pictionary, and, of course, a night of cava drinking. For those of you who don't know, cava is a drink made from root crop (dunno what that is, assort roots of some sort I suspect). The root is ground into a flour, then put in cheesecloth and seeped in water. What you get is this tan colored cloudy liquid that you drink using specific rituals (clapping, the things you say, the order in which you drink, etc). Fijians drink it to get drunk. I dunno - I got numb lips, a numb tongue, and tingling fingers, but the amount of it you'd have to drink to get tipsy would be rough. It's like drinking tree bark, and the woody heaviness of it (and the sheer volume of water) would have made me really sick to my stomach before anything fun might have happened. So I sat and drank cava for about 45 minutes, then called it a night. Other days were filled with coconut husking lessons (and coconut tree climbing), snorkeling or kayaking in the bay, table tennis tournaments, and a particularly nasty game of water basketball (put 12 women and a basketball in the pool, and see how competitive we get - scary).
The only downside about Fiji was that I didn't get a chance to dive, and it's my own stupid fault. I've embraced the backpacker mentality wholeheartedly, and can't really tell you at any given moment what time, date, or day of the week it is (I haven't worn a watch since October). I had miscounted the number of days I spent at Walu Beach, and didn't figure it out until a few days before I was due to leave. A large group of Aussie med students were at the resort at the time, and we'd organized a group of people to go diving on a Wednesday. I was sure I was leaving on Thursday, but had my dates wrong, and was actually flying out late Wednesday evening. Although I was phyiscally capable of diving, you shouldn't dive and fly on the same day due to the excess nitrogen in the body from diving. Although I probably would have been okay, it wasn't worth the risk. Oh well. And it sounded like it was pretty good diving. The worst thing that happened, I guess, was that I had to lie by the pool for another morning ... ahh, the sacrifice.
After six nights on Fiji, I headed to the US for the last leg of my trip. My overnight flight to the US was uneventful, though my flight was delayed, and I was stuck in LAX for a few hours. My father's family lives in Napa Valley, north of San Francisco, and I spent five days with them. It was great and relaxing to see them. And luxurious - a room of my own with an ensuite bathroom! It's actually sort of refreshing to be so excited about a room of my own. Travelling has been a fun way to discover how little I actually need to get by. And a nice side-effect of that is that when I stay in nice places, it's a HUGE treat.
When I was in California, I got to spend time with my uncle Dick and aunt Pam, as well as my cousins, Josh and Ashley. They'd done something really touching - they postponed their Thanksgiving feast until I arrived, so we all had turkey and the works while I was there. I went to Josh's resturant for lunch one day, where he's the executive sous chef - yummy, and it's good to know the chef. :) I also went to a party with Ashley at a house full of Napa wine people, which was great fun. And I was able to meet my mother's sister, in Petaluma for lunch - I hadn't seen Jean in several years, so it was nice to catch up.
On my last day, we went to the Hog Island Oyster Company for lunch, where I honed my oyster shucking skills, and slurped down a healthy serving of raw oysters. It's always great to spend time with my family there, and it was especially fun since I was 'in' on pre-anniversary surprise that my cousins planned for my aunt and uncle.
After California, I flew to Atlanta, where I grew up. I spent a few days there with Joy, a dear old friend from high school, and her family, and was also able to see Heather and Laura, also from high school. I had a lovely dinner with Joy and her family, and caught up with her parents as well, whom I haven't seen in quite some time. It would have been nice to have some time to see a few sights, but I'd already squeezed my US portion so much that I couldn't spare any more days.
From Atlanta, I flew to Raleigh, North Carolina, where I was born and where much of my mother's family lives. I spent three nights there, and got some good one-on-one time with each of my relatives there. I spent a night with my cousin Kim and her family - husband, Bryan, and children, Eliza and Hunter. The next day I bought a laptop (SO much cheaper than in the UK!) and had a big family dinner at my uncle Tom and and Marianne's house. The next day was occupied with sorting out visa issues (more on that later) and then an evening with my aunt Nancy. On my last day, I wandered the backroads of Raleigh to find a nice little cafe with Tom and Marianne before my flight to DC. It isn't often that I get to Raleigh, so it was especially nice that I got to see all of them together and separately.
In DC, I spent my first night with Tricia and her husband, Brian - Tricia and I go back to my Wellesley years. It was so lovely to spend an evening with them, and Brian fixed my computer for me (yes, less than a week old and already broken - Microsoft Vista is an awful thing). The next afternoon, I went to stay with my friend Emily; she and I go back to my junior year in high school, so I've known her for ages. I spent two days with her and Moe, her dog - I had a nice walk, did some shopping, and relaxed a lot and figured out my bus plans for the next day.
One note about bus travel in the US. Greyhound is terrific - I've done quite a bit of bus travel on my trip, so the extra time compared to train travel doesn't bother me, and it's a lot cheaper. In addition to being a funky way to travel the US, you also come across a lot of funky people. My favorite was the well-dressed pimp on the bus to Philadelphia. :) You're not likely to see THAT on a train. And I calculated that I made it from DC to Boston for $80, which is about half the cost of a train ticket just from NYC to Boston at this time of year, so I'm quite pleased with myself.
The next day, I hopped a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia, where I was met by my friend Kristen, who lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, and is on the faculty at Lafayette College. She and I started an a cappella singing ground together back in Pittsburgh a zillion years ago, and it was great to see her and spend some time with her, her husband Bill, and her kids (who I've heard lots about but never met). It was wonderful to catch up with Kristen - we've seen every few years, but it's often been a lunch here or dinner there. We had a really nice block of time to spend together before she dropped me at the bus station the next morning for my next leg.
I caught a bus to Newark, NJ, from there, then made my way via train/bus (I'm a whiz at public transport by now!) to Maplewood, where my friend Dave lives with his family. Dave and I met during my last year at Wellesley, and have logged hundreds of dollars on long-distance phone calls for our famous philosophical discussions over the years. It was terrific to spend some time with him and family - his wife Elizabeth and I took the train into the city (NYC) the next morning together and had a lovely chat as well.
My next leg (are you exhausted? I was by this time) was a night in the city with my friend Kendall - he and Kristen and I sang together in Pittsburgh, and he lives in Manhattan. After dropping my bags at his office, I played tourist for a bit. I walked through Time Square, then went up to Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters, and finally went up to the top of the Empire State Building. Then Kendall and I went out for some fantastic sushi - he's a real raw fish buff and took me to a great place he knows down in Soho (I think). We finished the night off with a great martini in a cool bar. The English, wonderful tho they are, don't do very good fish, especially the raw kind, or cocktails. I'm reminded of a night back in Cambridge when Berkley, my UCB boss, ordered a martini in a pub and got a glass of martini. :) With that in mind, I've been drinking martinis whenever possible here in the States.
The next morning, I hopped a bus to Boston. I had considered spending another night in NYC, and it would have been great to see more of Kendall, but I was frankly exhausted after all my east coast travel and wanted to stop moving and put my pack down. My sister and her family there, and my mother is in Providence, less than an hour away. My mother didn't know I was arriving in Boston that day, so it was a nice surprise for her to show up at my sister's house, where I stay when I'm here, and find me there.
The next several days were the run-up to Christmas, and I spent some time at my mother's house in addition to being with my sister's family. I have two nephews here - Mason, 7, and Griffin, 4, so it's a big deal for them. Having been travelling through the fall, I'd avoided the radio stations playing Christmas songs and the shopping malls drenched in red, green, and gold, and the advertisements telling me how many more 'shopping days' I had left. And frankly, I didn't really miss it. I mean, I like Christmas, but it was kinda nice to be released from it until right when it arrived, if that makes any sense. Or does it sound to Bah-hum-bug? :)
We had a nice Christmas day, with the requisite ripping and tearing of wrapping papaer, mimosas for the adults, a nice meal, and the occasional childhood fight over the sharing of new toys - all in a day's work!
After Christmas, I started seeing some friends in Boston. I got to spend some time with Bethany, who I'd worked with at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals after music school. She has two kids as well, and her husband Jim generously took them out for the afternoon so she and I could have some uninterrupted time. We talked for 3 1/2 hours, which was such a treat for both of us - that's a hard block of time to get when you're a parent, I'm sure.
I've also been able to see Seema, a friend from my UCB Boston days. She's finishing a masters in nursing now, and came down from New Hampshire so we could have lunch and a wander in Harvard Square. That night, I met up with my UCB boss Berkley and his family for dinner. It was great and surreal to see them back in Boston, since we'd all been together in the UK for 2 1/2 years. It's great to see that they've settled back into life in the US, and I'll probably see Berkley again in the next few days at his new job, since I'm still in the US (read below for THAT story ...).
New year's eve was meant to be spent in the UK, but I didn't get out of the country, so I had plans to spend it with Seema. Unfortunately, I caught some kind of flu/cold bug that day, and was asleep by 10:30 that night. Some party girl I am, eh? Well, New Year's Eve is often a let-down, so I circumvented the disappointment by sleeping through the entire thing!
So here I sit, in Boston, well past the date of my flight back to the UK. What happened? Well, it's a bit of a snafu. I applied online for my UK student visa back in November, and put the required documents together when I got to California. In the past, you could apply in person for a visa, but heigtened security measures at the British embassy mean that now I can only apply via post or courier service (the courier walks your application into the embassy for you).
Thinking it would be safer and faster, I used a courier service, so I sent my documents to a courier in New York (the British embassy is in New York). They were with the British embassy on December 12th. On the morning of the 13th, I checked my email to find an email from sister asking me to call the embassy ASAP. When I did, I got a voicemail stating that the visa agent I'd called was out of the office for the rest of the week. Uh oh. So I called the courier, who promised to go to the embassy and check on it for me. A few hours later, while sitting at lunch in Atlanta with old high school friends, I got the call that the visa had been DENIED. And the reason is absurd.
UK visa rules stipulate that you must be physically present in the country in which you apply for a visa. When I entered the US on December 5th at LAX, my favorite people at US passport control neglected to stamp my passport, so the British embassy couldn't find a record of my having entered the US. The contact numbers I'd entered in my application were my sister's home phone (and she's at work during the day) and my UK mobile number. The visa agent tried calling my sister's house, didn't call my phone, and, not having heard back from me by the end of that day, summarily refused my application.
After some freaking out, a few tears, and a conversation with a US immigration officer who suggested I either file a Freedom of Information Act request to release verification that I'd entered the country (this takes MONTHS) or a visit to Canada (yes, Canada) to get a stamp, I found that there was an appeals process. Great!
While in Raleigh, I had the documents Fedexed back to me from New York, filled out the appeal, had an affidavit notarized stating that I was, in fact, in the country, and sent everything back to New York, directly to the embassy this time. This appeal has been with the Visa department in New York since December 17th. The Thursday before Christmas, I spoke with the gentleman who'd denied my application in the first place, and he told me they were opening the post received on the 17th that day. And here I sit. No news. No visa. The courier has been nice and checked for me, but it's lost in some void in New York, and I'm not really sure when it'll be back.
Wanna hear something great? If I'd applied by post and not courier, the simple postage stamp or Fedex airbill from a US address would have been enough for them to grant the visa. And if the original visa officer had only waited until the next morning, I could have phoned him back and sorted everything out. And on the day they were opening my appeal, I was IN NEW YORK. Needless to say, this has been a royal pain.
And when I had to rebook my flight back to the UK, the first date they had available was January 8th. Great. I'm supposed to be in the lab in Bristol on the 7th. Hmm. At this point, all I can do is hope the visa is granted soon, and then throw myself on the mercy of the airlines. If I have to change my routing to London (I'm not flying direct, and there are multiple ways to get there, but it counts as a routing change to go through DC or Toronto instead of Frankfurt), it'll cost me $150 or so, but it'll be worth it. I'll keep you posted.
Well, I SWEAR this'll be the last email from the States. I WILL get back to the UK soon. I hope you've all had a festive holiday season and offer all of my best wishes for 2008.
Best,
Dina
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