Passport And Visa Day!

Today, I finally finished my travel documents and submitted them. Like most things in the application process, however, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Knowing it was going to be a rainy day in Chicago and that the post office passport desk closes at 3pm, I headed over around noon. I had been planning this important trip and was completely prepared. Because I can’t forfeit my current passport before August (family trip in July), I had to fill out the longer form and get it certified by the passport people. I went with my FedEx envelope, my DS-11 form, 2 passport pictures of that form, my 2 visas, 2 pictures for those forms, an expired passport, my current passport, my driver’s license, and $25 for the processing.

Turns out, if you’re filling out a DS-11 (the brown form if anyone’s doing this) a passport that was issued before you were 16 doesn’t count as proof of citizenship. So after making friends with the passport lady, I headed home to grab a certified copy of my birth certificate (thankfully my mom had a copy... thanks mom!). Well, it also turns out, something I should have realized before (and need to start paying WAY more attention to as I go to a country that 95% Muslim) you can’t have your shoulders showing in your passport photos. I ran to the local Walgreens to get new photos. By this time it had started raining but I had an umbrella and was determined to get it done. I might look like a little of a hot mess in my new pictures but I think it adds character!

After returning with all of the correct documents (30 minutes before the office was going to close), I took my oath, signed the form, and was ready to drop it in the envelope provided by the Peace Corps… turns out the Post Office can’t turn over the passport papers after they’ve been certified and they also can’t add anything else into the envelope they’re sending (aka my visa applications). After verifying the Post Office package was going to the address I had been provided, I parted ways with the passport lady (who I had become quite good friends with). Just to make sure everything was going to be alright, I called the travel agency and worked out how it would be okay for the packages to arrive separately and FedEx’ed my visa applications!

Finally, around 2:45, I was done with my travel papers and only a little wet from the rain. To reward myself for making it through another day of bureaucracy first hand, this process is full of those days, I sat down at Portillo’s and had a killer chili-cheese dog with a coke. As I started thinking about how I would have a million days like this in the upcoming months and how those days will be so much harder because I’ll be trying to understand in Wolof or French, I walked by a Chase bank employee trying to catch a butterfly that had flown into the ATM room. It was the ridiculousness of the situation that made me remember that when I’m in Senegal and I can’t have a chili-cheese dog, something else will come along to make things better.

Tonight I’m outlining my aspiration statements and I’m looking to send off my resume and aspiration statements to the country office! À bientôt!