As the conscientious student that I am, I had it planned down to the moment the process for obtaining my visa: This morning - my first day back in Baltimore since summer school - I woke up early and drove to the CJIS office, which is delightfully located in the ghetto.
I checked in, rolled my fingers across the cool scanner machine that took my fingerprints, waited a while, and walked out with my criminal background check - which I added to the pile of documents that I'm taking with me right now to New York so I can go to the South African Consulate tomorrow morning and have my visa in the mail by tomorrow afternoon.
Well, that was the plan.
It turns out that the criminal justice department of Maryland is full of absolute idiots.
As the conscientious student that I am, I had checked with (granted, the state police headquarters, not CJIS, but still - you would think that the police headquarters would know about background checks. Apparently not.) the appropriate sources, who told me I could walk in and out with a background check in one day. Well, a very overweight desk clerk, who very evidently hated her job at CJIS, informed me over the rims of her glasses that "Honna, somebody laaahhed to you. It take five days."
Excuse me?
"Someone. Lied. To you. It take five days, now fill this out and sit down."
Now I'm screwed, to put it mildly. I have 21 days till my flight leaves, minus 5 days for this thing to come in the mail, which gives me 16 days total to get my visa - which takes 10 days (not counting weekends).
Moral of the story: without major strings miraculously appearing from thin air within the Maryland criminal justice system, I'm not going to South Africa on July 15th.
Oh crap!
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