Paper work

    When you realize that you have the opportunity to go travelling you may think excellent! great! awesome! or any of the other readily available adjectives at your disposal. You will likely believe these things until you realize that unlike the happy endings in romantic comedies you cannot simply run up to an airport gate and buy a ticket to a foreign country and live happily ever after with someone you seemingly just met. Unlike these romantic ideals, travelling is not that easy. In fact, it requires a lot of paper work. This became readily apparent as I applied for my student visa, a process that you'll likely find goes something like this:

    You'll visit the UK Border Agency website and spend a multitude of hours reading pages about visas and following links that just go in circles back to the home page. You'll get frustrated and send some e-mails to your exchange advisor, but they won't tell you anything because they don't want to be liable if their wrong. You'll curse them like this, "Curse you!". Then you'll go back to the website where you finally figure out you need to apply for something called a student visitor visa. If you're anything like me you'll end up making a long list of supporting documents you need to successfully apply. There is no greater satisfaction than crossing an item off a To Do list, except maybe a really good book, the end of the school year, sex, finding money in a pair of jeans, chocolate, or leftover beer in your fridge from a house party the night before. Still, it easily makes the top 10. Next, you'll gather all the things on your list; bank statements, passport pictures, transcripts, proof of employment etc. It will take a little while, so you'll be glad you started early. Then you'll fill out an application online, this also takes awhile and is filled with questions you never think you'd have to answer, like "can you describe all your visits outside of the country in the last 10 years?" You'll think, where was I when I was 11?

    When you're about halfway through your application you'll realize you started filling out the wrong one and have to start all over again. You'll look for the right student option this time, it won't be listed under student though, that would be too easy. It will be under a special option, under visitor, under 6 months or less, then under student. The reverse of everything it should be. You'll finish the proper one this time and then you'll book an appointment downtown to process your application. When you go downtown you'll meet with a woman who is pretty weird and may or may not have a conspiracy theory about grocery shopping on Main st., but she likes book and hates the transit system so you'll get along fine. She'll ask you for your photo, which you'll realize you left at home but she'll process your application anyway as long as you go get your picture taken at London Drugs. You have clearly bonded over the whole transit thing. You'll say thank you and go to London Drugs where the man in front of you will start swearing and yelling at the lady who is trying to help him print out an enlargement photo of his dog. You'll get your picture taken and finally mail everything to New York where they approve it.

    Overall, you'll realize that government websites suck, no one likes to give you a straight answer, despite your best efforts you have a terrible memory, and any hope of running away to a foreign country at a split second notice with someone should be buried deep down along with your obsession for 90s sitcoms like Boy Meets World. What kind of a name is Topanga?