Expected Unexpected Frenzy

Hello fellow adventurers,

the day has come that I got mail from the agency telling me what to do next. So for now, the days of sleeping 'till noon and eating pizza while bingewatching Chuck are over. Tomorrow I will try to get all of my documents ready or rather apply to get them.... Germans and their paperwork... and make an appointment at the embassy to get my visa, which is more complicated than it sounds, trust me.

So fast forward 8 hours:

Those few people who read the crap I post on Twitter know what I did on Thursday. Basically I had to get pictures taken for my Visa and international drivers licence. So after I spent 22€ on incredibly ugly pictures of my face I went to get my CRC (Criminal Record Certificate) which also cost me 13€ and I'll get that in the mail in a couple of days. So thus far not that complicated.
Next I went to get my drivers licence which is like a little booklet that says you can drive internationally. Pretty self-explanatory.. this was 17€..
Expensive but it's necessary apparently and I managed to get everything on my own.
So now I had to get a health evaluation from my doctor which I thought was pretty easy too because there are just a couple of simple questions about what inoculations I have and my basically non-existant history of diseases/illnesses/mental craziness, my height, pulse etc.
BUT NO. I have to make a tuberculosis test before because I'm not inoculated! So today (Friday) I woke up super friggin' early (8 am) and went to a special lab thingy were they took a shit-ton of blood from me. Just this cost me almost 100€ (WTH?) After my doctor gets the result of that he can fill out the evaluation form that is oh so time-consuming and also expensive, oh wonder. I already have an appointment for that on Monday. Hopefully the test says I don't have tuberculosis which I don't but tests aren't 100% accurate and if it tests positive I have to make a chest X-Ray to prove I'm healthy. And honestly, not a fan of X-Rays. They're not very healthy and also I need to get all my documents together soon! Cross your fingers everybody!
Back to Thursday-night. I still had to fill out the D-160 form to apply for my Visa, which took AGES! After you do that: Good luck finding out how you pay the 160$ fee (to make an appointment at the embassy). That whole thing took like 3 hours because they want to know EVERY SINGLE DETAIL ABOUT YOUR LIFE and you have to check everything a thousand and one times because if you spell something wrong they will reject your application... I think at one point I threw my phone and several other objects at the wall in frustration (don't worry my phone's fine) and I screamed at my parents on multiple occasions during that time. So on Monday, when the embassy gets the money, I can make an appointment and hopefully I get one for next week or so. After you go to the embassy it takes about 8-10 days for your passport and Visa to arrive at your house, via snail mail.

So that's basically what I already did and will do next week. I already made copies of everything I also have to send to the agency and copies of that for me to take to the US with me. On that note: I still have to refill my printer... and the agency has already booked my flight for September 29th at 8:30am with six other AuPairs that fly from the same airport.

COUNTDOWN: 37 Days 10 Hours 21 Minutes 40 Seconds

Stay awesome,
Ellie