On Monday morning, I dragged myself out of bed early because I had to go to the US embassy to apply for my visa. Despite getting slightly lost, I still got to the place about 10 minutes before my scheduled 9 am time...as I got close, a enormous queue of visa-applicants indicated where the embassy was, and banished any illusions of actually getting any applying done at 9 am. The embassy itself was in Grosvenor Sq. near Oxford St., and two sides of the square were taken up by the US embassy buildings, with the main one a large and magnificent complex with a statue of a golden eagle topping it. Statues of Eisenhower and Roosevelt were placed in the square it self. Apt surroundings to represent the New Empire, where the Old Empire once reigned from.

There were hundreds of people in the queueing up to get in the embassy, and it was a cold morning. I had a book with me, but nevertheless it wasn't fun because my fingers were threathening to freeze off. After inching a bit closer to the head of the queue, it was clear that the queue was for the x-ray/metal detector procedure. After over an hour, when I actually got into the building, I had to pick up a number and wait some more! This was starting to feel sneakingly like trying to apply for a new IC at the JPN. When finally my number came up after over 3 hours of cumulative waiting time, I went to the Counter 5, where a fairly old lady, impressively, managed to avoid looking bored while flipping through my passport. As my 'interview', she asked me a grand total of FIVE questions: "What are you studying?" "What are you going to be doing in the United States?" "When are you planning to fly there?" (Looking at the list of my educational institutions...) "At what age were you in high school?" "Where did you do your elementary school?". After less than five minutes, she said, "We'll need to do some administrative things before we can confirm your visa...", and told me how to send my passport over to get the visa stamp, hopefully in two weeks time. That concluded, I took my passport with me and left. FIVE minutes of service from the Unites States Government after over THREE hours of waiting. Somehow I felt cheated.