Happy New Year everyone (a few days late)! I hope you all have a happy and healthy new year and I hope you all kicked it off in a great way!
I just want to say that the Italy visa process has probably been the single worst experience of my life. In less than a week, I've had to go down to Manhattan 3 times! That's freaking expensive by the way. It all started on December 28th, 2011 which was my scheduled visa appointment. I had a 12 noon appointment and was not seen until almost 2pm. After waiting for so long, I hand in the paperwork that I had, and I really thought I had it all. I was missing my verification of enrollment form, which I was never told that I needed and it was not stated anywhere by the school or the consulate that I needed it, and my transcripts because the school didn't send them out on time and there got to me a day later (thanks SUNY Oswego). When they looked at the bank account info I had from my parents, they told me it wasn't enough and that I needed to bring another one to them. My mom calculated how much was needed and that specific account had the amount I needed. I was polite and said ok and thank you and went on my way.
Yesterday, January 3rd, 2012 I head back down to the consulate for the second time, with all my paperwork in hand, or so I thought. When I get there at 9am (for returning applicants, you don't need an appointment but you have to be there between 9-10am) I was seen immediately and I give the woman the paperwork yet again. She hands me back the second bank statement and tells me that it needs to be signed but never told me previously or that day that it needed to be signed and who needs to sign it. I thought my mom had to sign it so she signed a copy and sent it by fax to the consulate. Nope, not good enough or what they wanted. They need someone from the bank to sign it. For those of you who don't know, ING Direct is NOT a freestanding bank. It's an online bank and that's it. How the fuck am I supposed to have someone sign it? Somehow my my got it done (she's a freaking miracle woman I swear!) and I had to go back down yet again today to hand in the paperwork. It was all correct and now on Tuesday the 10th I have to go back down and pick up my passport with my visa stamped in it.
After this horrible experience, I don't think I ever want to be a student in another country. My mom is going to write a letter to the dean of SUNY Oswego and the head of the International Education department. This whole process was absolutely ridiculous. Nothing on the consulate website was correct and not everything that we needed was on the International Education site o the Italian consulate site. Nothing was explained explicitly or correctly. It was just horrible. There's no other way to explain it.
On a different note, I'm completely freaking out about leaving. I've cried almost everyday since New Years. It's not about going to Italy and I know it sounds so silly to be crying about it but I'm leaving for almost 4 months, not being able to come home until my semester there ends and not being able to always talk to my family, boyfriend, and friends. It's kind of scary. I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with everyone here and it's starting to get close to crunch time with packing and buying some things that I'll need. It's really starting to hit hard and I'm starting to become a wreck. I know it's going to be great for me and all. I'm just really scarred. I have no other way to really describe it.
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