Our first bad day

Tuesday could have been better. After leaving work a little early to get our student visas registered at the foreign registration office , only to arrive at the office and be told although we had an appointment for Monday by 4, the office closes at 2, we set out tuesday am to the office to get there nice and early to get our token to then get registered! See we got student visas, not tourist visas because we thought that would be the appropriate visa. Actually I think we originally applied for a different visa way back in November but were rejected and told to do the student visa after we spent $50 mailing our passports to Houston. But back to today.

So after waking up to chai (chai = tea in india and it is the most delicious tea ever) and idly with home made coconut chutney (love Ms. Thacker), ale and I headed off in a rickshaw to the FFRO (foreign fools registry office). We arrived at 855 and got in the line for tokens. We got our tokens and then were told to wait until 930 for our token numbers to be called. At about 950 we got called and got in another line to show our documents, but then were rejected because we needed a cover checklist. So we got the checklist from a different line, got back in the token line, had our documents looked at and then were told to go upstairs to wait for our number to be called. If you are confused because you thought our numbers had already been called, ya so were we. So then we waited for our respective token numbers to be called and after a while we each had our documents scrutinized. Then they wrote noon on my cover letter. It was about 1030. Why were we to return at 12? Again your guess was as good as ours. So we ventured out to get some random things we needed (tweezers, tissues, hand sanitizer).

We returned by noon and then were told to wait for 15 minutes. So we waited and went to the counter again and were told to wait. This continued on until about 1 pm when our numbers were again called and we finally got an official document for our registration. And then we were done. Just kidding, turns out our registration only lasted until we were done with St. John's which is the beginning of February. But our flight home out of Delhi is on March 9. So we asked the people e,long us what to do and they shooed us away - "go get tourist visa in US" and shooed us away. Defeated, Ale and I left and decided to go back to St. John's to get a new certificate stating we will be here until march 9. Which, needless to say took some more back and forths and waiting. We put on our sad faces and hopefully will have a new certificate by 2 pm Wednesday. Meaning Thursday we get to have another fun filled day at the FFRO!

And you know the best part? All the other elective students just got tourist visas and don't have to register at all. #whatyougetwhenyouarehonest

But to cheer ourselves up, ale and I came up with a list of what we are thankful for:

1. The Thackers
2. Chai
3. Ms. Thackers delicious meals
4. Hot showers
5. A be
6. Fabindia
7. Wifi/Skype/iPads
8. Being in India
9. Living in the USA where paperwork is online
10. The Thackers maid who makes our bed and cleans our clothes
11. All our family and friends
12. Our health