So Suman and I have been talking about going to India for at least two years, maybe longer. For any of you who may not know this, Suman descends from the people of India. At any rate, his vacation this year is in February, which is one of the best weather months in India, so we decided to go. We found a great deal on tickets and booked our trip in January. We will actually be staying in Turkey for a few days before flying to India. Our layover is there, and we thought, why not turn 5 hours into a couple of days?
AFTER booking our trip, Suman lets me know that I will need a Visa to get into India. Ok, well I'm sure there's a consulate in LA, right? Nope, it's in San Francisco. I found out I can apply online, which is great, except that I need a copy of my birth certificate. I know I had one when I applied for my passport a couple of years ago, but somehow it got lost between the moves. Now, birth certificates can be ordered online, but it's 5-10 business days to process, let alone to send to you. And the consulate will take 7-10 business days to process your visa. Add up that and the shipping time, allow for some extra days in case anything is amiss, and it's cutting it pretty close. Did I mention I have to send them my ACTUAL PASSPORT? So, we wouldn't even be able to change our trip to a European one if I don't get it back in time.
Luckily, I was born in Santa Barbara County. That's about a 3 hour drive from here (provided there's no traffic). I drove up there when I had one day off because it was really the only time could. No snafus there, got it no problem. Drove back here, sent out the info. Passport returned in plenty of time, and my visa was approved. YAY!
Now it's time to plan for vaccines and anti-malaria medication. The only vaccine I need is typhoid. So I call up the CDC to make an appointment, there aren't any available until March 26th! Who thinks to plan two months in advance to get vaccines? I guess people who have dealt with the CDC before.
MDs appointment on Friday, got a script for the anti-malaria medication AND an oral typhoid vaccine, which should be available at my local pharmacy. Not at Target, and the anti-malaria medication, it costs $243! They were going to fill out some paperwork and send it to my MD for my insurance to approve it. Well worth the money to not get malaria, but come on! Luckily, I found a cheaper way of obtaining it. AND got the typhoid vaccine at Walgreens. My insurance didn't cover that either.
So, I think I'm pretty much set to go at this point, which is great because we are leaving next week! I'm hoping for my stomach to tolerate the Typhoid (yummy!) and NO MORE SURPRISES! Did I mention that my grad school applications were due during the middle of all of this nonsense? Yep, it's been a stress free year so far...
