Life

Tuesday (yesterday) I flew from Kingston to Fort Lauderdale. I arrived at around 8:30am and Maria Lawrence (my boss/ principal at cccd) had family in the area, and her aunt's husband picked me up. We made the 40 minute trip south down I-95 to downtown Miami, then explored a few city blocks til we found the right street. David dropped me off and we planned to meet at a nearby hotel in a few hours. I found the Jamaican Consulate and made my way up to their suite. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I didn't think it'd be very busy...boy was I wrong. I opened the door and almost hit some folks standing in line waiting to be seen, and there were probably 20 people sitting in chairs. I was in line for maybe 15-20 minutes before approaching the window. Everyone else in the room were Jamaicans getting Passports, and I felt like I was back on the island, complete with two different women cutting ahead in line by just walking up to the window while claiming to everyone in line "I just need to ask a question..." Well lady, what do you think the rest of us are doing here!?!? Anyways, I had all the documents I needed, the lady helping me clarified a couple questions on my application, and then I was told to sit and wait for my name to be called. 20-30 minutes later, I got called to the cashier window, where I dropped $161 for some ink to get stamped in my passport. After paying, I was told it'd be about half and hour. I ran and grabbed some breakfast and then about 11:30 I got called up to the window and collected my passport, VISA stamp inside!