oh, the aussies

so i was bored out of my mind 2 hours after i woke up on my day off, and i decided to try and call the australian embassy to find out what the hell was going on with my visa processing. i thought they were just gonna say they can't give me any information, but they actually can verify the status of the application and give you updates...

turns out they thought i was applying for a short stay business visa (god only knows why, since they're completely different forms and document requirements), and haven't come to a decision about it yet.. now it's fixed, but now it's christmas week and i'm assuming they'll just be lazy and won't pick this up until next year..

bad news is with other 5 visas waiting, i did not have any margins for delays, and this problem messed up all my visa schedule. i don't know what i'm gonna do now. i just don't.

what i do know is that i'm gonna stick to the plans and make this work out...

training wheels

i'm a little behind schedule with the planning and the preparations for the trip, but all for a good cause..

last couple of months, instead of working on the RTWT, i was kinda training for it..
i went to see pearl jam play in seattle (their hometown, tour opening), salt lake city, la (2 shows) and philly (halloween, tour closing), and since i was in philly, i went for a week in nyc as well..

of course seeing the band was the main reason for all the traveling, but i took the opportunity to do some couchsurfing, meet people from all over the globe, practice packing efficiently and learn to be less neat-freak and more spontaneous with the planning...

this set me back a little with everything i have to get done for the trip, but it was a little experience that's going to be worth a lot later, and now i'm all focused on it, 100%...

more to come...