Mind the Gap

Hello again! You'll have to forgive me if this post doesn't make much sense. It's almost 3am and I'm really tired!


So much has happened since Monday! I've had an absolutely crazy adventure in London as well as moved residence.

The London underground is one of the most fascinating things I've ever done. You can literally cross a massive city in a few minutes quite easily if you can navigate the stops and manage not to fall into the gap between the train and the platform, which a kind recording reminds you about at EVERY stop. "Welcome to such-and-such a station! Mind the gap!" You can even buy t-shirts that have the reminder printed on them. I love it. I'm sure the novelty wears off when you live there, but I get really excited about taking the tubes.

On Friday Emma and I took the overground train to London, which was in itself an adventure, to apply for our student visas, spent the day in London, came home at 1am, then today we moved out of the centre and into the new house we're staying in. An eventful couple of days!

Let me catch you up to speed on the current visa situation. Here's what happened before London:

*We went to India in November with the rest of the Gap Years on tourist visas. When we applied for our visas, the UK people got six month multi-entry, while the Americans got three month singles. This is pretty standard if you apply from the UK as a non-UK passport holder.
*This last year, there is a new rule that says you must be out of India for two months before applying for a new tourist visa.
*We were told to re-apply in the states in order to get a six month visa. But since our old visas were not expired yet, we would have to get an exemption to the two-month rule and the not-expired visas from the consulate. But by the time we got someone to be helpful in doing this, we would not have had our passports back in time to return to Wales.
*Since we had to apply in the UK, we decided to apply for student visas instead of tourist, hoping for six months. We called the office, and they said we could apply from the UK, no problem.
*You are now completely confused.
*That's okay! Keep reading anyway.

So when we arrived at the office in London, we stood in line for ages, then as soon as we got to the front, the man told us that our passport photos were too small. Now, I was lucky and got a semi-decent photo (which is like getting a good drivers license picture: rare and exciting) the first time around. So now I had to spend four pounds on new photos after not going to bed in over 24 hours, not bothering with make-up or a hair brush, attempting sleep on a train for six hours, taking the underground, running across London, and standing in the cold wind for 45 minutes. Was I in any sense of the word attractive? Absolutely not. More like mildly alarming. And they made me pay lots of money for proof of it. Fantastic.

Anyway,
I got to the front of the line with my new scary pictures, and after about ten seconds the man shut my application and said that I wasn't allowed to apply from the UK. He sent me to another man, who said the same thing. Maybe the photos scared them, I don't know.
The girl applying with me, on the other hand, got all the way through the exact same process, no questions asked, until there was a separate problem with her paperwork. So we left, called our team leader in Wales AND in India, and ran across Victoria, London to two different libraries to print corrected paperwork for Emma. We thought that maybe she could at least try again and get in.
So we tried again with new people. They told us no again, but kindly let us at least apply for tourist visas instead of making us leave. So we did, and we should know in 15 working days or so.


So, it was frustrating, but we made it! Halfway through the mess our team leader here texted us and told us that the whole center was praying for us, which was massively encouraging and de-stressing. It's good to know that God in control and that people are praying for you!

The rest of the afternoon was much better than the first! We took the underground across town to meet up with a good friend and spent the afternoon wandering with her around Camden Market, which is one of my most favorite places I've ever been to. Good to spend time with her and good to just wander around a bit of London! It was great! I received these fantastic wool fingerless mittens that keep my hands nice and toasty! I'm seriously considering taking them with me to India, even thought it will be absolutely boiling there... :)
The train ride back was uneventful, and we returned to the centre around 1am. It was most definitely an eventful trip. We even have to go back to collect our visas and/or passports when they're ready.

Today we moved out of the centre and into this new house we're staying in until we make it to India! It's a fantastic place to stay, and the people are wonderful to let us stay for an undetermined amount of time while we wait for visas.

So that's what I've been up to this week... and hopefully I will have more news for you all soon! Here are some updated prayer points for you!!

*That we will be granted visas for a full six months if it is God's will. He does not have to abide by embassy rules, and we need to keep remembering that!
*That we will receive an answer quickly.
*Cheap travel back to London. Our last tickets were quite expensive, and we can't really afford to do that again!
*Financial support! That it keeps a'comin' and we see God's provision through it! He continually meets our needs through these many unexpected expenses, and while it's disconcerting when they happen, God is faithful. We are blessed to be able to stay in the current house rent-free!!! Thank God!


Thanks for reading and for your prayers! God bless you all!!!
Kaitlyn