...or maybe not (2.0)

The plot thickens!

In a happy, politics-free world, I'd be boarding a plane tomorrow at 1pm and be in Caracas in time for dinner.  Some last-minute packing on Friday was interrupted by a call from our contact at the US embassy in Caracas.  He was calling us in person to apologize; the visas weren't going to be in our hands by Tuesday.  We were going to have to push things back for a few weeks.  Again. 

It wasn't anything to do with us or our institutions - just part of the general mess and political games that  is Caracas at the moment.  For those not up to date on their Western Hemisphere politics, Caracas had legislative elections Sunday, the 26th.  The results have been...interesting (The Economist's article explains it better than I ever could - check it out! )  Needless to say, in the grand scheme of craziness, I'm guessing 8 visas are fairly low on the priorities list.

That leaves us in a bit of limbo for things like housing arrangements.  Housing in Caracas is expensive to say the least.  Cost of living in VZ's capital rivals some of the most posh (yes, I said posh) cities in the world - Dubai, London, NYC, etc.  Banding together with the other ETA assigned to Caracas, we scoured the online classifieds and pooled our limited (though AMAZINGLY helpful) resources in Venezuela to find an affordable and safe living arrangement in the city that DOESN'T involve shelling out 1000USD a month in rent.  Last week, something came through!  The option to live close to the local University in a house with two other girls for a mere $150USD each per month!  Sure we'd be sharing a room but hey, if it means saving HUNDREDS of dollars each month, we'd live in a cardboard box (provided said cardboard box was in a safe part of town)!  The room was ours October 1. 

Now that our departure date has changed however, we may be in trouble.  With so much uncertain, we can't pay for a room we may not see for a few weeks, and of course there is the understandable reluctance of a landlord to hold rooms that he could be making money on.  Chances are, we're back to square one with the housing debacle and I'm back to trolling the internet for apartments that won't require me to sell a kidney for rent money.

Apart from those VZ logistics, I've put in awkward calls to AT&T, asking them to extend my contract (again), and American Airlines asking them to cancel my ticket (again).  I rescheduled a Foreign Service Test I was supposed to take in Caracas in October for Cary.  I'm also debating just not telling anyone when/if I actually leave - I'll just change my facebook status when I'm finally in-country.  These repeated goodbyes are just getting sad...

The GOOD news about being stuck in country for a little while longer: MORE NCSU FOOTBALL!  The Wolfpack is 4-0 and I've wrangled a ticket to the VT game this Saturday.  Looking forward to some solid ACC action.