Why I hate the Department of State

This is a continuation of 'Why I hate the FBI.' I couldn't bring myself to tell the rest of the story until now.

Anyway, after the 4:30 AM incident happened, I patiently waited for 5:15 so that I could call the Department of State at 8:15 their time. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't just go to bed and set an alarm to go off at 5. At the time I made the decision to stay up, my reason was that I am horrible at arguing when I am groggy from sleep (remember 8:00 AM-FBI-Department-Store-Analogy-Guy).

At 5:00 AM though, I could not remember this reason at all, so I attempted to keep myself awake by rocking back and forth on the floor (which is where I was sitting, as I sold all of my furniture because I thought I was going to Korea).

I rocked so much, that I didn't notice it was time to call until 5:19.

Here is a brief summary of my phone experience.


*phone rings*
Voice: blrlkehaf;dklffhaf
Me: uhhh...?
*hold music*
Me: Oh...cool! I'm in!
*phone rings again*
Voice: Hold on I need to make the other phone stop ringing.
*click*
Me: Eh? Ohhh...kay? Did you hang up?
Voice: Name?
Me: Uhhh T-a....(I spelled my name)
Voice: And you want a status inquiry?
Me: No, I want an apostille...OH, I MEAN YES. A STATUS INQUIRY. (I'm really tired).
Voice: Country you will be traveling to?
Me: South Korea.
Voice: Address?
Me: (I give my parent's address)
Voice: Okay, I will let them know you requested a status inquiry.
Me: Okay! Thank you very much! So -
*click*


I'm not sure what was supposed to happen next, but nothing did.

I wasn't worried at the time, though. It was 5:25 in the morning, and was at that level of sleepy where everything is hilarious.

I laughed for about 20 minutes over the fact that I couldn't tell if I was talking to a robot or not. And honestly, I'm still not sure.

My laughter gradually turned into slight panic. I wondered if I should call again, but instead made one of Emily's spicy ramens. Then everything was funny again, and I laughed myself to sleep.

Meanwhile, Adventure Teaching emailed me and said I'd be fine, as long as I got my papers in two weeks. I don't think they quite understand what I am dealing with.

I've tried calling the Department of State again, but I just can't get through at a reasonable time. Also, their hours are listed as 7:30 - 2:30, but a machine almost always says they are closed. Also, sometimes they make you leave a message, and they do NOT call back.

Why is our country so difficult? Why does the US take months to do something that takes other countries 3-4 weeks?

Why, oh why, ancestors, did you not immigrate to Canada instead?

Or Korea?