In the afternoon on Tuesday, Lovemore came by to take me to the immigration office to get my student visa. He was really concerned that I wasn’t following the rules by only having a tourist visa. I thought I had all of the proper documentation so I went along.
When I got there and presented my paperwork, however, the guy at the desk said, “Is this all you have?” and I replied “This is all that they told me I needed.” Then he gave me a copy of a list with 8 items on in, all of which I needed to bring to get my visa. This list included some of the things I had (like passport photos) but also others that I didn’t (like a copy of my birth certificate and a notarized copy of the application and a chest X-ray!). I showed Lovemore the list and he said the immigration office must have changed their requirements recently.
We then proceeded to a clinic so I could get a chest X-ray.
40 minutes and $100 later, I learned that I do not have TB. Great.
I still didn’t have everything I needed and it was closing time so we just went back to the office and I promised Lovemore that I would work on the application and get it in as soon as possible.
Then he invited me out to dinner with Michele and two other professors. Since the other guys are big-wigs I couldn’t reasonably refuse even though I kind wanted to go home and have a quiet evening. I had just enough time to get home, chat with Jake, change and get ready before they came to pick me up.
We went out to a Portuguese place that is supposed to be quite nice although I was not really impressed with their menu. They mostly serve half a chicken, prepared at any spice level you want. I had the hake fillet and chips instead. The food was pretty good but there were no vegetables on the menu at all. Good thing I’m taking my vitamins! The conversation was a bit awkward at times. I was expecting a lot of science talk since it was a lot of professors, but we talked more about tiger fish since Lovemore is a big sport fisherman. At least dinner didn’t last all night; I got home around 9 pm and had some time to read and relax before sleep.