Sorry for the delay. Here is the story. I flew to London and waited in lines at customs. When the customs lady asked what we were doing in London, Patrick answered "interning and traveling." WRONG ANSWER. The lady proceeded to ask us a million questions about where we went to school, where we were planning on staying in London, etc. Ignorant me thought she was just interested and was being nice. She passed us little slips of paper saying we were currently detained and told us to sit on a bench (still inside customs). We laughed, and I made friends with a man sitting next to me that just got back from Iraq, but didn't have a passport. 30 minutes later, 2 custom guards had us follow they with our 6+ bags (we were supposed to live in an apartment for 6 weeks-lots of stuff). They took out every single thing in our bags and wrote it down. I was still in a great mood and was laughing about how annoying it was to be held up for an hour. I remained positive until they took us up an elevator into a secure area with major locks on all the doors. Then a really nice guy with an extremely strong accent fingerprinted us and took mug shots. I recalled the time I lost my passport in Croatia, the day I was supposed to leave for the US (I also got a mug shot on that trip). The guy was so nice and gave me a copy of my mug shot for a souvenir (little did I know it would be my only souvenir from London). I then decided that the accumulated 2 hours of being stuck doing all these weird things were worth the mug shot, and I told myself "we will definitely be getting out of here once they make sure our biometrics matches the system and our passports are legit." A stern lady walked us through a few hallways, I assumed to get our bags and get out of there... nope, we were escorted to the "detainment room" (aka. airport prison). We were patted down, searched, and everything except the clothes on us were taken. As we walked through the door, it locked behind us.
Patrick fell asleep on the disgusting couches. I started crying. A lady tried to strike up a conversation with me... She was in the cell because she carried 2 identification cards with her and she brought knives on the plane. [Kes and Abs..."Duh you can't bring knives on a plane"] We were in the room for over 6 hours. Finally two custom people came to speak with us. They told us as of Sept. a new rule has been created that states interns whether paid or not need VISAs. They were going to deport us back to the US either late late that night or early the next morning. We were told we just stay in the cell with the fluorescent lights and other prisoners until that flight. That was NOT ok with me... I started calmly arguing. When they made it apparent that there was no way we could stay in the country and that we were definitely getting deported, I tried a new argument. I told them that because it was Saturday, and the British embassy in NY didn't open until Monday , there was no way we could get our VISAs until then. Because we had 5 weeks of bags and belongings and an apartment already paid for in the heart of London, it would make the most sense for us to stay the weekend in London, drop off our bags in our apartment, and fly out on Sunday night. Surprisingly, they said they would "think about it, and that there was a 24 hour visitor exception that would work on our request." 2 LONG HOURS LATER they called us out of our cell, and said they were being exceptionally nice and letting us into the country JUST for the weekend... Really thank you so much for your kindness, customs... I hope you sense my sarcasm. So my thought was that if we got into London and out of the ridiculous airport prison that we could find a way to stay. We could stay in London until we got working VISAs OR worst-case scenario if we could not stay in London, we could take a train to Paris and have fun there until it all got resolved... Well I was feeling quite brilliant. Just as we were about to be let out of the detainment center, the customs lady took our passports so my plan didn't quite work that well...
We had a great weekend in London. It was beautiful weather (80 degrees ish). We went on a bus tour and out to a very nice dinner. We showed up on Sunday and took a flight back to the great USA. I then stayed in Summit, NJ with the Rutters (Patrick's family). We waited for our VISAs for a week, and then I flew home and spent a week in Charlotte, When I flew back to Summit, we started working at ICAP in the city. We found out our request for VISAs were denied because of being arrested in London and for various other ridiculous reasons that still do not make sense! [Supposedly lots of students are being denied VISAs into London this summer... even Martha Stewart got turned down!]
I worked in NY. Although I wish I had been in London, NY is a great alternative. There was nothing I could possibly do about the situation, so I tried my best not to be disappointed and forget the negatives. I would like to think i'm accumulating good karma. What can you do? Nothing... so I just spent cash at Nike Town and visted Duke friends that I would have otherwise not seen until August (woo Tri-Delta). On the weekends we went to the Rutter's house on the shore of Avalon, which is just lovely! Patrick lifeguars on the beach, so I layed out and put in lots of miles running barefoot on the beach. We kayaked, went out with Patrick's lifeguard friends, and ate almost every meal at WAWA (best place ever).
I flew back to Charlotte on June 20th just in time for the Toby Keith concert! It gave me a few days before I left for Rwanda. SURPRISINGLY, I didn't run into any custom problems getting into DC then Brussels then Africa... Thanks London, "America's Greatest Ally."
I will be in Rwanda from June 26th to August 3rd. August 3rd is my birthday, and I will hopefully get in at 7pm and drive straight to the Taylor Swift and Rascal Flats concert. I have learned an incredible amount about traveling, the rights of the government and therefore the lack of my rights, and of course ICAP and the trade market. My internship at ICAP was an extremely valuable experience. Although there was a few trips to get coffees, I learned all about voice and electronic brokering. I was even allowed to make a real trade! It was fun getting to spend part of the summer with Patrick. My mom came to NY to take Mariel, my 10 year old sister, to the American Girl Doll Store, and my dad traveled to the city for work purposes another week; therefore, I got to see them both! The Rutters were immensely hospitable... Their houses were beautiful, and I am so lucky for their kindness.
Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smooth in Rwanda. Please keep me in your prayers while I am in Africa. I am sure the difficulties and challenges will be much greater than our minor London passport problem.
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