2003-12-08 06:45:00尚未設定
My Schengen Visa
7th December 2003
I think I haven’t told u that I plan to visit Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on 18th December and will go back on 26th. Actually it is a plan which made without many consideration. All things were planed in a rush and I have been through terrible process that makes me want to give up this trip few times. Just let me explain why.
I never thought of how important diplomacy was before I got here. It all began with one friend of mine invited me and another friends of mine to travel in Europe. I have to jump the plot soon or u’ll feel bored by my diary. Most important of all, I am the only one who needs to apply the Schengen visa (the visa which allows u to travel a few countries in Europe) because my friends are all from Hong Kong. So the torture begins. What I need to apply for Schengen visa is school letter, bank statement, travel insurance, hotel-booking statement etc. My school letter takes “one-week” working days for them to type a piece of paper that on it says I am the student of this university. And my bank is even worse, I went to the bank to ask for a statement which is another paper to prove I have enough money in my account. I queued for about 10 minutes and then the clerk just told me to wait in another place. Then I waited for another 10 minutes and then some guy just ask me what did I need. I told him and he told me keep waiting because they couldn’t print it out in the bank. I have to order one and then they will send it to me. I asked him what should I do and he just told me to wait…not so surprisingly... I waited for another 40 minutes and just the same guy came to me and asked me again what I did need. He finally took me to his table and then gave me a paper which has a telephone number. He said that just phone this number and tell them u want the statement. I waited for one hour and just get a telephone number. U can imagine how I felt…Actually, I really couldn’t understand why they are so mechanical. People here are nice actually but sometimes I just felt they are so inefficient. A easy task can become very complicated without any reason here.
Back to the visa, after two weeks, I finally got everything I need, including a travel insurance which took me some time to find one. The most terrible thing is: I have to make a appointment by phone which cost one pound per minutes (one pound is about 55 Taiwan dollars). I was not sure how long it will take and I just took all my changes and picked up a public phone to call the Germany Embassy. By the way, the appointment is like they record the process, u have to press 1 for bla bla…press 2 for another bla bla…u know what I mean. I think I pressed the right one but it says I did not use a touch phone but I did. The stupid machine could not recognize the public phone. When I wanted to hear more, all of my changes went out (which is 2 pounds). I will tell u how much it cost later because I did not phone it by myself after the first try. I felt it is too expensive if I kept trying. So I went to the International Centre in the university to ask for help. The lady just said she would only help me once and I must not tell others or she would just refuse them as well. She made the phone call by using her extended phone but hers could not be recognized too. Then she just asked another lady in that office to help me because her telephone is not an extended one. It took about 10 minutes for her to finish the appointment finally. The lady just said it was really terribly long to make an appointment. And u know Germany is like that, it kept remind u “Don’t Be Late”. So I had to go to Germany Embassy before 9 o’clock on 5th December…
To be continued…
I think I haven’t told u that I plan to visit Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on 18th December and will go back on 26th. Actually it is a plan which made without many consideration. All things were planed in a rush and I have been through terrible process that makes me want to give up this trip few times. Just let me explain why.
I never thought of how important diplomacy was before I got here. It all began with one friend of mine invited me and another friends of mine to travel in Europe. I have to jump the plot soon or u’ll feel bored by my diary. Most important of all, I am the only one who needs to apply the Schengen visa (the visa which allows u to travel a few countries in Europe) because my friends are all from Hong Kong. So the torture begins. What I need to apply for Schengen visa is school letter, bank statement, travel insurance, hotel-booking statement etc. My school letter takes “one-week” working days for them to type a piece of paper that on it says I am the student of this university. And my bank is even worse, I went to the bank to ask for a statement which is another paper to prove I have enough money in my account. I queued for about 10 minutes and then the clerk just told me to wait in another place. Then I waited for another 10 minutes and then some guy just ask me what did I need. I told him and he told me keep waiting because they couldn’t print it out in the bank. I have to order one and then they will send it to me. I asked him what should I do and he just told me to wait…not so surprisingly... I waited for another 40 minutes and just the same guy came to me and asked me again what I did need. He finally took me to his table and then gave me a paper which has a telephone number. He said that just phone this number and tell them u want the statement. I waited for one hour and just get a telephone number. U can imagine how I felt…Actually, I really couldn’t understand why they are so mechanical. People here are nice actually but sometimes I just felt they are so inefficient. A easy task can become very complicated without any reason here.
Back to the visa, after two weeks, I finally got everything I need, including a travel insurance which took me some time to find one. The most terrible thing is: I have to make a appointment by phone which cost one pound per minutes (one pound is about 55 Taiwan dollars). I was not sure how long it will take and I just took all my changes and picked up a public phone to call the Germany Embassy. By the way, the appointment is like they record the process, u have to press 1 for bla bla…press 2 for another bla bla…u know what I mean. I think I pressed the right one but it says I did not use a touch phone but I did. The stupid machine could not recognize the public phone. When I wanted to hear more, all of my changes went out (which is 2 pounds). I will tell u how much it cost later because I did not phone it by myself after the first try. I felt it is too expensive if I kept trying. So I went to the International Centre in the university to ask for help. The lady just said she would only help me once and I must not tell others or she would just refuse them as well. She made the phone call by using her extended phone but hers could not be recognized too. Then she just asked another lady in that office to help me because her telephone is not an extended one. It took about 10 minutes for her to finish the appointment finally. The lady just said it was really terribly long to make an appointment. And u know Germany is like that, it kept remind u “Don’t Be Late”. So I had to go to Germany Embassy before 9 o’clock on 5th December…
To be continued…