Alright, as I previously wrote, I got all my ducks in a row.  My application form was filled out, all my letters were written and I had a stack of paper ready to submit.

I woke up today with one goal – go to the VisaHQ office and submit my visa application.

Before I did that though I still needed to do one more thing

I needed to get a passport photo to submit with the application.

The cheapest place in town to get a passport photo is at Costco for just $6.99 so that’s where I went.

But first

A haircut!

Ok, more of a “buzz it all off cause it’s summer and I’m sick of long hair”

bald-todd

It was almost 3:30pm by the time I arrived at Costco which didn’t give me a lot of wiggle room to get to the office in time.

You see, while I still say Vancouver is my home town – it’s actually not anymore.  About 8 months ago I moved out to the suburbs so it’s about 45 minutes away and the office was closing at 5pm.

Basic math said this was gonna be a tight squeeze

And then my fun time at Costco came and made it certain – this Russian visa adventure would be continuing at least one more day.

Costco generally is a nuisance.  Just the shear number of people and the endless waiting in different lines is enough to drive you crazy.  However, if you’re silly enough to go there when you’re in a hurry well, that’s never good thing.

So, I showed up at Costco – in a hurry – and went straight to the photo counter.  The man took one look at me and immediately asked his working partner if “that was okay”.

That?   What that?   What was he talking about???

Well, here’s a lesson for you boys and girls out there don’t wear a white t-shirt for a passport photo!

I took a moment to think about my options and told the guy I’d be right back.  I zipped into the store and picked up the first (dark) shirt I found and went to the cashier.  I stood in line (of course) and waited.  Naturally, when it was finally my turn, the cashier stopped to replace the printer roll in her register.  I stood and waited some more

Once she rang me up, I paid my cash and waited for my receipt

Hey, here’s a question for ya what happens to the first receipt that prints off a new printer roll???

Anyone?

Anyone??

Yeah, it doesn’t print properly

She pulled off the receipt, showed me the half printed receipt and asked me if it was okay.

Now, normally, I don’t give two flips about my receipts but this shirt was going to be immediately returned once I had my photo taken so, yeah, I kinda needed it.

I thought she’d just hit a “reprint receipt” button but I guess they don’t have one of those cause she had to call over her manager who then led me to the office where I waited (again) to get a hard copy of the receipt from the computer in there.

Oh, those precious minutes ticking away

By the time I made it back over to the photo counter I knew my trip into Vancouver wouldn’t be happening today.

Oh well, let the adventure continue

USSR Trip 2015, Pretrip, Trip Journal

USSR 2015
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