![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So not only do I not have my Visa yet, today I received an e-mail saying: "We have received your application and it is now waiting to be assessed." even though I handed in this application at the consulate over two weeks ago and it supposedly takes 7 to 10 business days and this is the eleventh business day, but now apparently they're going to take three more days to process it. Meanwhile, I still don't have a plane ticket because my dad won't buy it without the Visa (I wouldn't either) and I need to make hotel arrangements for the first few days when I'll (supposedly) be in London before the housing contract starts.
Meanwhile my grandmother won't stop talking about the hurricanes appearing everywhere, which makes me notice just how much we don't talk about particular hurricanes in Puerto Rico once they pass us by. We just watch them for as long as they might possibly hit us. Once they go north or south, we stop caring and look out for the next one. Hurricanes are such a natural part of our culture that we don't panic. We don't take tropical storms seriously or category one hurricanes, which some of us don't count as hurricanes. Officially, Puerto Rico has been hit by three hurricanes during my lifetime. really, we only count the first and the third, the category 3 Hugo and Georges. The second one, Hortensia, felt like nothing more than a glorified thunderstorm. Afterwards, we were all looking at each other like, "That was it?" We were actually disappointed. We have a high respect for hurricanes. It's not that we want them to hit us, because we don't. Being without electricity and water for months really sucks. And there's always the low lying towns that end up navigating their streets with kayaks. But they're one of the few things, besides sports, that brings everyone together. Suddenly fanatic supporters of opposing parties are talking about how best to put up the wooden boards that cover up the windows )although they might be fighting again in the supermarket over the last can of tuna). Being through a hurricane is like a badge of honor, and exchanging hurricane stories is immensely popular. And the rush of being immersed in something so powerful, of seeing trees yanked out by their roots and tossed around like leaves... It's not like in the videos. Those don't even get you a taste of what it's like.
They're the prime natural force we experience, followed by earthquakes, which do cause genuine panic, even though we mostly get hit by only small tremors and the next Big One has been announced for so long that we've all learned to push it to the backs of our minds. Those do terrify me, along with tornadoes, which don't panic anyone in my family here in Illinois even when the tornado siren goes off and I'm already hiding in the basement, my heart beating a mile a minute. But tornadoes are much more powerful than hurricanes, and you can't see them coming, which really fucking scares me.
Meanwhile my grandmother won't stop talking about the hurricanes appearing everywhere, which makes me notice just how much we don't talk about particular hurricanes in Puerto Rico once they pass us by. We just watch them for as long as they might possibly hit us. Once they go north or south, we stop caring and look out for the next one. Hurricanes are such a natural part of our culture that we don't panic. We don't take tropical storms seriously or category one hurricanes, which some of us don't count as hurricanes. Officially, Puerto Rico has been hit by three hurricanes during my lifetime. really, we only count the first and the third, the category 3 Hugo and Georges. The second one, Hortensia, felt like nothing more than a glorified thunderstorm. Afterwards, we were all looking at each other like, "That was it?" We were actually disappointed. We have a high respect for hurricanes. It's not that we want them to hit us, because we don't. Being without electricity and water for months really sucks. And there's always the low lying towns that end up navigating their streets with kayaks. But they're one of the few things, besides sports, that brings everyone together. Suddenly fanatic supporters of opposing parties are talking about how best to put up the wooden boards that cover up the windows )although they might be fighting again in the supermarket over the last can of tuna). Being through a hurricane is like a badge of honor, and exchanging hurricane stories is immensely popular. And the rush of being immersed in something so powerful, of seeing trees yanked out by their roots and tossed around like leaves... It's not like in the videos. Those don't even get you a taste of what it's like.
They're the prime natural force we experience, followed by earthquakes, which do cause genuine panic, even though we mostly get hit by only small tremors and the next Big One has been announced for so long that we've all learned to push it to the backs of our minds. Those do terrify me, along with tornadoes, which don't panic anyone in my family here in Illinois even when the tornado siren goes off and I'm already hiding in the basement, my heart beating a mile a minute. But tornadoes are much more powerful than hurricanes, and you can't see them coming, which really fucking scares me.
