14 January, 2008

More Travel Prep (With Bonus OSAP Note!)

My apologies to anyone who's getting thoroughly sick of all the lists of travel prep details. 6 more days and we'll be into the funner* stuff like Eaquae's Travel Mishaps and Unintelligible Accents. I warn you, the amount of Latin whining is going to increase dramatically, though.

I have solved my packing dilemma, at least to my satisfaction. Ramona's dad suggested something called "unaccompanied baggage," so I called the airline about it, and they do it, but through their cargo shipping company. When I called the cargo company, they told me just to pay the excess weight fees and be done with it. The amount I'm shipping is small enough to still fit a suitcase, and if I just take it as luggage, I pick it up on the baggage carousel and go right to customs and immigration. With cargo, you have to do all that, and then make your way to the shipping area, fill out the paperwork to get your stuff, and then go back through customs again. Plus, they charge roughly the same. (Side note: If it came down to it, Canada Post has the cheapest shipping costs by far. FedEx, Purolator, and UPS are all about twice as expensive. Whoda thunk it?)

And it seems that someone at OSAP has their head on proper. Last week, I was told that OSAP moves at a glacially slow pace. No surprise there, but plenty of frustration. Today, the paperwork arrived. Apparently someone in the office realised the extreme silliness of waiting to print, and then waiting even longer to mail. Good on you, Anonymous OSAP Office Drone! I salute you!

Which means I have almost all my ducks lined up.

Freaky.



*"Millennia" is not a word, according to Firefox, but "funner" is. Crazy spellcheck.

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