December 20th, 2005

Monday 19th December 2005, 11:05pm BCT

Went today to apply for a social security number. Its kind of like a tax file number in Australia and you need one to do any kind of work in the US.

We headed off early into down town San Jose to hopefully get it done quick. 4 hours after we left we got back… yep… 4 hours later. It was kind of nutto which really shouldnt have surprised me really since it was a govt department.
We got to the social security office to find a line up outisde the main foyer. One line was for people that had a meeting at 9:30, the other was for people who didnt have appointments (us). So we stand in the line waiting for our turn, only one person at a time is allowed in the foyer and each person is put through the usual security procedures.

Since we didnt have a meeting or appointment we were low priority, which means that anyone with an appointment or a meeting could rock up at anytime and get in before us. So we stood outside for sometime before finally getting in. Went though the usualy bag scan / body scan then headed to the social security office. Once there, yep, we joined another line and got given a form to fill out and told to take a seat and wait for our names to be called.

One at a time we were called up, handed over our documents and stood there while the lady typed numerous stuff into the keybord. After i dunno how long we each got given the piece of paper telling us to expect the social security in the mail in a few weeks.

After that long wait and time, we made our way back by bus then walked to work. We managed to get there by noon.

People at work were a bit worried, i didnt expect it to take that long so didnt think to email/call anyone to let them know. Its all good now though, i shouldnt have to go and do anymore stuff. Just got to fill in and fax off my 2 week AIPT survey thingo and its all good.

Work is great, lots of fun.

Thats all… for now