I feel like beating my head against the wall...

So I've been emailing the Smithsonian External Affairs i/c in an effort to see if my visa could get approved and my passport returned before I'm due to leave on Thursday. Now it seems like I have to request for an overnight delivery of my passport from D.C., without the visa in it, and for my visa to be sent to the airport in Panama (if it gets approved by then...else, I guess I might be deported...). The story doesn't end there. Even though the visa is approved, I can't get it attached at the airport immigration. They have to confiscate my passport, and I have to go to the Immigration office to pick it up after 2 working days. My connecting flight is supposed to be on Friday, 3pm, and the course starts on Saturday morning. Apparently I can't fly without my passport too. If I wait till Monday, I'll miss 3 days of lessons. And it's the intro to sponge taxonomy and morphology too! Sighs... All these madness, while I'm trying to study for the oral exam on Monday and keeping the 'big picture' of marine biology in mind...

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