All that for ten minutes?: Visa Appointment

So, after much stress, OCD, and anticipation, I finally went in for my visa appointment on Monday, August 30, 2012. My time slot was slated for 10:45am and I showed up, of course, with over 30 minutes to spare. During this visa process, my organization compulsions knew no bounds. I was the Santa of legal documents. Making lists...checking them twice...or rather a hundred times in most instances. I wanted nothing missing, no stone unturned, no excuse to be denied entrance to this lovely country that I feel so close to that I can practically taste the jamón!

 Now, remember that my appointment was with the dreaded Miami Consulate...(dun dun dunnnn). All of the horror stories and unanswered phone calls/emails prior to this day left me feeling extremely uncertain...scratch that...I was absolutely certain...certain that something was bound to go wrong and screw everything up. However, I must say, regardless of their inability to hold a phone to their ear for a mere second and lend counsel, they were surprisingly adept at efficiency and the entire ordeal took a matter of minutes.

Snuck this photo on the way out lol

I walked in with my handy dandy documents folder where I held each completed and appropriately signed item that they requested in the order that it was listed on their website: (Note: On the Miami Consulate page, under student visa, there is an option to see the requirements for Language Assistants)

http://www.conspainmiami.org/pdf/visado/ASSISTANT.pdf


When you go into the office, they give you a number to wait in line regardless of your appointment time. Now I'm pretty sure that numbers are not physically different in Spanish, so it will never be clear to me exactly how my number '12' that I was given actually meant '32'. There was a definite moment of confusion when the lady repeatedly called my number (32) and I, being the only one in the waiting room (with the number 12) did not immediately move. Is this the sort of thing I should be getting used to? Did I skip a chapter in my Spanish book that said that in Spanish 1's are in fact 3's? *sigh* Oh well...small hiccup in the grand scheme of things...and a sprinkling of humor on an otherwise stressful morning for me.

Once I realized I was being summoned, I jaunted up to the window...yes, window, there is no desk. I handed over each document as requested to the (insert: stunningly beautiful) woman behind the counter,  gaped at her sat for a moment while she reviewed my information, stamped some things, made  additional copies of things (although I had like four of everything), and shuffled some things around.


She walked to the back of the office, came back, flashed a gorgeous smile (I promise to stop gushing now) and handed me back my application, photo firmly attached, with a flimsy receipt on it that proclaimed (in the faintest of blue ink as to be nearly illegible) that my visa would be ready for pick up on August 27, 2012.


So voila!!! That is done and now I am on to the next long wait!!!


How was your visa experience? Any blunders? Were you a crazed organizer before hand?

Hasta pronto!!!
XOXO

One Way Ticket

So... I bought my plane ticket to Madrid.

Yes...yes!!! I know...shouldn't I have waited 'til after my visa appointment to book this? Well, no! Tickets were steadily rising and I couldn't bear to pay an arm and a leg after I've seen dirt cheap flights.

I purchased my ticket through StaTravel (www.statravel.com). I first had to apply for a discount international student card ($25) which also doubles as a prepaid Mastercard (not a bad deal since it gets you tons of travel discounts for a year and the withdrawal fees are cheaper than most American banks when used abroad).

Because I am over the 26 year old age limit for STA and I have been out of college for a while, I purchased my card first (using the name of the school I was placed at) then called their help line and chose the option to speak to a representative for the student card. I explained the program to her and she helped me to book my flight over the phone and added a note on my reservation about the fact that I was traveling on a student visa under a governmental educational grant.


I decided to only do a one-way trip for now and deal with the rest later since I am pretty sure I want to travel around Europe a bit next summer before coming back to the states (or staying on for another year). Best part...my flight is a lovely overnight flight (see: me drugged up on Melatonin and passed out for the whole thing) and it was only $350!!!! SWEET!!!

So the official plan is this: Leave Miami on Sept. 17, quick layover in DC, land in Madrid early on Sept. 18, catch a morning bus to Logroño, check into lodging, crash until a reasonable time to grab some wine and pinchos!!!

As for lodging, that part is still a bit up in the air. A few assistants have been talking about getting a vacation apartment rental and splitting the costs while we all apartment hunt. Unfortunately, Logroño has very limited advertisements for cheap hostels. So, this is a kink that I still need to work out.

Completed Tasks:
- Finding a home for my doggies. (It  is awesome)
- Collecting all needed documents for my visa appointment
- Packing (I had to move anyway!)
- Purchased plane ticket


To-Do List:
- Relocate to Miami until the end of the summer
- Visa appointment at the Miami Consulate
- Find a hostel in Logroño
- Purchase a bus ticket from Madrid to Logroño, then back to Madrid for orientation
-Stress about getting my visa back in time


So yeah...still a few things left to get together...but I'm feeling the excitement again (this was lost temporarily in the teary anguish of giving away my pups and moving out of my house)...bring on España!!!!


Hasta Pronto!!!!!
XOXO

How Stalking Pays Off... (Admitida Status)

So...as of today, I have officially been "Admitida"-ed (#355) into the Language and Culture Assistant Program through the Ministry of Education in Spain....I am sooooooo stoked about this. I am still keeping my hope alive with the CIEE program so that I am as likely as possible to get placed in a desirable location...

But either way the cookie crumbles... I AM going to SPAIN!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!! (Can you tell that I am excited?)

Unlike a lot of the other people that I have spoken to, I am one of the rare people that has never even traveled abroad for leisure or study. So this is truly a sink or swim situation for me. I am so nervous/excited that I'm kind of jumping out of my skin...its a very high school girl giddy sort of thrill.

I went through a little stress dealing with the Miami Consulate (they refused to pick up my calls, allow me to leave a voicemail, or respond to my emails...). It took me over 2 weeks to have my "Registrada" status changed to "Admitida". Apparently, the secret is sending them a series of straightforward, to the point emails repeatedly over the course of 3 days and they will get back to you. <Insert Steve Urkel voice: "I'm Wearing you dooowwwnnnn!!!!"> lol

So now I'm all set and officially allowed to head off to Spain (provided that I don't end up on an episode of Snapped between now and August) and all I have to do is feign patience until April to find out where I have been placed....

Dream Places (in order):
-Seville
-Granada
-Logroño
-Any urban city in Castilla- La Mancha

So here we go...expect lots of bemoaning bureaucratic nonsense for a while...followed by (hopefully) joyful tales of travel...Also I think that my next post will be a sample of my writing...I just really need this space to feel like my own...skip it if you like, give feedback if you have any...

I was this kind of excited to get my Admitida status...in case you were wondering lol