Spain, here I come!

Yeeeesssssss! My visa arrived today! I'm so excited!

We also bought my plane ticket today. I will be leaving Monday morning at 7:30am. I will have a short layover in NY and from there I will fly over to Madrid. My anticipated arrival time is 7:25am on Tuesday. From there I will take the bus or train to Albacete. I sent Inés a message letting her know when I would be there. If there is still someone who can pick me up I'll probably do that. From what I can tell there are only 2 buses that go from Albacete to Siles each day. I will not make it to Albacete in time to take the earlier bus and the later bus doesn't get to Siles until 11pm. Getting into Siles in the dark without an address of where the hostal is makes me really nervous. I'll probably stay the night in Albacete and take the early bus on Wednesday to Siles.

In less than a week I'll be teaching in Spain! Prayers for safe travel are much appreciated!

Visa, visa, where are you?!

Nope. Still no visa. My original goal of leaving on Saturday (tomorrow) is not going to happen. What frustrates me most is that I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone at the Spanish consulate. I tried calling 3 times and e-mailed twice with no response. Whenever I try to call it puts me through one of those obnoxious pre-recorded systems, with the final option being "Please leave a voice message" instead of actually talking to someone. Then, to top it off, you can't leave a voice message because their message inbox is full.

Inés sent me a message asking where I was and why I wasn't there yet. I just wish I could give her an approximate date that I would be there but I can't even buy airfare until I get my visa or at least a status update from the Spanish consulate.

I remembered that I had the tracking number for the envelope and that the consulate had given me a website where I could track the process of my visa. Neither appear to have any updates about my visa and that really concerns me. I hope that my visa is going in the mail soon or at least almost completed processed. Waiting another week or two would be such a disappointment. I'm already 2 weeks late and don't want to be any later.

Here's hoping my visa shows up tomorrow!

Apostille of the Hague...What?

Ok.

*Deep Breath*

Getting the Apostille certification is a pain in the $#@.

First things first. What the heck is an Apostille of the Hague???
-An "apostille" is a form of authentication issued to documents for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961.

That clears it all up, right? Riiiiight. *How* to get an apostille certification is about as clear as what it is.

Last time I went to Spain all I had to do was go to the Washington State Patrol website, pay $10 and print out my background check. This time the Spanish consulate didn’t accept that. They told me that I needed to talk to my local police station and they would give me something more official.

I went to the police station in Snohomish and they told me that I needed to go to the station in Everett. I went to the police station in Everett, paid another $10 and they gave me a more official looking background check.

I went home and tried to do more research on the Apostille certification. I found one official site that said I was going to have to pay about $300 and mail it to New York or something crazy like that. Panic set in a little. $300??? Really??? They wouldn’t really make the language assistants pay that much for a background check, right? No. They wouldn’t. I ended up finding the office in Washington that could do these certifications. I overnight mailed the background check to the Apostille office, with a cover letter and $15 for the certification. I received a call from the Apostille office the next day saying they had received everything I sent, but before they could process the Apostille certification I needed to re-contact the state patrol and get the background check notarized.

Uhhhhhh. Ok. So I contact the state patrol and they have me fax over a cover letter explaining the situation and a bank authorization form to charge another $5 for the notarization.

The next day I hear from them again. They got everything I faxed, but also need me to fax the original background check that the Spanish consulate didn’t accept. Back to FedEx I go to fax that over.

A day or two later I get an e-mail stating the notarization had been sent over to the Apostille office.

A day or two after THAT I contact to Apostille to make sure they have everything.

I contact them a couple days after that to see if everything was almost finished and they said it was supposed to go out in the evening mail, but the evening mail never came so it would go out in the morning.

Finally, I receive the background check with the notarization and Apostille certification. It doesn’t get much more official than certified by the Secretary of State! I took it to the post office and express mailed it to the consulate, but they said the earliest they could get it there was by Saturday the 9th. Blah. That means that the consulate can’t get my visa in the mail by the 8th. Even if they receive it the 9th, they won’t be able to finish processing and mailing my visa that day. Then Sunday they aren’t in the office and there isn’t any mail. Monday is Columbus Day, so once again there’s no mail service. *Hopefully* it will go out Tuesday and I’ll have my visa by Thursday. Goal: Fly out Saturday the 16th.

For anyone in Washington that needs to get this Apostille certification, here is the website that finally helped me:
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/apostilles/Default.aspx

Visa appointment...check!

Jet-setting off to San Francisco for the day sounds like something the rich and famous would do. I’ve come to realize it’s not as much fun as it sounds.

I didn’t sleep the night before my trip at all. I was super stressed out about having all my paperwork in order. The consulate was really strict last time I was there. I had most everything in order but there are a few documents I was concerned the consulate wouldn’t accept. My background check didn’t have the Apostille certification (I’m having a hard time figuring out what that is and how I would get one anyways). I didn’t need that last time I applied for a Spanish visa so I was hoping I could get away without it this time as well. I was also supposed to be able to show them proof of financial support of at least $2000 a month (whether it be a scholarship, savings, etc, etc.). My financial plan? Wing it…and pray…and hopefully live on the 700 euro a month that I will be paid to do this teaching…and teach private lessons if I need to. No aspect of that plan has much paperwork that I can show the consulate to convince them I won’t be living like a bum in their country.

My mom took me to the airport really early in the morning and I headed for San Fran. All I had with me was my backpack and it was SO nice. No checking luggage, not even a need to put luggage in the overhead compartments. My backpack tucked neatly under my seat and I didn’t have to deal with any of that hassle. Once I landed in San Fran I hopped on a shuttle and they took me directly to the Spanish consulate. I had been planning on taking the BART system (the subway) but it was going to take me a lot longer and I didn’t want to miss my appointment. Plus, I still needed to find a post office to get a pre-paid envelope so the consulate can mail me my visa (yet another piece of paperwork I was stressed about getting together in time). The shuttle dropped me off, then thank goodness for GPS navigation on my phone. I hustled over to the post office and back in time for my appointment. Last time I had to do this (for my Murcia study abroad trip) I didn’t have GPS navigation and spent a whole lot of time wandering around trying to follow a crappy map.

My appointment went fairly well…not perfect…but well enough. They accepted all my paperwork except my background check. It needs the Apostille certification. I was really afraid they were going to make me fly back down with the correct background check. They are going to start processing my visa while I get the background check, and then allow me to mail it to them. When they receive my background check they will mail me my visa. They estimated they would be able to send me my visa by the 8th so I would receive it by the 11th. I’m amazed. I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to leave for Spain until the end of October or beginning of November even.

After my appointment I walked to the BART system and rode back to the airport. I was blessed enough to have my mom pay for me to get on stand-by for an earlier flight. My flight wasn’t supposed to leave for hours. I grabbed a smoothie, took a nap and ended up on the earlier flight. I got home and immediately climbed into bed. I slept for about 11 hours, until I had to wake up and go to work the next day. This is such a crazy couple of weeks…