Hooray! Hooray! It's Update Day!

Visa Status! I had to go to the post office to get my work permit and letter of invitation. (This is basically my part of the paperwork for the visa) DHL doesn't actually deliver out to the middle of nowhere that is my home. They handed the package (It was really just a big cardboard envelope) over the the regular post office to deliver. It would have arrived last Saturday (The 4th), but because the Saturday drivers are usually lazy temps, they didn't feel it was necessary to leave a note saying that they were to lazy to walk the 50 feet to our house to delive the very important papers. It took a bit of internet searching, and a couple phone calls (Mostly on my moms part. Thanks Mom!) to find all this out. So Thursday I went out in the morning to pick up the papers from the post office. After that comes going to the Embassy in D.C. to turn in the papers and get the actual visa. (I'm not sure what it will look like. I'm assuming it will jsut be a fancy stamp in my passport like my Costa Rica tourist visa was.)

So later Thursday, I booked a hotel room and drove the 4-5 hours to just outside D.C. The reason I spent the night is that I had to get the papers in to the embassy by 12:30 on Friday, in order for them to get all the papers and bureaucratic stuff done and get it back to me on Friday. So I spent the night in a Motel 6 outside of D.C. I should have picked a different one, because there was a freaking train that went by the place five times that night! FIVE ****ing times! I did not sleep well. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep-in time to make up for the train's rude awakenings. This was a bad move on my part, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

I got up on Friday at about 9:00. This is really early for me. After the UHC work ended, I immediately reverted back to my old sleep schedule of 4am to noon. So I woke up 9, got a shower/dressed/etc. Google Maps had done fine getting me to the hotel, but they didn't work in the least at getting me to the embassy. they didn't even get me into the city. By 11:30 I had made it into the city but was completely lost. I ended up parking in a random public garage and taking a taxi. I managed to get to the embassy in time, but I hadn't counted on the two hour wait before I could turn in my papers. From what I've read in other blogs, I'll be doing a lot of waiting in lines in China. I hope they aren't as bad as this. The Chinese embassy made a trip to the DMV seem pleasant. Luckily my mp3 player has a long battery, and I was able to fall asleep in my chair for a good portion of the wait. Waiting is actually very easy if you have some music and it's long enough for you to get in a quick nap. Once my number was called, I went up and turned in my papers. This took all of 3 minutes. I can only imaging what everyone in front of me was doing that took them so long.

Because I wasn't able to turn them in, I have to wait till Wednesday to pick up my visa. Why do I have to wait five days? Embassy is closed on weekends. The nit's closed Monday for Columbus Day, because we all know how important Columbus was to the Chinese. I have a dentist appointment on Tuesday. And so I'm going to drive for about 10 hours on Wednesday to D.C. and back to get what will hopefully be the last thing I need to finish before I can finally leave.