Chicago

13 hours of driving, an amazing Thai meal, and one huge Chicago-style pizza later, and I have my visa as of 9:15 this morning. The rest of the day I was riding the exchange student high, having checked off one of the last tasks standing between me and Chile save actually getting on the right planes at the right times.

The Chilean Consulate certainly looked a lot more impressive in my head than it did in real life. After driving to Chicago on Wednesday we had the whole afternoon to go swimming at the Lake Michigan beach, browse Michigan Avenue (without actually buying anything), and eat at a divine Thai restaurant. I have realized that great food is one of the few things I need to be happy, which is why Chicago and I became such good buddies in the space of 24 hours. We went to scope out the Consulate the night before the appointment, which was a lot more difficult than it should have been and we only found it because my cousin Carlin spotted a U.S. flag and a Chilean flag hanging from a nondescript brick industrial building. But go to the second floor of that building and there you'll find a mini Chilean oasis complete with a picture of the Chilean president (who is a woman, how cool is that?), a Spanish edition of the Chicago newspaper, and yes- real Chileans! All I had to do was get fingerprinted and then a very formal woman gave me back my passport with the visa inside and a whole packet of official sealed papers, without even asking for my I.D. It was crazy easy, even though the whole time I was freaking out that they would ban me from entering Chile because my Spanish isn't great or because I forgot to keep my hands on the table when the woman was talking to me (which I read in a travel book is rude), and then frantically pulled them out from under the table when I remembered belatedly. The woman asked me if I spoke Spanish, the answer to which I had thought about before I came (in my head it was very charming- and in Spanish too), which of course came out in real time as "um- a little". Very suave.

Enjoy the pictures! I leave 1 week from tomorrow!

Visa! Looked very nice in my passport :)

The Consulate

Another bit of news is that I got my itinerary, on my birthday no less, which is one of the best presents I could think of. I leave August 21st at 5:45 for Atlanta, then I board an overnight plane to Santiago where I arrive the next morning August 22nd. :D