The Eagle Will Be Landing

Wow! What a day today. Be glad, very glad you don’t have to deal with the American embassy here in Rio. Today João had his appointment to get his visa to the US (his had expired). Things have changed since he got his last visa in 1997. I was pleased in that you had to set up an appointment, with an exact time and day and all the forms filled out electronically. I figured it would be a snap. Now why would I possibly think that anything that had to do with bureaucracy would be a snap? Have I gone temporarily insane of something? Especially an embassy which takes on all the worse possible traits of both countries.

The day dawned hot and sunny and off we went for the 10:30 appointment, that they warned us to arrived 30 minutes beforehand to have time to do security. So what did we behold upon arriving? The same old block long line. Of course being the good American I am, I looked at that line and had a heart attack, went up to the door and simply told them we had an appointment for 10:30 and wanted to go in since it was now 10AM. They looked at me like I was crazy and didn’t even waste their breath talking to me. They just pointed down the block at the end of the line. Man was I irritated. I mean what IS the point of an appointment?  I had to pay $35 just for privilege of setting up the appointment via internet and this is the efficient result? Government efficiency at its very best.

Argh. After about 20 minutes of profuse sweating and complaining, I took myself across the street to an air conditioned restaurant, abandoning my husband to suffer in line (well, it was his visa, not mine, after all).  Every bone starts to ache, my head throbs and soon I begin to feel like I am going to just die and I don’t care what I have to do to get out of the heat. I might even sell my mother’s kidneys to get out of the heat. Phooey, I’d sell my own. I get desperate. So I sat in the restaurant drinking a milkshake, soaking up the cold air and watching the line not move.

Oh, did I say not move? Well every 20 minutes or so, they would let in a new group. So around 11 or so, I saw João move into the final group and off I went, waving my American passport, so that I could go in with him. Once inside, things went pretty quickly. There was a line to go through security. Then a line to turn in documents. Then a line to fill out a document to have your visa (assuming you are approved) couriered to your house. Then a line to be fingerprinted. Then a line to be interviewed. Then a line to pay the extra fees (there are always extra fees, trust me). João was immediately approved since his trusty wife was there with her all powerful American passport (yes, in this case it really was). Finally there was the line to turn in the final papers to have the passport sent to our house next week, with a new visa and the last line to pick up his cell phone he had to check outside the embassy. Gotta love lines.  Then we came home. End of that saga.

Time to make plans to go to the Baptist World Alliance in Honolulu, Hawaii. I began doing so. I paid our our registration at the event. I downloaded the forms for my registration at the women’s event. Then I studied, from every angle hotels and flights. I got a case of the nervous Nellies and opted out of using Expedia, Obitz or Travelocity, since I had a bad experience with Expedia last year (they actually changed my reservation 6 times and I ended up having a horrible trip coming and going). I finally opted to call the hotel (after dithering about which hotel to pick, since the BWA site said they were full for the dates I wanted), but actually was able to reserve the one I wanted, at about 40% less than the official Alliance “discount” price (I know, that makes no sense!)

I even got a breakfast buffet thrown in and a car rental (yes, I know it’s Dollar rentals and a micro Dodge Caliber) for around $200 for the 9 days. I also got a flight from Cincy (oh did I neglect to mention that I will be spending a couple of weeks of vacation at Mom’s house before heading out to the BWA?) to Hawaii, that only makes one stop and costs much less than our flight from Rio to Cincy!

Our church will be grateful that I have taken such care to spend the least amount of money for the BWA trip (they are paying for the BWA, but the rest of the trip is on my nickel), and have come in almost 40% under budget. Sounds easy, but it took about 8 hours of work on the computer. Here it is midnight and I am just about finishing up. If I could keep my husband’s attention for more than 5 minutes at a time (he finds these details SOOOOOOOO boring – like I don’t? – that he spaces out), I’d make our reservations to visit the family before the BWA.  So I still have to make our flight reservations to get to Mom’s house, but that’s a piece of cake compared to what I have done today. 

Whew! I have been dreading this trip to Hawaii. Seriously. Now I am officially excited, although now I have to start working on my presentation at the women’s conference. I realized that it was the junk I resolved today that I was dreading. I am so glad I am not a travel agent. I am so glad I don’t have to travel too often. Now that it’s all done, I am really excited. Our hotel is just across the street from the Convention Center, so it’s going to be fun to be with Baptists from the entire world for several days. Can’t wait.