A Trip to Chicago
--
From Gilman Girls:
Adoption Visa
Just wanted to write a quick update as I enjoy the sunshine (and a day off!) out here at Navy Pier in Chicago. The adoption visa process could not have gone more smoothly! The instructions from Marcia were perfect - though instead of triple checking my stack of forms and copies of letters, I more like twelve-tuple checked. It paid off though. My appointment was at 10am, I was waiting the half hour for processing by 10:04am, and I was walking out of there with my visa by 10:30am! Wow!
I've just been wandering the streets of Chicago since then. Thinking about taking the train back to the airport. The $40 cab ride from the airport took well over an hour at rush hour. And I'm in no rush to get back home other than to sleep! Was up at 4:22am to catch my 6:15am flight. That's way too early for me.
I can't believe I will be in Colombia - with Paula - next week!!
:-D
--
" LJ the Reader" gets more details, a few things I didn't want to forget about my quick trip to Chicago.
First of all, ended up working at least 10 hours Monday even though I worked from home because I had a few errands I wanted/needed to get done during the day before this trip. Ended up running errands from 6:30pm - 9:00pm instead, working another few hours to document some things coworkers were going to run for me while I was out today, spending HOURS pulling together forms/letters and "twelve-tuple" checking to make sure I had everything I needed for the Colombian Consulate... and the next thing I knew it was after 2:00am. And then I couldn't fall asleep. So my whole day in Chicago was on pretty much NO sleep. (Took a 1.5 hour nap on the couch just now and plan to sleep another 10 hours after this!)
One of my errands was dropping off Paula's presentation day dress with Marcia who is heading down to Colombia tomorrow to visit Mercedes, the ailing founder of FANA. Along with the dress I included a photo album of pictures from her last day here last November since we didn't have time to print those out before she left. I slipped this note into the first page. (Yeah, I liked it so much I scanned it. It's the first letter to her that I signed Mom. :D Also the first one I wrote to her entirely in Spanish, pretty much unassisted too! During last week's Skype call she had asked Adriana to write down a translation of my last letter to her. So sweet!)
It says "My Dear Pretty Little Paula [that's how I always open letters to her - I like it because it rhymes in Spanish!], I don't think you have these photos. Enjoy! We will see each other NEXT WEEK!! I am so happy! I love you very much! ~Mom" and then Mercury and Jupiter say "We're happy too!" Haha. I hope she grins at this as much as I did!
When I arrived at O'Hare this morning, I thought about trying to figure out the train system to get to my appointment, but didn't want to risk it even though I had over two hours. Took that cab instead and had a very friendly cabby from Pakistan. I asked only a few questions and he talked and talked the whole hour+ trip in horrible traffic. I learned a few things about Islam that I didn't know before! I think he was happy to talk and be more than just a chauffeur.
Got to the appointment with more than half an hour to spare and found a little café next door where I got some breakfast. As I mentioned in the CaringBridge entry, the adoption visa process could not have gone more smoothly. I was told the consulate could ask you to come back the next day, so my return flight wasn't booked until tomorrow and I was literally free to do whatever I wanted in Chicago... until tomorrow if I wanted! But I knew I'd head back today because I didn't want to miss two days of work the week before leaving for two months.
I did walk around downtown for a few hours though. Before ending up at Navy Pier, I found my way to a quiet little park at the edge of Lake Michigan. I believe that's the Hancock tower, not the Sears.
My Google Maps app helped me take a bus from Navy Pier to the train to O'Hare! I was kind of proud of that. I spent $2 on bus fare and then $5 (because I didn't have exact change) for train fare, still WAY less than the morning's cab fare. I realized once I got home that this picture from the 'L' looks a little like the seamy underbelly of Chicago, but I liked it because you can see the Sears tower fading away in the distance. (I was in a backwards facing seat.)
Once I got to O'Hare, I walked by the people at the transit card machines and gave my card to a man trying to smooth out a worn, wrinkled dollar bill. I said "This has $2.75 left on it if you want it. I'm leaving town now and can't use it." He looked surprised and said "Thank you." As I walked away, I heard him say again, "Wow. Thank you so much." Best $2.75 I ever spent. :)
Oh, and American Airlines totally gouged me for moving my return flight up a day: $225! WTF? United had told me it would be $75, which is what I was expecting, but my return flight was with American for some reason and they said they basically had to book me a new flight. Whatever. I wanted to get home and sleep in my own bed, covered with my cats, so I paid it. That flight left less than an hour later too, so I was able to just get out of there and get home.
It was an expensive day, but productive and fun and definitely out of the ordinary. Now I will sleep for a really long time.
From Gilman Girls:
Adoption Visa
Just wanted to write a quick update as I enjoy the sunshine (and a day off!) out here at Navy Pier in Chicago. The adoption visa process could not have gone more smoothly! The instructions from Marcia were perfect - though instead of triple checking my stack of forms and copies of letters, I more like twelve-tuple checked. It paid off though. My appointment was at 10am, I was waiting the half hour for processing by 10:04am, and I was walking out of there with my visa by 10:30am! Wow!
I've just been wandering the streets of Chicago since then. Thinking about taking the train back to the airport. The $40 cab ride from the airport took well over an hour at rush hour. And I'm in no rush to get back home other than to sleep! Was up at 4:22am to catch my 6:15am flight. That's way too early for me.
I can't believe I will be in Colombia - with Paula - next week!!
:-D
--
" LJ the Reader" gets more details, a few things I didn't want to forget about my quick trip to Chicago.
First of all, ended up working at least 10 hours Monday even though I worked from home because I had a few errands I wanted/needed to get done during the day before this trip. Ended up running errands from 6:30pm - 9:00pm instead, working another few hours to document some things coworkers were going to run for me while I was out today, spending HOURS pulling together forms/letters and "twelve-tuple" checking to make sure I had everything I needed for the Colombian Consulate... and the next thing I knew it was after 2:00am. And then I couldn't fall asleep. So my whole day in Chicago was on pretty much NO sleep. (Took a 1.5 hour nap on the couch just now and plan to sleep another 10 hours after this!)
One of my errands was dropping off Paula's presentation day dress with Marcia who is heading down to Colombia tomorrow to visit Mercedes, the ailing founder of FANA. Along with the dress I included a photo album of pictures from her last day here last November since we didn't have time to print those out before she left. I slipped this note into the first page. (Yeah, I liked it so much I scanned it. It's the first letter to her that I signed Mom. :D Also the first one I wrote to her entirely in Spanish, pretty much unassisted too! During last week's Skype call she had asked Adriana to write down a translation of my last letter to her. So sweet!)
It says "My Dear Pretty Little Paula [that's how I always open letters to her - I like it because it rhymes in Spanish!], I don't think you have these photos. Enjoy! We will see each other NEXT WEEK!! I am so happy! I love you very much! ~Mom" and then Mercury and Jupiter say "We're happy too!" Haha. I hope she grins at this as much as I did!
When I arrived at O'Hare this morning, I thought about trying to figure out the train system to get to my appointment, but didn't want to risk it even though I had over two hours. Took that cab instead and had a very friendly cabby from Pakistan. I asked only a few questions and he talked and talked the whole hour+ trip in horrible traffic. I learned a few things about Islam that I didn't know before! I think he was happy to talk and be more than just a chauffeur.
Got to the appointment with more than half an hour to spare and found a little café next door where I got some breakfast. As I mentioned in the CaringBridge entry, the adoption visa process could not have gone more smoothly. I was told the consulate could ask you to come back the next day, so my return flight wasn't booked until tomorrow and I was literally free to do whatever I wanted in Chicago... until tomorrow if I wanted! But I knew I'd head back today because I didn't want to miss two days of work the week before leaving for two months.
I did walk around downtown for a few hours though. Before ending up at Navy Pier, I found my way to a quiet little park at the edge of Lake Michigan. I believe that's the Hancock tower, not the Sears.
My Google Maps app helped me take a bus from Navy Pier to the train to O'Hare! I was kind of proud of that. I spent $2 on bus fare and then $5 (because I didn't have exact change) for train fare, still WAY less than the morning's cab fare. I realized once I got home that this picture from the 'L' looks a little like the seamy underbelly of Chicago, but I liked it because you can see the Sears tower fading away in the distance. (I was in a backwards facing seat.)
Once I got to O'Hare, I walked by the people at the transit card machines and gave my card to a man trying to smooth out a worn, wrinkled dollar bill. I said "This has $2.75 left on it if you want it. I'm leaving town now and can't use it." He looked surprised and said "Thank you." As I walked away, I heard him say again, "Wow. Thank you so much." Best $2.75 I ever spent. :)
Oh, and American Airlines totally gouged me for moving my return flight up a day: $225! WTF? United had told me it would be $75, which is what I was expecting, but my return flight was with American for some reason and they said they basically had to book me a new flight. Whatever. I wanted to get home and sleep in my own bed, covered with my cats, so I paid it. That flight left less than an hour later too, so I was able to just get out of there and get home.
It was an expensive day, but productive and fun and definitely out of the ordinary. Now I will sleep for a really long time.