Jake: Visa Adventure, Part I

This is my first time blogging ever.

Today was a big day - ventured into La Gran Manzana, braving wind and rain to get an Ecuadorian Visa. I arrived at the Ecuadorian consulate with minor issue to find a confusing scene - a long waiting room with lots of Ecuadorians, numbered windows, and zero white people (besides me). The lady at the entrance handed me a numbered ticket and mumbled something in Spanish. I was confused, but soon enough the man on the loudspeaker called my number, so I went to the window and asked for a visa. After some confusing Spanish and equally confusing English, he told me to sit and wait for a person to appear at the next window. 30 minutes go by and no one appears. I go back up to the window and ask a different guy what the deal is. He calls someone, and a lady appears at the window. She takes my folder filled with letters from police, doctors, passports, and 30 pages of Spanish legal mumbo-jumbo with all sorts of official seals. In broken English she tells me she'll be back in 15 minutes.

Another half hour goes by, and finally she returns. "We have some problems with your documents." Uh-oh. So, it turns out that a bunch of the important legal stuff my school sent me is out of date and/or missing. And, there's another little issue...turns out the visa I'm applying for is only for VOLUNTARY work. So my contract that the school told me to include, detailing my salary information...yeah, Senorita Consular don't like that too much. Apparently, what I need from my school is a letter saying they will support me and pay for all my living expenses while I'm in Ecuador. They can even say they are giving me money every month for food, housing, transportation, etc. But, they definitely can't say the monthly payments form a salary. Well shit.

I left the consulate, opened my umbrella, donned my snorkel, and waded through the New York monsoon towards Lily's office. The rest of the afternoon was great, met up with Lily, went out to lunch, looked at Times Square. BTW Lily is kind of a big deal. She works in a 600-story brand-new fancy tower building, like 2 blocks from Times Square. I stood in the lobby, but apparently you need security clearance to get to the elevators.

Hope all's well with everyone! I'm at home eagerly awaiting my school to Fed-Ex me new visa documents. Saturday I'm going to Dartmouth, then Sunday work starts in Northfield, Mass.

Keep in touch! Stay tuned for Visa Adventure, Part II: Jake enters Ecuador by force, bb guns ablazin' and bat out of hell arockin'.