Visa application

A consulate visit always means adventure. I have stories from time spent in consulates in different countries and for different reasons. Consulates are places where new stories are born.

Last Monday I woke up to a broken down refrigerator, an absentee Airbnb guest and the normal responsibilities of my life.

What to do? Prioritize.

First I canceled class. Then I texted my husband about the fridge. It was 4 am so he was still asleep, but I knew he would get back to me eventually. Then I checked the hours for the China Consulate of Chicago. Then I called Airbnb…the guest moved all her things out, returned her keys, but kept her reservation.

Airbnb refused to mediate, and our local appliance store would not open til Tuesday we learned; but by this time, my husband had already called in to work and explained he needed to take a personal day in order to address the fridge issue. Nothing was going as planned and it was only 9am.

So that was it. We were all home and with nothing to do….except….

Apply for a visa!

There was no sense sulking about all the things going awry, so we piled into the car and drove downtown to 1 East Erie: the China Consulate of Chicago.

I’m still shocked at how painless the process was. Of all the things that went wrong last Monday, the one thing I needed to go right, did.