Misadventures in Chicago

Well, what I can say is that I made it! I left my apartment at 5:30am yesterday to head to Chicago to deliver all of the paperwork and my passport so I could get my visa to go to Brazil. When I was only an hour away from Chicago, I realized that with my over-protective nature of my passport, I left it back at my apartment in Fortville. After I felt like I was going to get sick because of how stupid I was, I did the math and figured out that I still had enough time to go back to Fortville to pick up the passport and return to Chicago. The drive was pretty good, except for I was just so sick of being in the damn car! Once I was in town in Chicago trying to find a place to park (already knowing that it was going to cost me an arm & leg...) with all of these people walking across the street and a stoplight at every block, I went down too far on Michigan and it turned into Lake Shore Blvd! If I would have known that I could have bypassed 3 miles of traffic and congestion in town, I could have just taken the hwy to Lake Shore and bam been there! I finally found a place to park in a garage at the Chicagoan apartments two blocks off of Michigan. Ok, 6 blocks doesn't sound like that far of a walk but when you are running late, it's 18 degrees with 15mph cold wind and you're walking uphill things seem to take much longer! The Consulate is located in the 401 building right by the Chicago Tribune and WGN, so I got to walk by all of the fancy clothes and shoe stores on the way! I took the middle of the three sets of elevators up to the 30th floor and followed the sign to the Brazilian consulate. When I got into the office I looked at the signs, found which window I needed to go to, set down my bag and started digging out all of my paperwork. I stood there at the window, looked at the clock (it was 12:30 by now) and watched the clerk visit with other office staff and do some things at her desk before she walked over to me. I gave her all of my paperwork, and she informed me that I needed at type 1 student visa, not a type 4 (I guess you need a type 4 visa if you plan to graduate from a Brazilian university), which cost $160 instead of $140 (the amount I already had a money order made out for!). She said- oh, it's no problem, there is an ATM in the basement. So I took the elevator back down to the first floor, found a bathroom somewhere because I had had to pee for at least an hour, and found the ATM! But there were 3 other people waiting to use it and it looked older than me... I stood there trying not to bite my nails and tried to look patient while I was waiting for all of the other people and the slow machine. Finally, it was my turn-- I got the $20, took the escelator and elevator back up to the Brazilian consulate, and gave it to the clerk that was waiting on me before. She clipped the cash, the money order, and all of the paperwork together, put a sticker with a number on it on my application, and handed me a slip of paper (probably 3x8") with the same number on it. All of this work for a little slip of paper.... I went and got Vienna sausage for lunch (a region must!) and headed back to the truck. On my way back there was a lady standing outside of White Hen (like a Village Pantry) asking for some change to get food for her and her baby. It looked like she had just walked out of the store, and I overheard her asking someone else for 80 cents. I looked at her and asked how much she needed, and ended up giving her a $5 because I felt bad. Imagine how you would feel if it was so cold and you didn't have any money to buy you and your baby food to eat. The baby was all bundled up in blankets in its stroller, so I didn't actually see a baby. I guess there are desparate people out there-- I hope she needed the money worse than me, I'm a sucker... Guess I have to learn how to deal with that kind of crap here before I go to Brazil and am exposed to the same kind of stuff. The slip said that it takes 5 business days to process the visas, so I should be able to pick it up next Monday December 12. I think what I'm going to do is head up there Sunday night, get a hotel room downtown and atleast go window shopping and look at the Christmas lights. That will be so fun, and it shouldn't be as rushed as last time so I can enjoy myself. I'll let you know how the trip to Chicago goes, and hopefully when I come back I will have my passport and visa!!