002 piles of paper

today and yesterday have been filled with writing my names in boxes and making photocopies of what seems to be millions of papers in order to apply for a spanish visa. the entire process makes me wonder if the spanish hate americans like everyone says they do. but, i digress. my mother and i (mostly me) have been running around town to make sure everything is in place for our visit to the spanish consulate in san francisco. today was the verdict of whether or not i put everything together correctly.

my mother woke me up bright and early in the morning (around six in the morning, i believe) by pulling the covers off of my and spraying my face with water. i groggily made my way to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and got dressed. on the kitchen table there was a bottled frappachino waiting for me. i gathered my purple spain folder and we stopped at kinkos to make a last minute photocopy. we then proceeded on the freeway to the city. traffic was horrible. we finally arrived at the spanish consulate around 8:25 in the morning and waited until 9am for the consulate to open. there were already two people in front of us (from ucla, no less) who had been there since around six in the morning because they thought the crowd would be ridiculous. fortunately, for us, arriving at 8:25am was sufficient. as we waited more and more people started to join behind us. a girl that goes to ucdavis, and then a mom with her son. she would only speak to him in spanish and he would only respond in english as he sat in the sun playing his video game. we waited until about 915 before they opened their doors.

the spanish consulate is a very slow moving machiene. they open 15 minutes late and think nothing of it. we were all told to write our names down on a list and wait for our names to be called. they accepted spanish citizens first, giving to credence to the order in which all of us arrived. it was at least 9:30am before they called the first girl in. i heard very loud talking in the back room to only see her walk out saying "i didn't get it"-- she had applied too early. they then let in another spaniard before the man came outside of his office to call another name. apparently i heard nothing because it was my mother who told me that my name had been called. there were at least fourty people in the cramped space of the waiting area at this point and had i missed my name i would have to go to the back of the line. i went inside, quickly, with all my papers in order and just like that: boom bam bam. she took my passport and told me to check the tracking on my pre-paid express envelope in 45 days.

so now i wait.