The Korean Consulate Experience

I received my visa number last week and excitedly called the Korean Consulate to schedule an "interview" or so it was called by my recruiter. I spoke to a nice consulate worker who told me to arrive on Monday (today) between 9-11 a.m. I excitedly asked my friend's dad to tag along for some company. Well, it decided to rain today, and the freeways were a mess! It took us almost an hour and a half to get to San Francisco, then came my favorite part, navigating through the city. Needless to say, I got lost and almost got stuck getting on the Golden Gate Bridge, which was not where I was supposed to be. I called the consulate as it was five minutes to 11 a.m. and was told that as long as I got there before 11:30 a.m. I'd be fine. I finally found it, (its in a residential area), and I had to parallel park on a hill between a mini-van and an Audi, which I did perfectly. I raced inside as it was 11:15 a.m., and was asked for all of my documents, which I had ready. In the meantime, my friend's dad (Hank) was making small talk with some of the other people that were there. I literally spent 10 minutes there and it should take two days to process, which works out perfectly as I'm planning to meet up with the old recruiting gang in the city on Wednesday. So, we're leaving the Consulate, and I made a comment on how it would have been so awesome if the mini-van was gone, because I know its going to be tough to navigate out of the spot without "bumping" into their car. Hank helps me by pulling the e-break, while I back up, thinking I had backed up enough, and not hitting the Audi, I get ready to turn the wheel to get out of the spot....then it happens, I totally roll into the mini-van. Well, it gets better, the owners of the mini-van are outside my car and have this look of horror on their face. Then they tell me, "That's my car". I say, ok, just let me get my car out of the spot and we'll see if there is any damage. We got the car out of the spot, and to my luck, Hank had helped these people locate their child inside the Consulate. So they were very nice, said that they understood and since there was no damage let me go without even getting out of the car! That was awesome!

Its almost official, my departure date is December 2nd. The actual flight will be purchased once I get the visa stamp on my passport. I'm really excited and am starting to plan my goodbye party(ies).

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I recently visited my travel buddy, Alexandra in Boston and got to meet her amazing family and friends. I had a great time in New England and am considering moving there once I return from my Korean adventure. I'm also getting excited for my upcoming trip to Seattle to visit Nici and Mike!