Last night we went to bed at 9pm, I got up 3 times during
the night, the last time being 2:30 and I couldn’t fall back asleep. Finally,
Teresa got up and asked me what time it was and it was 4:45am. We both got up
to start our day.
Today is US Embassy Interview Day!
Teresa swears she can see a line already at the embassy but
I don’t see anyone. (It turns out I was looking too far, at the embassy itself,
instead of outside their gates.)
To Jack W.: I think we have similar religious beliefs.
We left the hotel at 6:20 and walked across the street and
down a block and there was already a crowd of a few dozen people.
A Colombian policeman seemed to be in charge and Teresa
listened to his instructions. Just after 6:30 he allowed the US Residents to go
in first. (I’m talking about behind the fence to the embassy property.) I would
say there were dozens if not 100 people waiting. Then the policeman had most of
the others line up next to the fence, and Teresa was near the front. I moved to
the 2nd restaurant on my side of the street named El Embajador.
There were dozens of tables, each identified by a different
US state but I didn’t see Illinois (maybe it was occupied) so I sat at the
Massachusetts table and ordered a café con leche. Soon a different waitress
came over and asked if I had been served. I said yes and she complemented me on
my green eyes. Teresa returned after about 30 minutes and said she was
approved. She was only asked, 1) How long have you and your husband been
together? 2) What kind of work did your husband do in the US, 3) What kind of
work does Teresa do here in Colombia? 4) Do you live in your own apartment?
That was it. He didn’t look at any of the photos, documents, or other stuff we
had painstakingly gathered together. Like I tried to tell her they already
decided ahead of time if you’re going to get a Visa. Teresa told me she saw lots
of people, mostly younger women, ahead of her being rejected without looking at
any of the documents they brought. I paid 8mil for my café con leche and we
left.
We returned to the hotel and had a simple breakfast in their
restaurant. I asked to see her passport and she said they took it and she
handed me a piece of paper with Spanish on one side and English on the other
which said her passport with Visa will be delivered to the “Applicant Service
Center or at the courier office you selected during registration”. I hope 2 ½ years
ago I opted to have it delivered to Medellin. 😊
I just realized, how can Teresa go to the Dominican Republic
if the US Embassy has her passport? Her paper from the embassy had an email
address for questions regarding the delivery of her passport so I dashed off an
email to them. There was also a website “to obtain the status of your passport”
but I found it was “under maintenance”.
Teresa talked to her lawyer Marisol and she said Teresa’s
passport is scheduled to arrive in Medellin on the 18th or 19th
so that sounds encouraging. She later texted us the address which is a few
blocks up from Parque Poblado.
We left the apt at 10:30 and took a hotel van to downtown
Bogota. We agreed with our driver Ricardo to be picked up at the same location
at 4pm.
Of course, the first store Teresa hit was Zara but
after searching both floors she declared all the clothes the same as Medellin –
black and gray. We went outside and across the street to a large mall and took
escalators up to the to (4th) floor and selected a cute restaurant
named La Grand Garden for lunch. At first they gave us breakfast menus
but when we asked for lunch menus they switched them but informed us we’d have
to wait until 11:45 to order lunch. It was now 11:25 and Teresa was starving so
she ordered a croissant and coffee to tide her over.
At 11:45 as soon as we could flag down a waiter, she ordered
a Greek salad bowl and a side of mashed potatoes and I their crispy chicken
sandwich with a mango juice.
It took a while for
our food to arrive and they warned me my plate was hot. Was it ever, I couldn’t
even pick up my sandwich without touching the plate for quite a few minutes so
I started with my fries. Later I even had to remind them I’d ordered a mango
juice. The total came to 150,778 pesos ($34.50).
We walked clockwise (to make sure we didn’t miss anything)
around the 4th floor then moved down a floor and continued all the
way down to the main floor. This is a Christmas display in their atrium:
We found a Cruz Verde and were allowed to buy a
20-pack of Zopiclona for 60mil, giving us a better chance of sleeping well
tonight. I recognized most stores from the same in Medellin. We walked out of
the mall and were bombarded by beggars and people selling sunglasses, watches, lottery
tickets, etc. We checked out a few more stores but by 3:30 we were ready to
leave. Around 4pm Teresa talked to Ricardo and he was far away so he would be
sending another driver around 5pm who would call us when he was close. We went
into a smaller mall and checked it out but we were both exhausted and I was at
my standing/walking limit. We chose a café/restaurant named Philipe on
the first floor with a view of the street and ordered lattes and a slice of
cake with raisins and nuts. Teresa talked to Ricardo a couple more times. Soon
my cellphone battery was down to 8% and I had to shut it off.
Ricardo finally called Teresa at 6pm and said he was
outside. I had already paid our 30mil cafe bill so we just had to drag
ourselves out to the car. It was Ricardo in the same van. I asked him if our
hotel had a courtesy van to take us to the airport. He said no so I made an
arrangement for him to pick us up at 11am tomorrow for 35mil. On our way back
to the hotel he turned down a side street and I thought, “good, he knows a
shortcut”. He stopped at a building and another man came out and I thought we
were going to get another passenger but they just switched drivers. That’s why
he wanted me to pay the 45mil bill early. It took 50 minutes in bumper-to-bumper
traffic from downtown Bogota to return to our hotel.
We had a simple supper in the hotel restaurant for 89,100
pesos ($20.50).
We were both very tired but managed to stay up until 9:30.
JUST FUNNY
