I just got back from Chicago earlier this evening and it was a bit of an adventure. The main purpose of the trip was to pick up my visa from the Brazilian consulate. However, I went into this trip not knowing if my visa was going to be ready. I had to go assuming it would be, because I leave tomorrow, and if it wasn't I'd miss my flight.
So yesterday around 12:30 Alina and I threw our stuff in the back seats of the car and set off for Chicago. The drive up wasn't at all bad, it was actually really fun. One day I earlier I had checked the status of my visa on the consulates website, and it wasn't yet ready, it was still in the processing phase, so I was pretty nervous. If it wasn't ready I would have to stay later in Chicago and possibly miss my flight. Roughly half way through the drive I checked it again on my phone, and it had jumped 2 steps to "ready for pick up". I could almost feel the weight lift off my shoulders and the stress I had been feeling since originally getting my guarantee form just disappear, and it was wonderful. So that put a spring in my step for the remainder of the drive, and we had quite a good time.
Driving in a big city is always an, interesting experience for two 18 year olds who have grown up in a town of 9,000 people. Luckily, Alina voulenteered to drive. So despite all the different signs saying there were delays, we had no problem quickly reaching our hostel. Then, the problems started. The hostels parking lot was full, and we couldn't find any overnight parking. After an hour of frustration and driving in circles we finally found a place to park, checked into the hostel, and made it to our dinner reservations, extremely late! We had dinner at La Scarola, an italian restaurant in Chicago. Honestly, it was some of the best food I have ever had. After dinner, we returned to the hostel and went to sleep.
We woke up around 8 and started getting ready to go, we had a lot we wanted to do. So first things first I checked to make sure I checked to make sure I had everything that I needed to pick up my visa. Oops, I needed this sort of receipt thing. No problem, I had already printed out a second one shortly after applying. I went down to some of the computers in the hostel, and tried to print it out. Couldn't find it. Since my visa was completed there was no application pending. So in a growing state of panic I called Perry visa, a third party company I used to apply for the visa. They said it would be no problem, and that I should come down to their office. So after changing are plans we headed straight to Perry visa. When we arrived they told us they had sent a courier to pick up the visa, and that he should be back in under 30 minutes. One hour and ten minutes later, he was back, but it was well worth the wait. I finallyyyy had the visa that had been weighing on my mind for so long. We headed down to the streets of Chicago. The first stop on our list was a camera store, however it was a brief stop because they didn't have any lenses compatible with Alina's camera, so we didn't even bother looking. Next we went on a wild hunt for sunglasses throughout multiple stores. We didn't find any, but we did end up getting my brother Jeremy camo socks with orange polka dots. The final stop was to be the John Hancock center. We went to the top of the observatory, took some great pictures, and enjoyed the view for a while. After taking the surprisingly short elevator ride to the bottom, we were walking through the gift store to get out, and I found the exact sort of sunglasses I had been looking for. So I ended up getting sunglasses.
After that, everything was fairly smooth, we got food for the road, (I got Chipotle Alina got Subway) and started the long drive back. Five hours later we were back in Fairfield, and now here I am, suitcases packed, flight tickets printed out, just waiting to go to bed and leave tomorrow.
I will write another post when I get to Brazil, I don't know exactly when because the first days can be pretty hectic.
Thanks for reading
Jonah
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