The Colombian Consulate

We are down to our last few steps before we leave. We need to get fingerprinted again (this will be the fourth time, as if our fingerprints expire or something. This is your homeland security hard at work), and get our temporary special visa from the Colombian Consulate (top picture) in NYC. For various reasons, I am the one who 'gets' to go. It's about a 45 minute plane ride from Rochester or a 6 hour drive. I chose to fly. The consulate closes at 1pm every day, so I need to get there early in the morning. I have all the paperwork listed on the sheet the agency in New York gave us (this is important, you'll see why in a second), except ONE piece is missing, and I have left messages for the agency asking for it. By Monday morning at 7:30, I am on 5th ave in NYC (lost) and have not heard from the agency. I find the consulate and try to get something done in the meantime. They are extremely nice and my Spanish holds up well. But they say the piece I am missing is the most important one! I finally hear from our 3 representatives in new York who have no idea what sheet I am asking for. It was listed on the requirements they gave us! So I leave the consulate and whip my iPhone out. It saved me big time. I found a kinkos not too far away, they emailed a document to me, it was the wrong one.....they sent it agin, it was still the wrong one. Short version; I walked back and forth up and down Madison Ave. 5 times between kinkos and the consulate getting the paperwork turned in. I barely made the 1o'clock deadline! My new Friend Jesus at the Consualte was very nice. and the security guard was no longer even checking me. we will exchange Christmas cards. By this time I was a regular New Yorker, I was banging on hoods of cars in the cross walk like Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy yelling "I'm walkin' here!" but I got it all turned in and spent the rest of the day walking around Manhattan. Rachel called at 3:30 to see if I was on the subway to the airport yet. I was not. I was wandering aimlessly in Central Park (bottom picture). My flight left in one hour. So being a freshly minted New Yorker, I ran down to 52nd, hopped the subway and made it to JFK with 7 whole minutes to spare. At this point I was even giving directions to foreign travelers. On the E train I got a very cool performance by some dudes dancing for cash. they were awesome. During that day, I walked from 30 Rock to the Flatiron building (about 30 blocks), up to the park,and down again to 52nd. And I ran in to 2 former students at different times. What a small town! the consulate now has our passports and will send them back with he visas. If they don't make it to us by January 8 , the whole deal is screwed. then I found out Rachel put a Connecticut zip code on our return FedEx package. Did I mention we are a little stressed? Now we shuffle off to Buffalo ( come on, I had to at least once) for our fingerprinting session....again. then that's it! all we do is wait. and wait. and wait.