The One Where Jeff Applies for His Visa!

Today at 3pm it finally happened.  Yes, the invitation arrived by courier!  I was bummed at first because the consulate's posted hours are from 9am - 12pm on Mondays -- so I missed the opportunity to apply for the visa today.  But I had a question for the consulate, so I called them.  And they were open for business.

 

So I booked it across town and applied for my visa!  I hardly had to wait at all... to turn in the paperwork.  Then I waited for about 30 minutes for the woman to give me a bill so that I could pay at the cashier.  So I’m all proud of myself, I even remembered to bring extra rubles with me so that I could pay at the embassy.  But this is Estonia.  They don't want rubles - they want Kroon.  So I had to give up my spot in line and walk myself to the nearest ATM and get Kroon.  The woman at the cashier was REALLY nice and it's paid for!!!

 

On Wednesday at 4pm I will have my VISA.

 

Then things get complicated.  The flight leaving Estonia on Wednesday is in the morning.  There is no overnight bus on Wednesday.  There are no flights on Thursday.  So, I'm going to book passage on the overnight bus to St. Petersburg on Thursday.  (that saves the cost of a hotel on Thursday night!)  I'll book a hotel in St. Petersburg for Friday night (that you online booking!) and then I'll have the day on Friday and Saturday in St. Pete's.  My flight on Saturday will be a doozy!  Zhanna and Sergei will work on getting me a ticket to Tyumen, but here's the funny part: the flight leaves at 11:55pm and arrives at 2:55am.  Wow.  Welcome home Jeff!  21 days.  I'll have been gone for 21 days.  

 

In some ways it seems so strange that this chapter of my life is over.  I feel like I've moved to another city or something.  I have only 1 real conversation daily when Amy calls me (and email conversations with you all that are saving my life here).  Will I be able to converse with other people?  Will I be overly clingy?  Do I still know how to speak Russian?  I'm a bit worried about that.  Yeah, I have chances to speak Russian here, but nothing complicated.

 

Thank you all so much for your pr-yers and for helping me through this time.  It has been so much better knowing that you're all behind me and carrying me through.  Спасибо! As we say in Russia!