Visa

Thursday we had our interview appointment at the American Embassy in Seoul. Our "appointment" was at 8:30 and I thought that meant our appointment, but no (Colin was right) everybody had an "appointment" at 8:30! We were let into a room with a bunch of other people where we had to take a number. Nobody could get a number at first though because the machine was broken! Finally someone fixed it and the line started moving. We were number seven so we didn't have long to wait. We gave a lady all our documents and discovered that they had changed the specs for pictures. Not to worry, they had a picture booth in the waiting area. The lady who interviewed me was very nice and the interview was brief. Of course it probably helped that the lady was due in August and Ben was flirting shamelessly!

We left with a sigh of relief, only to realize I had written our old address as the delivery address for the visa. Colin was unable to get back in as he no longer had an appointment...

The American Embassy is heavily guarded by Korean soldiers, a wire fence surrounds it, and we had to show our passports, appointment sheet and go through a metal detector to get in.) On the other hand, Colin's mom and I waltzed right in to the Canadian Embassy without anyone checking anything. No guards, no wire fences, no checks... even the doors were wide open!

We took the train back to Pohang formulating a plan on how to make sure the visa got to us safely. As it happened, we missed a call from the delivery company as we were sitting at our favorite coffee shop. I called the number back and the owner of the coffee shop talked to the delivery man for us. We were surprised to find out he was just down the road so she and I ran out to meet him. A few minutes later the visa was in our hands!
Here's Benjamin, Mr. Lee and his wife. Ben often sees more of them than us while we're at Id. Once I went to the coffee shop alone and was greeted with, "Where's Benjamin? Next time bring Benjamin!"