Well, the bull ended up tossing us around like a pair of rodeo clowns. All we wanted was to get our visas by Friday so we could fly on Sunday, but, as you can tell, all we have is a case of the Mondays! :(
Looking at the bright side, we now have peace of mind knowing we tried everything possible to get to India on time! Here is a little of what happened on our trip to D.C.
Wednesday
8:00pm - Left Charlotte in the evening to avoid traffic.
Thursday
3:00am - Arrived at a random and fairly safe looking Bloom Supermarket parking lot just outside of Washington. Cracked the car windows, reclined our seats, and fell asleep.
5:30am - Woke up, cranked the A/C, and thanked God for keeping us safe! Then hopped back on I-66 toward Washington D.C. (now I know that traffic around D.C. starts early!)
6:16am - Parked in front of the Visa "expediting" company's office and asked TomTom to find us a McDonald's to walk to. Yes! 0.6 miles!
9:00am - Met with our visa "expediter" to get my passport back. It turns out, my passport isn't even processed until Karen's is approved. So, once Karen's employment visa is approved, I can apply for my entry visa in person, therefore speeding up the process.
11:00am - Found a shady spot on the sidewalk across the street from the White House to sit and people watch. Talk about great people watching! Behind us in Lafayette Park, there was a group of young demonstrators coordinating their freshly painted signs so they say something meaningful. In front of us were bus loads of Japanese tourists walking around as if in a daze. To the right, there were a couple of hippies with grotesque posters demonstrating nuclear weapons. Across the street, families proudly took pictures of themselves with the White House.
11:15am - Yes, 15 minutes later, it was nap time! A sidewalk never felt so soft!! The wind was blowing just right and strangely, a demonstrator about 50 yards from us chose to demonstrate using his AWESOME operatic voice. He was far enough away that we couldn't understand what he was singing. All we could hear was a soothing voice that put me right to sleep. I woke up after about 10 minutes and Karen said that a Japanese tourist just took our picture! The police didn't seem to care that we were sprawled out!
2:00pm - Found, parked, and walked to the Indian Embassy with optimistic hopes to walk in and talk to someone who could answer our questions. Unfortunately, the embassy didn't reopen for another half hour. Fortunately, there were some Indian students there that needed new passports so we asked them some questions. They were from Bombay. One of them spoke English very well and told us a lot about the climate, people, why they came to the USA etc. The other student wasn't a big talker but smiled a lot....the kind of smile that said, "Why the Hell do you guys want to move to India? You guys won't last 1 day!" When the conversation slowed, the smiling Indian chuckled and spoke Hindi to the talkative Indian. The talkative one asked us "so what makes you want to move to India?" The smiling Indian smiled even more. So, a few minutes later, the Embassy opened up and brushed us off, telling us to talk to the company they use to process visas. Yes, India outsources too! :)
4am-10pm - Ate lunch, found a nice B&B called Adam's Inn, walked around the neighborhood, got a $30 parking ticket (but otherwise had free parking), ate dinner at an Indian Restaurant (for good luck), went back to the B&B and watched a movie on NetFlix.
Friday
10:30am - Visa not approved today, drove back to Charlotte.
8:00pm - Made it home safely. We happened to run into our neighbors in our hallway as we were walking up to our condo. They invited us to stay with them as we were holding a newly purchased air mattress. What great timing! Their bed and hospitality were awesome!!
A self-portrait in Lafayette Park across from the White House
