blue bottle, a frenchman, and déjà vu (and a chubby squirrel)

chubby squirrel - doesn't really have anything 
to do with the story, just cute.

 This year, I’ve been on a jihad to empty my stockpile of vacation days. It all started three years ago in the back of a Sunday school class. We had finished the discussion questions early (I know…a rare sight to see), so we started making plans for the world cup coming up in 2010. We made a decision to go, and I began putting away vacation days like a chubby squirrel storing nuts in his cheeks for winter. Little did I know we weren’t able to go to South Africa. Well, the two week surplus of vacation days became three and a half weeks, and I was pushing the limit of what I could accrue (California has some dumb law where you can only accrue up to 1.75x of your annual limit), ergo my recent fervor in trying to get my days down to a net zero balance.

And thus, my thursday adventure begins.

Yesterday morning I headed down to san francisco once again in pursuit of a visa. Yep, same SF traffic, same SF frustrations. I got up at the crack of dawn (well…not even the crack of dawn…dawn cracked when I was by walnut creek) and headed down hwy 80 at a modest speed (been driving like a grandpa ever since speeding ticket…story to be told at a later date). I-80 is an interesting beast. It can flow perfectly for miles and all of a sudden you enter Berkeley and nobody knows where the gas pedal is. Then the next 10 miles leading up to the bay bridge is basically idling your car and hoping the traffic gods move it forward.

kyoto drip

Once I got into SF it wasn’t so bad. I made my routine SF pilgrimage to blue bottle for their Kyoto drip, which is cold brew going through this complex Japanese tube system for 14 hours before reaching the bottom…very cool looking contraption. By the time I had gotten there, the line was already out the door, and they had the full staff of hipsters behind the counter buzzing around making the magical elixir that fuels people like me. After a quick stop at the post office (the consulate requires a self-addressed stamped express-mail envelope… *sigh* divas) I was ready to throw myself at the mercy of the visa officer.

I get into the building on Kearny St. where the consulate is, and wait in the lobby until I can get buzzed in to the floor where they sit. I go up, and I find myself in this long beige hallway with two doors, one for citizens, and one for visas. Both are locked. Finally one person comes out of the citizen door and badges to go to the visa side, so naturally I tag along. The guy turns around and looks at me in horror like I was about to rob him and says “no no no no, 9am! It says 9am!!” in a thick French accent. I was so taken aback that I hopped back across the door and close it. The guy behind me chuckles…apparently that happened to him last week.

Little did I know, French guy turned out to be my visa officer. Great…

At promptly 9:00 the door opens, and I hear a heavily accented voice come over the speaker “NOW you can enter.” I make my way inside, and check in on the list of visa applicants. After a quick journey through the metal detector and I find myself face-to-face with visa counter #2 and the thinly mustachioed frenchman with no nametag…we’ll call him Pierre.

P: Please give me the application.

Me: The entire thing including the supporting docs?

P: I said application!!

Me: oo sorry. Here you go.

P: Is this your first time visiting?

Me: yep…very excited.

P: Why is your visa application so late? We require 3 weeks minimum!

Me: Oh sorry…this was kinda spontaneous. Didn’t plan on going until just recently…will it be enough time to get a visa?

P: ok…we’ll let you know in 1-2 weeks. Don’t worry, even if we reject you, we’ll let you know before your flight.

Me: oh…uhm…that’s comforting……

A few more minutes of small talk and I’m on my merry way (btw small-talk with a non-talkative Pierre is tiny-talk). After I left, I marveled at the line that had started forming…apparently there were quite a few people waiting to get visas. I make a beeline back to the garage that I parked in (learned my lesson this time…garage: 2.75/hr…street meter: 3.50/hr). As I got into the garage, I realize that I was blocked in, and I don’t mean one car blocking me in…cars were quadruple parked in this garage. It took 30min for the attendant to move the cars like the iphone game, and then I was on the road again. After a few minor roadblocks/crazy drivers/pedestrians I was back on my way to sac! Hopefully I hear back from the visa folks before the two weeks are up, but maybe that’s wishful thinking. In the meantime, rosetta stone here I come!