[Update – 10/24/2006] : My visa just got approved! 😀

Pa’ España me voy! Joder!

A few months ago, I was chatting with my friend Carolina Vásquez and I was telling her that the next three places I would like to visit for vacations would be: Australia, Spain and the southern part of south america (Argentina, Uruguay and Chile). Since she is living in Barcelona, Spain she told me that I should go and visit her and the idea sounded really good. We talked about it a few more times and then I decided to get serious about it and started looking at flight fares and convinient dates to travel. I talked to Johnny Kings since he is doing his PhD in Barcelona asking him for some advice and he sent me a link to the Spanish Consulate in Chicago where I found the different requirements for the Schengen visa. The list of required documents was quite long, but I started collecting everyone of them.

Last week I got all the documents ready and I planned a trip to Houston last sunday, to go to the consulate first time in the morning. In Houston I went to Ikea and bought my self a nice wine bottle organizer and a frame for a Guillermo Velez painting (Caldo de Pollo) that I had on a very cheap frame. Then I met with my friend Carlos Marchani who is going to be moving to Norway in November and then I went to David Levinson’s apartment where I stayed.

On Monday morning I got to the consulate at 9am when they open and there were 5 people already there. The consulate was a very small office and by 10:15am I was done. The women in charge told me that I should now in about 10 to 15 days if my Schengen visa was approved or not.

Hopefully I will be posting again in a couple of weeks telling you good news.

If you have been to Spain I would highly appreciate if you post a list of places/events/food I should try over there.

Ole!