Mailings and Phone Calls

Yesterday I prepared the remainder of the paperwork needed to process my visa. Because of the embassy issues I had last summer (I sent my passport and application to the incorrect address that was listed on some of my information causing an unfortunate delay) I decided to call the Consulate in Chicago to verify some details. I was amused when the phone was answered by an automatic answering service entirely in Korean. Thankfully it was repeated by the same message in English. According to the lady I talked to, it will take 3 to 5 days to process my visa once the application reaches their office. Yikes. Hopefully it will be closer to the 3 day mark! Later I called the Consulate in Washington D.C. to see if they could do it any faster. At first I only got an answering machine there that was in Korean without the English repetition. Then I noticed on a website that their hours included a lunch break from 12 to 1:30. I got ahold of them later and found out that because I live in Ohio I'm required to work through the Consulate in Chicago. The registrar's office at Taylor finally got back to me to let me know they had sent my transcripts by regular mail rather than the UPS or FedEx I had requested. No wonder it took so long to get to Korea! Today the letter I was waiting for from Korea arrived! Shortly I will take it and my other documents to the post office to send them as quickly as possible to Chicago so my visa can be processed. While I don't have an itinerary yet, the original plan was that I would fly out on the 24th--one week from today. There's so much that could go wrong through the mail, but with God's help everything will work out just fine. 7(?) days...