Lady in Spain

I filed for my visa exactly one month ago today so I knew I should be getting it soon. Imagine my excitement when it was delivered this morning! However, my excitement quickly dwindled when I discovered my passport had no visa stamped in it. My first thought was that there was an error in my application, but there was no letter saying my visa had been denied. I then started laughing hysterically because I thought that there was no way that they could have forgotten to stamp my visa into my passport. I think it was one of those moments where you laugh so you don’t cry.

After I got over my denial, I wrote to the embassy since I figured that was my best shot until Monday since they aren’t open to the public on Fridays. After I sent the email, I decided to try calling the embassy anyway. After two rings, a gentlemen answered the phone, “Buenos días. ¿Como puedo ayudarle?” I proceeded to explain everything to him in Spanish and once I was done, he, too, seemed to be in denial that I received my passport with no visa. He took all of my information and put me on hold for a few minutes. Once he came back on the line, he asked me for my phone number so that he could contact me once he figured everything out. He called me back 10 minutes later saying that the good news was that my visa had been approved, but that he had no idea why they hadn’t stamped my passport. He asked me if I lived close, which, luckily, I do. So I shall be making another trip to the embassy on Monday to get my passport stamped. The man kept apologizing incessantly and I told him  not to worry about it, that these things happen…his reply: Si, cosas que pasan en el barrio fino. And that made me laugh quite a bit since that’s a saying I hear a lot in Puerto Rico.

He was shocked that I was being such a good sport about everything. Honestly, though, it’s not like being angry was going to get me anywhere. If I yelled at the people in the consulate, it wasn’t going to make the visa magically appear in my passport. ¿Para que amargarse la vida por cosas que están fuera de tu control? Plus, I really did enjoy the security guy at the consulate the last time I went…so on the bright side, I get to sweeten my vision with that eye candy again 🙂 I mean, you gotta look at the positives right?