Hurry Up and Wait

Hey lovely teacher friends!

As many of you know, my hubby {Will} and I are in the process of pulling everything together to move to SPAIN! 


That little tiny island {Known as Mallorca} is where we will be living this
coming school year.  ExcuseMePleaseWhileIFreakOutInTheCorner! Eeeeeee!

We still cannot believe we're doing this.  Hurry up and wait has pretty much been our motto lately.  We've been doing a lot, and then waiting for the next step.  And then doing a lot... and then waiting for the next step!  Not that I'm complaining or anything.  It's just very different from the type of schedule I'm used to in the Fall.  Since we're going through it and learning along the way, I thought I would share a little bit of the VISA process with y'all!

As soon as we were able to, we started pulling together all of our paperwork for our VISAs.  It was not as simple as it may sound.  We found out that we would have to apply in person to get a VISA.  And guess where our nearest Spanish Consulate is!  DC?  Atlanta?  Nope!  Miami, y'all!  So we scheduled appointments as early as we could- three weeks from then.  And started prepping! 

Step one:  Get Georgia Driver's Licenses since we recently moved.  Two visits (because of course we didn't have all the paperwork the first time around!) and 4 and a half hours later... we would have our new driver's licenses' in 7-10 business days.  Please note: mine still hasn't arrived while Will's came in the mail a week ago. 

Step two:  We needed medical certificates stating that we're free of any major illnesses from a doctor.  And they needed to be translated into Spanish.  Okayyyy.

Step three:  We needed background checks that have been notarized and received an apostille.  (An apostille is kind of like an international notary)  But you cannot get an apostille just anywhere!  They do them in Atlanta!  Since we needed them sooner than later, we had to go in person and get them done.  Then they had to be translated into Spanish.


Heading to ATL for an Apostille!!

Step four:  Copy everything we own a {bazillion} times and drive down to Miami for our scheduled appointments.

Have you ever seen a Peruvian restaurant?  They're allll over Miami {& insanely delicious!!}.
This was new to us!  but our Seafood Parilla was to die for.  Mmmmm.

Step five:  It turns out "scheduled" is a loose term because we got to our appointment an hour early and waited two and a half hours. 


All set for our VISA appointments!! {In our super cute European Boutique hotel!}

Step six:  Have a lot of money.  It turns out none of this is free...

Step seven:  Drive the eight+ hours back home and wait 3-4 weeks for our passports to return to us and pray they have a VISA in them. 


All went smoothly at our appointments!!

And of course we had to stop by Cincinnati's local/favorite restaurant because there just happens to be one in Fort Lauderdale.  LOVE me some skyline!  {I grew up in Cincy} :)


It's Skyline Time!

I was in heaven with my Chili Burrito Bowl

There are a lot of steps I left out... but that's the gist of it all.  I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot.  But it's also been fun.  Nothing like throwing in a little confusion, stress, and 1,600 miles of travelling, in a week's time!  We've learned a few things here and there and have gotten better (and not so much better) along the way.  For instance, we now carry lots of cash on us at all times since we never know how much we'll need to pay for something.  And personal checks are never accepted.  We also know to double and triple check everything we do.  "Are you sure these aren't supposed to be notarized?  Can you just do it anyways?"  This part hasn't been the most fun, but it's definitely pushed us and made us realized this is really what we want to do.  Every now and then we look at each other and squeal (Will mainly) "We're moving to Spain!!!!".  :)  And that's what keeps us going.  
 
And oh yea, this also happened a few weeks ago.

Thanks, Ridley. 
That's so thoughtful of you to capture a snake and bring it into the house.

Thanks for listening to my rambling.  Has anyone else been through this tedious process before?  Does anyone have any recommendations for it all?  We appreciate any help you can provide!!  Have a happy Friday and an even better weekend!