Oh my god does applying for a visa suck! I get all my papers ready, at least I thought I had, and then realize that I don't have any health insurance information with my name on it. Problem is, its my dad's insurance and even HE doesn't have any real documentation with his name on it. Go figure.
The Italian consulate is in Commerce place. A building that I have never, ever bothered to go in. I get the address and it is really close to my office so I drive down there, find a parkade and that's not a problem. I go up the stairs out of the parkade and attempt to find the office. The number of the office was 2*** so I figured that it would be on the second floor. That seems pretty logical, especially since there were only 2 floors in this weird mall thing. So I wander up and down and up and down the mall in Commerce Place and nope, not finding the address. I was seriously beginning to wonder if it was a platform 9 3/4 type of deal because I could see where it COULD be, but could not find it for the life of me.
All of the buildings are attached to each other by Pedways in the Downtown, I end up wandering into Canada Place...nope, that's wrong, then the Scotia Place.. that's wrong, and as I wander into the next pedway, pondering why Edmontonian skyscrapers require the word place in the name of the building, I finally found what I was looking for. Apparently, there is a mall portion of commerce place and then a business part of commerce place which is a tower. I walk through the hallway and this gorgeous lobby full of shiny brass and marble greets me. And by greets me, I mean scares the pants out of me. I was freaked out already because I was supposed to go to the consulate for an "interview," whatever that meant!
I look around lost, and finally find the elevators. I get in, and the elevator's numbers start at 10! This is particularly problematic since my sheet says they are 2***. So I took a stab at it and went to the 2* floor. and I FOUND IT! I get to this big wood door with a fancy-schmansy plaque that says that this was the italian consulate. I pressed the intercom and they let me in.
I get into the office and it is surprisingly small considering how freaking intimidating everything was so far. I go to the desk and this impeccably dressed italian woman with a low cut top talks to me through the glass window between myself and her.
I explain that I am with the Cortona program looking to complete my Schengen Visa application. She looks through my giant pile of papers and starts scratching out my form: I answered a ton of the questions wrong apparently. Finally, after going back and forth between me and some disembodied italian voice in the back several times, she staples the whole pile of papers and hands it back to me.
Apparently, that was my "interview" and I didn't even know it. Now, instead of them doing the application process, I am supposed to mail the pile of papers, my passport and an extra self-addressed expresspost envelop to Vancouver for them to deal with.
I get all confused and say, "But I can't give them my passport! I have to go to Ottawa!" She looks at me funny and says that I don't have to send it off today. Duh! I'm such an idiot.
After a lovely trip in Ottawa, I send off my application and my *gulp* passport. Hopefully everything gets accepted! I am still not thrilled about having to throw my passport into an envelope and trust that CanadaPost will take care of it. If they lose it, I'm fucked.
