Why make a quick trip to Chicago? Because if you live in Lincoln, Nebraska and want to study in Italy for more than 3 months, you have to go to Chicago...(yes, in person)... to get your visa.
Who knew??
We got to Chicago around 4:30pm on Wednesday. We checked into the hotel (Best Western River North- awesome! And, we had the same room as we had last year...). Then set out to find the Italian Consulate and a place to eat dinner. The Consulate was an easy find a few blocks from our hotel. We decided California Pizza Kitchen looked good. We shared an artichoke and spinach pizza. It was delish! And, Adrienne surprised me by buying because I took her to Chicago :)
Then we walked around for awhile and eventually made our way down to Navy Pier where we waited (with about 1000 other people) for a fireworks display.
Notice the clouds rolling in...?
The fireworks were amazing and the storm held off until it was over. Unfortunately for us, it was a 20 minute walk back to our hotel. But we made it in about 15 minutes and beat the lightning and the "bad stuff" that knocked out the internet in the hotel for awhile... even Adrienne said, "Thank you, GOD!"
This morning we got up and went to Starbucks for breakfast. Adrienne was too nervous to eat. If we had one paper or signature missing, we'd have to go back to Nebraska empty handed. When we got into the consulate office an American was bargaining with the person at the information desk. After about 7 minutes, he finally gave up and it was our turn to check in. Then we waited, and waited and waited. While we were waiting a couple of college girls were talking with Adrienne, "Yeah, this is my 8th time here. I hope I get it this time."... "They wouldn't even look at my paperwork and told me to sit down until I had it in the right order." That was not an encouraging feeling! However, we should have not been worried at all. Adrienne had everything in order and the lady in charge loved Adrienne. We were in and out in 10 minutes. Well, after our hour and a half wait it was 10 minutes.
Here she is- so relieved!!
And what better way to celebrate a visa to Italy than with pasta from Gino's East!
And a great find at Nordstrom Rack on a beautiful pair of boots!
So glad THAT is over! Now we can focus on the fun stuff- like what to pack with a pair of black boots!
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