Atlanta was fun. And hot. And somewhat far away.
My sister and I left Monday about 5:30p from central Florida and stopped at my parents house a couple hours away. After some food and laughs, we set off again for Atlanta around 9:30pm.
Around 3:30 Tuesday morning, we arrived in Atlanta. There were about 6 cars on the highway downtown. Total.
We pulled into the Days Inn in downtown Atlanta, and if it weren't for the reservations I'd made and the credit card I'd reserved the room with, we'd have pulled right out and gone to the Westin a block away.
In short, the hotel was bad. It wasn't so bad that it was unlivable, but it was a dirty kind of clean. I'm not sure how old it was, but when told to complain, we just looked at each other and said it wouldn't make a difference. The beds were ok, the carpet was vacuumed but still so dirty that we wore shoes and/or socks when we weren't sitting in bed. The bathroom had mold but no amount of scrubbing would have cleaned it up. And on the second morning I spotted a bug on the inside of the shower curtain, right next to me. A small one, yes, but a bug nonetheless. (My sister said she spotted it before but didn't want to scare me. Thanks! Duly noted. Moving on.)
But downtown Atlanta was cool. I haven't been to Atlanta since I was about 5, and of course I don't remember much of that. When we woke up Tuesday morning about 10:30a, we got ready and then headed over to the Korean Consulate. We stopped at a little bakery (almost like Panera Bread) and split a sandwich first. It was really good. About 2 minutes after leaving the bakery, we found the consulate and my sister decided to hit every floor in the building EXCEPT the floor the consulate was on. FUN. I don't like heights. Or elevators. At least this one didn't have windows. The tower had 27 floors, which is small by New York City standards, but the tallest building I've ever been on. We went to the 27th floor first, and my ears popped when stepping out. It was cool.
Eventually the time came for the interview and we went to that floor and I checked in. There was no security like I had expected. It was just double doors leading to a reception desk and then a large waiting room with 4 windows. It looked sort of like the DMV. I got there and at 3pm, all of the candidates were called into the interview room at the same time. (Knowing someone who has already gone through this was a big help. I was the only one who knew what to expect.) There were four of us. We took our seats and in came the Consul. I'm not sure what his name was, but he was very nice. He had all of our papers in front of him, and my set was on top. He looked at my passport and then looked at me kind of strange. I told him I'd changed my hair (I have highlights now) and he smiled. He asked me how long I want to stay in South Korea, and if I had read the job contract well. I answered. After a minute or two, he moved on to the next person. At the end, he told us when we could expect our Visas - the next morning by 10am. We all got up and he shook my hand (along with the other woman's hand - we were closer to him than the two men) and then we left. The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes. There was a picture on the wall of a beautiful bridge and I secretly wanted him to ask us if we knew where that was. I did!! Teacher pick me!! It was the suspension bridge in Busan. :)
So then my sister took me to lunch at the Ritz. It was pretty cool. We couldn't afford much, but we had a good time. Then we made our way back to the hotel and ordered some food and settled in again.
The next morning we got up early and went down to the free breakfast. It wasn't much and didn't look too appetizing. Then we walked back over to the consulate and picked up my Visa. We walked back and left.
I have my Visa. It's a beautiful thing.
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