Trials of Obtaining a Visa...

This has been such a long visa application process. I had to get SO much stuff together--

• Cover letter/declaration of intent
• Color passport photo
• Passport
• Photocopy of passport
• Shengen visa application form (notarized)
• Parental consent form (also notarized)
• Police clearance
• Medical certificate
• Requerimento form
• AFS-USA letter of responsibility
• AFS-Portugal letter of responsibility
• School enrollment letter
• AFS insurance letter
• $27.35 money order
• Pre-paid Fed-Ex overnight envelope

A lot of things were easy, like my passport because I already had it. But other things like the medical certificate, police clearance, and notarizations were rather hard to come by. I went to the police department in downtown Albuquerque last week to get the police clearance. At first, I went to the department in Tijeras, but they said they couldn't give me one. So I took my brother with me, and we drove into town. When we got there (I parallel parked! This is a new achievement for me :), the person at the front desk showed me where to go to get a background check. I had to fill out a form, and when the officer that checked my records gave it back to me, it was stamped in red ink, signed by the officer, and said "NO RECORDS ON FILE". I know this isn't exactly what AFS specified, which was a statement on official police letterhead, but the officer I talked to said that this was what they did for visa applicants, so I hope it works out!
For the medical certificate, my mom and I dropped off the forms, but the doctor wouldn't fill them out unless I made an appointment. So on Wednesday I went in and had a check-up-type thing. By the time my appointment was over (in which they had only filled out the medical form addendum thing, not anything for my visa), they were getting ready to close and the receptionist told me I would have to come back tomorrow to pick up the visa statement. I live 45 minutes away from the doctor's office, so, understandably, I was a little upset about that. But luckily, at the last minute they decided to type it up really fast. So, by 5:00 Wednesday afternoon, I was ready to send in my visa application! My mom had to leave me at the doctor's office to go get my brother from his soccer practice, so my boyfriend and I had to go mail the application at the Fed-Ex place. The thing was, I had never been to this Fed-Ex office, and the GPS we used was taking us to the wrong place. So, after 30 minutes of driving in rush-hour traffic, 6 u-turns, and a lot of unnecessary stress, we finally arrived. We met my mom there and then went in, and when we asked for a pre-paid overnight envelope to put inside the one we were sending to the Portuguese consulate in San Francisco, they said they couldn't do that. One way we could sort of "pre-pay" was to give them my mom's credit card number and they would charge the cost to that when my passport was actually shipped back to me. However, my mom didn't want to give out her credit card number, so we left.
It was such a stressful night, and I was (and still am) very stressed out about school, online classes, exchange in general, my visa, the upcoming ACT's and SAT's, and I just broke down crying outside the Fed-Ex office. But, we are going to go to UPS today and see if they will let us send the consulate a pre-paid envelope.

On a happier note, I found out what school I'm going to! It's called Centro de Estudos de Fátima (CEF). Here's the website. It's all in Portuguese, but Google Translate will translate whole websites for you. It has over 1000 students! That will be a change from my high school here, which has about 350.
I only have about 6 weeks left in the United States! I am getting more and more excited about this!
6 WEEKS!!! :D