Recife!

I don't think she meant to, and I definately don't think that she got any amusement from it, at least not to begin with, but when I was making my THIRD trip between the Helsinki Registry Office and the Brazilian Embassy, I was almost in tears and the lady, well she had a smile on her face. In any case, I forgave her pretty quickly. No matter what happened with the four missing hours of my morning, all my papers have been accepted and my visa is off for processing!!! I am not kidding you. Not at all! Finally. And also she was very sympathetic about the lack of help i had at the registry office and promised to write a letter of complaint on my behalf, and anything that gets me out of doing anymore paperwork is a bonus! I had planned to go into the whole sordid story of trying to get my paper work sorted today. For sympathy you see, but then I remembered that most of you reading this live in the UK, so you probably know how I feel anyway ;) Because of the Visa process in Helsinki ...

So.. The good news that we've all been waiting for (excepting of course the actual Good News) is that I managed to have some face time at the embassy, and I took all of my papers with me, and then some ( I'm pretty sure that I had a card I made for my mother in Kindergarden with me, just in case they needed some proof that I have enough creative talent). Luckily for me (or perhaps not?) I got a lady who spoke Finnish, because the amount of technical speech that came from her barely made sense in Finnish and I definately would not have followed in Portugese. But turned out that I hadn't quite got everything, but ALMOST, I am currently only missing One Document, and I am assured that it is on its way. *sigh or relief* Almost there. It's kike a weight lifted off my shoulders. I am very happy to be going through this process in Helsinki, because of the small population everything is very easily accessible. And once the last document is handed over, and the fee paid, it shou...

Things moved ahead slowly, very slowly, it took almost a year for my papers to arrive. But they did eventually and they are here, along with a lot of other papers and documents, each stamped and signed, so hopefully one morning this week when the embassy doesn't close early and I don't sleep in I'll be able to take my applications in, and then it'll be all go. There is a purpose to me being here, it's given me time to prepare, so I'm not too worried at all. And this year has just confirmed that going to Brazil is definately the right choice. I would maybe go as far as saying a calling. Portugese lessons coming along ok, have been working away at them on the quiet days at work. Sponsorship is a little low, but Im working on that at the moment too. Was very excited to hear that Ali and Georgina shall be on their way over very soon, and am excited to see them in Brasil very very soon. Shall update later on this week to see how it all went at the embassy God Bless.