On non-linear narrative construction and how I should catch you all up to speed

Dear friends, family, and whoever may also be reading this stream of my thoughts, I have realized that I have started a blog about my summer without elaborating on what I called before my “lively bought of visa issues.” To make a long story short and non-whiney, I will attempt to recount the sparknotes version of my visa issues:

Once upon a time in a magical land that does not even come close to having a local Turkish consulate know as South Carolina, a young man, myself, received an email stating that I needed to apply not for a work visa, but for an “AIESEC Internship Visa.” I urge you all to google this, as half of the results are either in Chinese or about Chinese students, or at least they were when I googled it about a week or so ago. Anyway, after much searching, I had no clue what that meant as some types of Turkish visas require their applicants to be present in person at the consulate at the time of application, meaning I couldn’t just Fedex my passport and some paperwork up to DC to get everything.

After several calls to the Turkish embassy in DC and consulates in New York, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta, I had absolutely no information other than I needed to contact the DC office that I couldn’t get through to. So, I did what any other desperate/ slightly impulsive person would have done. I drove to DC. After going about 15 blocks in the wrong direction, I backtracked and finally made it to the Turkish consulate. Note that as you walk down Michigan Avenue from the Metro stop in Dupont Circle, you pass first the office of the Turkish Defense Attaché and some official Turkish residence building before finally reaching the Turkish embassy, each of which makes you feel falsely excited to have arrived until you realize that the Giant Turkish flag flying on the building doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the actual embassy. At long last, I get inside the embassy, and saunter up to the widow where the glorious woman behind the bullet-proof glass informed me that she knew exactly what an internship visa was (despite it not being listed on any visa application forms) and would prepare it for me to pick up the next day. At long last, I finally got the visa that I needed that will live happily ever after in my passport…..until it expires in 2017.