Visa app.

Just so you all know, applying for a Visa (the traveling kind, not the spending money you don't have kind) is a royal pain.  It takes multiple steps of preparation, lots of driving around talking to people with special titles at the GRPD and the Secretary of State, many phone calls and requests of people at institutions (in Spain and America) to send you original copies of things, etc.

I'm exhausted by the process.

That said, it takes AT LEAST 6 weeks to process and the earliest date the consulate of Spain (in Chicago) had available was July 7th.  SO, that means that when they say "Visa must be picked up BY the applicant in person and will be available 6-8 weeks after application" that that leaves me exactly 7 weeks before my plane takes off.

Pray hard that God himself watches over every step of this patience-thwarting process and every single person in the Spanish consulate as they heartily agree to send me to Spain.