Boston, Pt. 2

Having obtained my Israeli visa in only an hour, I had the better portion of two days left in Boston to use to my fancy. Despite living just north of the city only a few years ago, I decided to act like a full on tourist. I had two days with nothing specific to do, so, I adventured!

Walking excitedly with my new visa in hand, I wandered through the Boston Commons spending most of my time people watching and contemplating what else I should do with my suddenly free day.

The pond at the Boston Public Garden.

A squirrel drinking out of a puddle.

Visiting the "Make Way for Ducklings" statue.

At some point during my walk in the gardens I decided to see if I could catch a spot on a whale watch leaving from Boston harbor that afternoon. Much to the amusement of my friends back home, I boarded the ferry only a short time later to have some quality time, just me and the whales. 

Boston in the distance behind the ferry.

It was actually a really cool trip. I ended up sitting and socializing with two Italian guys around my age who had just arrived in America and were planning on backpacking around the country for the next month. After about an hour of traveling on the boat acquainting ourselves, we got to see some whales! It was a really cool trip. I had been on a whale watch once before when I lived in Massachusetts, but this was exceptional. I got to see a ton of breaches (when the whales jump into the air) and there were a bunch of humpback whales right up next to the boat, some even with calves!

A whale named Storm breaching.

Same whale, new tricks.

The rest of my trip consisted of socializing with a variety of friends and trying to get all the good east coast food I could. Fried clams as well as a meal in the North End (Boston's "Little Italy") was a must. I also managed to get as far north as Salem, where I wandered around the little historic town. Newbury Street was another location where I spent an afternoon wandering around. There I found out that there is a Boston location for the bakery from the TV show "DC Cupcakes", a favorite time-waster of mine. So I got to try a DC Cupcake for myself.

Hanging with Nathaniel Hawthorne in Salem.

Inside the Old North Church.

A caramel apple Georgetown Cupcake.

Overall, my "business trip" to Boston ended up quite a bit more pleasurable than anticipated!

The Israeli Visa Process

With 10 days to go until Israel, preparations are getting more real than ever. I can't wait to start getting back to blogging regularly, as taking a break has made ideas and stories build up so I'm not even sure what I want to post first! In honor of rediscovering my passport in today's preparations (I may or may not have temporarily lost it in the large pile that was "things for Israel" piled haphazardly around my room) I wanted to briefly share my experience going to get my Israeli visa.

I left my house around 2:00AM headed for Boston. I got off my plane, walked out of the airport, hopped on a bus, and made it to the subway train station. On three hours of sleep I plotted my way from the airport station all the way to the consulate and boarded the train heading toward my destination. It was just before my next station a calm voice on the overhead speakers announced construction that had resulted in my anticipated station being closed. 

I honestly can't accurately recall what happened next, but I can sum up the experience with what I managed to tweet about 20 minutes later on my journey: "So I accidentally got where I was going by taking the wrong color train to some unknown station. Welcome to 'Winona Takes the Subway'."

From there I wandered around the streets just off of the Boston Public Garden trying to find the consulate. I was anticipating a nicely labeled office, preferably with a sign on the ground floor. For anyone who's tried to get a visa in the Park Plaza building in Boston, that's just not the case. Armed with only a vague address, here's the building I was ultimately looking for.

As both you and at-the-time-sleep-deprived-Winona can tell, there's really nothing descriptively "Israeli Consulate" about the building. In fact, there wasn't even a notice or sign inside the building indicating to which floor I should go. When I did arrive to the additionally under-marked consulate a small group of people hung around outside the door. The man closest to the door was speaking through a small intercom in Hebrew.

I finally asked hesitantly out loud in English whether they had opened yet (it was within 10 minutes of visiting hours starting) and an older woman in front of me looked at me pityingly before telling me they take visitors one at a time. Not long after that the door buzzed and the first man entered. A woman with a baby and the older couple followed suit. One by one there would be a short exchange in Hebrew and then slowly they would be buzzed in. Although there was a five minute or so pause between each entry I noticed no one had left. Finally it was just me in front of the stark intimidating door before it buzzed indicating my turn to enter.

The door to the Israeli Consulate General of Boston.

On a positive note, the process was actually really easy. It took all of an hour to enter, wait, and receive my visa. The intimidation and security process was really the most stressful part. For the sake of all the consulate's hard work toward security I really don't feel right explaining the process on here. However, I will share one little anecdote from my visit...

Right before I received my visa another college age girl entered the waiting room. I was ecstatic as I had been bored out of my mind sitting in the stark room with all the previous visitors speaking Hebrew. She and I chatted superficially about our college lives and what we were doing in Israel. We found out that our visits would overlap each other by a month in Jerusalem, and so I decided to exchange information so I had someone to meet up with during our time over there. I took a pen from the counter and walked over and wrote my E-mail down on the girl's manila folder that had been holding her visa application. Suddenly, the woman behind the counter rushed to the window and started interrogating and yelling at us. I stepped away from the girl and with the pen and my hands in the air explained I was giving her my E-mail since we were both going to be in Jerusalem at the same time. The woman still scolded us and I returned the pen before even exchanging names with the girl. The woman then handed me my visa and ushered me out of the consulate.

Even if a little shaken, I left excitedly grinning. I had my passport, my airfare, and now my visa. Now, the only thing between me and Israel was time.