Joong-guk Visa

I walked to the Chinese Embassy today to try to get the paperwork for my visa. But as soon as I turned down the side street, a lady ran toward me waving business cards. "Joong-guk visa?" she asked over and over, "Joong-guk visa?"

Joong-guk is China. I learned this because Eun-hyuk has a giant map of the world on his bedroom wall. "Yes," I said warily. The lady continued to babble at me in Korean while I repeatedly tried to tell her that I couldn't understand a word she was saying. Finally she handed me a business card and I figured out that she was from a travel agency. It turns out you can't go through the embassy directly; you have to talk to a travel agency. She led me to a little shop where a man (who, thankfully, did speak English) explained all this to me as if it should have been obvious.

On the embassy's website it said that you could get a visa directly there, so my bullshit detectors were going off. I took an application and left. I found the embassy, which had a big sign on the front saying, "You should apply for visa through travel agency." Oh. So much for my bullshit detectors (I've gotta get those things replaced). But still, I wasn't going to hand over my passport to a bunch of people I didn't know the first thing about.

Bleh. I guess I'll work on finding a place where I can get a photo printed out, and get my passport photocopied.