Tickets! Tickets! Tickets!

Usually when my dog freaks out and starts barking bloody murder, there is no one even there, but he thought he might have seen or maybe heard something go by out front, and I thought this time was no different.  I was home for a quick Thursday lunch walk and was getting ready to head back to school when he went ape.  I figured no one was really at the door and went to pull him away and shut him up when I saw there was indeed a bright yellow uniform walking up the drive.  It didn't register at first but as I squeezed out the door and she asked, "Where ya goin?" but I instantly realized that this package was the last key component to the trip: the actual freaking tickets to the games!  I actually "whooped" in the poor woman's face (also setting off the dog again).  I signed for them and literally ran inside to open them up, (and open I did over the next few minutes , as each and every single ticket-not even a pair to the same game could be placed together-came in a separate envelope with its own separate two-page letter-what a waste of paper).  I set them all out on the table and texted the picture to my wife at work, as well as a few friends.  They looked real nice and I am not shy about showing the picture to people. We might just keep those Bosnia-Iran tickets as a souvenir.

That evening, we checked out exactly where our seats are for each game and they all look great.  The Recife stadium looks amazing and with only 42,ooo seats, every section has fantastic sightlines.  Our closest to the field seats might actually be the ones at the Marakana in Rio.

Lastly, to top it off, the next day our vouchers for our FIFA hotels came as well. I guess we better start packing! 

Gooooooooooooooooolllllllll!

At least it finally felt that way. If you are a Unitedstatesian and you have not applied for your visa yet you had better get on it yesterday as it is a total clusterfu...at the Brasilian consulates.  For us it was over a six week ordeal of waiting and wondering.  About a month after we had originally sent in our documentation, and still a few weeks after we corrected our screw-ups, Monday, April 21, and we still had not heard anything about the visa.  So I called Rachid at Travisa again, and he of course had some bad news that he hadn’t been able to notify us about yet.  The consulate had updated requirements yet again for the World Cup Visa to include having to show actual tickets, since FIFA announced that tickets were starting to be delivered (although currently only available for pickup in Brasil).  Are you freaking kidding me?!  So, now we would have to wait until our tickets arrived and send them down to Houston as well?!  Don’t they realize that we will be spending a ton of money in their country?!  I asked him to please at least to confirm if we could just send one game set of tickets, instead of all of them. 

When he called back 10 minutes later, I assumed it was to tell me that, indeed, I would need to send them all of my tickets.  However, I was elated when he said he had good news this time and that my Visa was good to go and Amy’s would be soon (not sure why they were not together)!  Yes!  I rushed off to an appointment and told Amy there.  

Too good to be true though. When I got home, there was an email from Rachid saying that for some reason Amy’s had not gone through yet (^&Y$*$!) and that she would n0w need to supply actual tickets in order to receive her visa. I still never understood why her stuff was submitted separately.  This was becoming a total nightmare joke, basically so that the consulate and country can make less than $200 (the difference between the cost of a regular tourist Visa and a special World Cup Visa).  We decided to just plunk down the extra $165 and get her a regular tourist visa.  It was still a full week later before we finally got the notification email that both visas were completed and in the mail.  However, I still refused to post this until we had the actual visas in hand and had checked everything for correctness.  

When my dog Jorge freaks out barking bloody murder because he thought he might have heard something from the direction of the front door, I usually get pissed off, but when I caught a flash of the “FedEx” logo driving out of view when I got near the door, a big smile came across my face.  Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 3:42 P.M. I opened the door, leaned down, picked up the thin package and ripped it open before I had even closed the door.  Incredibly, everything appeared to be in order, even though Amy's is dated a full EIGHT days later than mine.  Needless to say Travisa did not get a stellar survey evaluation from us-I only wish I could give the Brasilian consulate some constructive feedback as well .

Therefore, by the posting of this piece I am confirming, repeat I am confirming, that all systems are GO!  All we have left to do is pack! (And a lot more on that to come.)