And the Roller Coaster Continues...

Well, first of all, we are not leaving on Thursday. Mike from our agency called this morning to say that he had heard back from the Consulate, and they did not accept any of the 5 dates he asked for. In fact, they told him that their next available appointment wasn't until October 12th. The thing is, October 12th isn't even possible because of the holiday October 1-7. So Mike asked for 5 dates later in October, which would mean that we are back to leaving on October 7th, but, again, October is a tricky month due to the Trade Fairs in Guangzhou. There is no guarantee that we will be able to get a hotel room, even if we get a Consulate appointment.

So, basically, this is where we stand right now: we are waiting to hear back from the Consulate sometime next week to see if they chose one of the dates in October that Mike requested. If they did choose one of those dates, then we have to wait to see if our agency can find us a reasonable hotel room (reasonable being not too outrageously expensive, or too far away from the city). Then we will know when we are leaving.

I am not allowing myself to panic until we hear back from the Consulate. Leaving October 7th is not the end of the world; whereas I was completely ready to hop on a plane next week, it was going to be very, very complicated. I was most worried about getting a decent flight, but there were other huge holes in the plan as well. We were going to make it work, but having a few more weeks does definitely relieve some stress, too (if you're looking for a bright spot!). As long as we don't have to wait until the end of November...