Papers are at the Consulate!
I finally got all of the papers together, notarized, and certified by the secretary of state. I walked them into the Chinese Consulate for authentication, thinking I'd ask for "rush" processing - you know, while-U-wait. Then I saw the prices. Regular processing (4 days): $20 per document. 2-3 day processing: add $30 per document. Same/Next day processing: add $50 per document. So I could pick them up in 24 hours for a price of $70 per document. Now, if this is a passport application or other single doc, sure, no biggie. But since I have 16 documents in my heap, I opted to wait until next Thursday to pick them up.
On the plus side, they were very nice, and when the gal at the window told me I needed to turn in a photocopy of my home study along with the original, she pointed me to a photocopier that was right there and waited while I made the copy. So I got glared at a bit by people in line behind me but didn't have to go through the (LONG) drop-off line twice. Good thing I had some change in my pocket for the copier.
The other nice thing was meeting a Chinese family in the elevator. The mom had a young baby girl in a carrier, and there was another girl of about 3 with them, as well as a teenage girl. I, of course, kind of fixated on the baby and said "what a pretty baby" to the mom and dad. Then, feeling the baleful eye of a jealous toddler upon me, I said "you're very pretty too!" to the very pretty 3-year-old. At that point the dad smiled and said, with enormous pride in his voice, "Three daughters!" and "big family!" I smiled and said "wow, that's great!" and then we were all happily on our way out of the building. It was a nice little encounter.
