Lucked out!

It was Tuesday morning and we were getting married the next day and we didn't have our marriage license yet. The certified translation was supposed to arrive soon because they overnighted it from Miami. I have been through many rush request for documents and tickets and did not expect anything to show up on time. If we did not get the translation, we would not be getting married and that would put a major kink in our plans.

Patrícia told me to call down to the desk to check after we got up. I did as I was told, even though I knew the answer, and was delightfully shocked to discover I was wrong. The package was waiting for us down stairs at the desk! We could get married now! I skipped on down to the desk, signed for the package, pour myself a cup of delicious strong coffee, and returned to the room with a smile on my face.

That lasted about 30 seconds. Time enough for me to open the package and see that while they did what they said they would in sending it, what they sent was worthless. No ATA certification, only a notarized letter saying that the translation was correct. We went to the City Hall to try to convince them to accept it. We tried and tried. No go. We ate and went back to the hotel.

Don't panic. Search the internet for an ATA translator in San Francisco. It took some time but I found one and made the call. She agreed to do it that night if she did not have to retranslate anything. We took a couple buses to south SF and found her building. As we were walking up the very steep hill, we saw a woman getting into her car in front of the place we were going. When we went up the steps and rang the bell, she got out of her car and said she was the translator and had forgotten we were coming. She almost left!

We sat in nervous anticipation as she checked the translation. One typo, nothing major. Fifty bucks later and we had our ATA certification. Whew! Two buses and 45 minutes back to the hotel. A long nervous day.