Schengen

Now I am officially unemployed, but that doesn't mean I'll be spending my time free; I still have freelance projects. However, this day was quite calm. I spent the whole day at home, busy with my daily routine. Naturally, it felt unusual. I didn't need to join our morning meeting, check work chats, or fill in my work hours in a special Excel spreadsheet, which I had been doing every day for years. I also don't need to worry about work-related stress and other issues connected to my previous job anymore. Still, in the next few days, I need to collect some letters from the post office, sign them, and send them back. That should be my last task related to this work.

My night was comfortable enough because the previous night was a bit annoying. The main problem was our heating system. It broke when the temperature outside was –25 degrees. Because of that, I was forced to go to bed fully dressed, which made me unhappy. Yesterday, the technician fixed the broken part and serviced the system. Now our heating system and hot water are working effectively. I described this in more detail in my previous posts. However, my morning was a bit early. I woke up at 8 a.m., and I managed to complete my morning routine without any worries. I even had some free time before work and talked with my family. Overall, it was my second quiet and happy morning. Recently, I usually woke up around 9 a.m. and immediately started working, and I couldn’t finish my routine properly.

Today my day was quiet but a bit unusual. It was my workday and also the last workday of this week. This week was a bit short because I worked only three days. The weather was the same as yesterday — it rained all day, hitting the open space under my windows and making noisy sounds. But today, fog appeared again. It covered my city, and my hill disappeared. I noticed it right after I got up, while looking through the window. However, this time the fog was thicker, and even the houses disappeared inside it.

This post should actually start with what happened yesterday, because around 11 PM something interesting and nice happened. Well, yesterday, a few hours after I published my post, I got a message on Telegram. That message was from the same freelance client I’ve written about many times before, including in my last post. My client informed me about the bank transaction status — he kept his word and sent me the money. It really surprised me because it happened right after I published my post. I even joked to myself that maybe he read my post and decided to send it after that. But of course, that’s just a joke — he doesn’t know about my blog. It was just a coincidence.

From my post title, everything is already clear. Right now, I have no words, and I honestly don’t understand what’s going on. I couldn’t get that messed-up appointment again, because everything was exactly the same as last time. I saw the same errors, the same notifications saying the appointment was occupied or “try again later.” Also, they only published dates for Moscow. All of this completely ruined my plans, because I wanted to go to Europe for the New Year holidays and celebrate there. Now I need to think about where else I can go for my holidays and start making new plans, because I still want to make my travel plans happen — even if it’s another country.

My morning started around 9 AM because I got up a bit late — just 10 minutes before work. During that time, I only had enough time to brush my teeth and quickly wash my face. Then I immediately started preparing my desk and joined the meeting. When I connected, nobody else had joined yet, so I was the first one today, even though I woke up late. This meeting happened without our team lead, who was away on personal business and left another person in charge. That person has been working in our department for a long time, so he was responsible for everything. The meeting lasted only about five minutes, because everyone already knew what they had to do, and nobody had any questions. It was very convenient for me because I could continue my breakfast right after.

Yesterday I ended my day with visa appointments, and today started the same way — with my visa journey. Last night, I tried to make an appointment from 11 PM until 1 AM, but everything was unsuccessful. I saw the same errors again and again, and I couldn’t move past the appointment date selection. Today, the same story repeated. I woke up early in the morning and tried again, but unfortunately, I couldn’t make an appointment even though the site showed free and available dates. I just wasted all my time and nerves on it.

Today, between 4 and 5 PM, the Telegram bot notified me about available appointments. I immediately stopped my work tasks and started trying to book one. But everything wasn’t so easy. I kept getting errors like “Request error, please try again” or “This date is already occupied, please choose another one.” Because of these errors, I couldn’t move to the next step. I was only able to select a date and time, and that’s all I managed to do in about an hour or more. However, this time I noticed one interesting thing — the website worked normally and didn’t block my IP address. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

This day started with checking visa appointments. When I woke up, I immediately checked all chats about the Spain visa to see what had happened and whether there was any news about appointments or other updates. It’s very important for me, so I keep waiting for new appointments. I also checked a Telegram chatbot that tracks appointments and shows which ones are available. After that, I manually checked the visa site for Kazan city, and I kept checking it throughout the day. However, today there were no available appointments in other cities either. The Telegram bot only sent messages about empty appointments in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Minsk.

Today the weather surprised me because it was sunny all day. But the temperature was a little low, around 13 degrees. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, since the weather app predicted rainy and cold days for the next few days. However, today turned out to be the opposite of what was predicted. That’s why I tried to walk during my lunch break as much as possible.

Today the weather was rainy and cloudy. The temperature was even lower than usual. The forecast for the next few days also predicts rainy and cold weather. But even though the weather was bad, I decided to go to the photo office to take pictures for my visa, because I need to prepare all my documents and try to get an appointment. However, I’m not sure if I can get an appointment or not. Still, I need to try if I want to go to Europe.

Yesterday I wrote about how many sunny days we have here, and today the weather was cloudy. I think I jinxed it, because my day started and ended with clouds. I remember seeing the bright sun only a few times and feeling its warmth. Because I managed to go for a walk during my lunch break. Even though I could only walk for 30–40 minutes, I think it was enough to rest and enjoy a little. I also went for a walk during work time. I had ordered some things, and my phone notified me that my orders were ready for pickup. Honestly, it was already late, and I had only 30 minutes left of my workday. So I decided to go and pick up my orders because I could collect them until 6 PM. If my team lead reads this post, I hope everything will be okay.