There is a way to use NSURLConnection's delegate methods synchronously. However, unless you know about how NSRunLoop works, it's not quite straightforward.
In general, you'll want to create the NSURLConnection and _not_ have it start immediately. Instead, you should schedule NSURLConnection to run in its own run mode in the current NSRunLoop, then start the connection. You should then spin the run mode in the current NSRunLoop until the delegate method flags that the connection has finished loading (or failed loading). After which, you can continue on w/ the rest of your application.
If you want code and a more complete description, there's a blog post about it here:
Using NSURLConnection Synchronously via Asynchronous Delegates | stackq
-Kelvin
