23 July 2007

The DMV of Paris

Bonjour mes amis,
Yes that means I am in Paris, the city of love and lights and lost passports. I indeed lost my passport somewhere between Zurich and Paris, and still have absolutely no idea how. To compound my problems, when I arrived at my hostel they booked me as two people in a double room instead of one person in a room of 4. The upside, I spent a night in a room by myself and paid the dorm room rate. The downside, the solution is being in 4 different rooms over 8 nights. That wasn't so difficult.
Spending the morning in the US Embassy was the hard part. Luckily it was raining, which meant waiting inside for a long time was tolerable. And to be clear, we Americans do receive expediated services once pass the initial screening. While taking the ID photos required for my new passport, I missed my number: C816. I came back to the waiting room, waited for nearly an hour, and when they called C829, I went up and asked what was going on. They explained that I had missed my number being called 3 times, and the woman gave me a disgusted look. The look that says I work for the DMV, or in the cases of Victoria and NYA, the post office.
Luckily I was spared the twenty minute interrogation suffered by a businessman when asked why he lost his passport. I just gave her my best "Lord, forgive him for he knows not what he has done" look, and it worked. From 9:15 am until 1:30 pm, I stood, waited, stood, waited and paid.
Thank God for equilibrium though. What goes down (my mood) must go up, the reverese is true only for gravity. Tonight I am invited to a 21st birthday dinner for a French acquaintance of mine from Johns Hopkins.
Bonne anniversaire Gwen et a bientot mes ami americains!
(For those of you who speak French and wonder why in Paris I cannot type the accents, I reply the Internet cafe has American keyboards. Go figure)

3 comments:

  1. Mick
    Thank god you have a good head on your shoulders or you would be in deep !!**. XX OO

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  2. Michael,
    Glad you got the passport taken care of. Just read your previous blog in Switzerland. I, too, loved Luzern when I was there many years ago. Look forward to returning. We sure could use some of the rain your getting!
    Barb

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  3. I can't believe you lost your passport. . .oh geez. Good thing you got it replaced and now we know that government workers across the world are all the same. I'm glad you're having such a good time.

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