Pre-adventures with passports.

As some of you already know, the trip to Europe has been in jeopardy the past few of days because of the absence of my passport. Although I applied for a renewal at the end of April and requested it to be expedited on May 19, as of Friday they still had not sent it, despite my frantic and numerous calls to the National Passport Agency.

I ended up coming to San Francisco this morning (I caught the 5:45 a.m. train from Davis with Appa) to come beg for my passport. When I had called the number which gives information for passport agencies nationally, they said they would send an urgent message to the passport agency and to expect a call. They also said that if I had not received a call by around 10:30 a.m. that I should call back.

Thank god I didn't wait for that call.

I came to SF at around 8, and then I dropped off my backpack at Lisa's house and we went to the passport center around 9:30 a.m. You're only allowed in if you have an appointment, and they have a security guard out front that checks you off - luckily, he let us in without me having to cry or beg. After getting my number (51!), I finally got called to a window at around 10:45, at which point he said that they had to get my application from the back and since he wasn't allowed to leave the window, he would have to tell the manager and I would have to wait some more. At 11:10, they called my number again, at which point I was told that my passport application hadn't been processed yet and I would have to come back at 3:30 to get it. Seeing as they'd promised and failed to deliver a passport to me numerous times during the past few weeks, I didn't quite believe this claim. Moreover, the fact that I'd be allegedly be receiving it at 3:30, half an hour before they close, meant that if they messed up, there would be no time before our 8 a.m. flight to remedy the mistake.

So, we spent 3 1/2 hours anxiously walking around the city, and returned to the office at 3:05. When we get there, we found that the line was already so long that it wrapped around the back of the room and curved back towards the entrance. I was fully convinced at this point that Europe was probably not in my immediate future, with the way things seemed to be going. After standing in an unmoving line (since the passports were not yet ready) while some of the 11 a.m. will-calls got their passports, I finally made it to the front at around 3:30, only to find that my passport was not there yet. So then we had to sit and wait, again. I finally received my passport at 3:45, to my great relief and joy. It's funny - the passport agency really does suck the life out of you. Most of the people there had spent the greater part of their days there, just like us, and some people were there with luggage in tow, hoping to catch a flight. There was a group of us who had gotten to the front of the line only to find we had to wait, and when one of the men was called up, one of the other men congratulated him for it - because really, that's what it feels like. Getting your passport in person from the passport agency feels like winning the lottery - winning a lottery that you have to pay $100 for and that you is your right, but a lottery nonetheless.

If you don't have a passport now and plan on traveling within the next year, I suggest you apply soon. Believe me, it will be worth it.