Tangling with a 6,000 year-old bureaucracy

[muckefuck]

Man, what an orderal that was! In retrospect, it wasn't the best decision for monshu to wear a "FREE TIBET" baseball cap. And perhaps if I'd worn something over the t-shirt with the words "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE" on a silhouette of Taiwan, I would've gotten better treatment. At least it seems to have stopped bleeding down there for the time being.

Seriously, I can't remember being more overprepared for a bureaucratic encountre. Since the ambassadorial and consular websites had radically different forms on them, we brought both. Both forms clearly ask for only one passport photo; we each had two. The office opens at 9 a.m.; we were there by 8:20 and in line by 8:45. And so forth. So inevitably the actual experience of turning in a form, having a clerk make a few marks on a receipt, and handing it to me with the advisory to pick up the visa on Wednesday was terribly anticlimactic. Oh well; at least there were pancakes afterwards.

Comments

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, pancakes.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Banana nut buckwheat pancakes! More than I could finish! It makes you wonder why every day doesn't begin this way--until the 11 o'clock carbo-crash hits, that is.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Carbs.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The Forbidden Fruit of the Aughts!

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

umm... what were you thinking? Taunting anyone in consulates/embassies is an easy way to get denied a visa.The TSA can make life miserable as well.

Chuck