the embassy

my passport was falling apart, it was issued when I was 16 and it did not look like me-my face has thinned out considerably. Since it was issued the style of the US passport, at least on the inside, has changed a few times. On top of that it went through the wash because I left it in my pants 5 years ago in France.

Consequently it was falling apart, the cover had separated. When I went to Poland the other weekend the border agent made me show another form of ID and barely let me in. So when I got back I went to the US Embassy in Dublin but I went at night and it was closed but the guard told me to come back on Thursday at 8am. The US Embassy is sort of an odd-looking compound down the street and around the corner from me in Ballsbridge. The Embassy is straight out of the 1960s with its kitschy circular design. A very recently built guardhouse is the only point of entry for citizens and non-Americans can't even get inside without having a visa. The person processing the visa application line at the Guardhouse said since she could read my passport I could wait until I got a new one but if I wanted a second opinion I could go inside to see an embassy agent. I did. I had to leave my cell phone at the Guardhouse. I had worn a suit because I wasn't really sure what the embassy would be like and I wanted the best service. The passport window was more like the DMV than anything else. A spartan room with low ceilings, white walls and chairs in rows face windows with speaking vents in them where embassy agents communicate with nationals. I put my name on the clipboard and waited. Their collection of magazines was interesting, the State Department magazine was an obvious choice but with it were a right wing magazine (American Conservative, maybe?), a magazine for a heritage organization, and some strange ones I don't remember.

The agent told me I needed a new passport and they could issue a temporary one if I got a travel itinerary & a passport photo. So I left and walked back to the house and printed out my next flight and went to a drug store and got my photo taken. The emergency passport was $100 but it was done within an hour. So now at least I have a passport that looks like me.