Beetlejuice

[mbarrick]

I'm sitting in the passport office, waiting to see an "examiner". It is remeniscent of the closing scene in Beetlejuice. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy beside me knows how to shrink heads.

I skipped out of work to do this. The passport is so I can proceed with my Australian immigration, although in another year and half it will be require to go to the U.S. as well. Either way, it's about time I got one.

Why must government waiting rooms always be so dismal? It doesn't seem to matter which governmant it happens to be, either. It's like there is an international standard that applies to all levels of government.

All the require players are present as well: the increacingly imaptient running/screaming infant and apologetic mother; the shrill women nattering in a foreign language; the surly clerks manning only 10% of the available wickets...

Comments

[sovietnimrod.livejournal.com]

The best government experience was when I went to the Irish Republic with my cousin in 1996.

We get off our flight from London and walk towards immigration. There's a sign (in English and Gaelic) saying "EU Citizens Left; Non-EU Citizens Right" and two pathways (seperated by portable barriers) splitting off each way.

My cousin (who's English) takes the left path while I head right. We walk along for all of 20 feet when the two pathways turn around a bend and empty out into the main public reception area... both myself and my cosuin step into the area at the same time, perplexed... never any sign of any immigration officers, offices, or nothing except those carpet-covered portable barriers...

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Case in point. At the passport office there were two lines: one for people applying for passports and one for people picking up passports. The same clerk was serving both lines.

[sovietnimrod.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at least you had a clerk...

In my case, there was no proof I ever entered (or left) the country.