Cold Angry Feet

These feet were much happier only a few short days ago when they were barefoot in the sunshine!

Now it is snowing and these poor little piggies have had a rough day. Not even my woolen slippers and a burning fire will ease their Ärger.

This morning we drove into Düsseldorf where the American Consulate was having their annual "outreach" day. This means they bring citizen services normally available only in Frankfurt or Berlin to other major German cities. Weeks ago we scheduled an appointment to be there this morning so my daughters could finally renew their expired US passports.

We gave ourselves plenty of time to travel there and arrived with all our documents in order and without any cell phones or electronics. Unfortunately, while we were on time for our appointment, the embassy bureaucrats were not. And there was no room to wait inside the building. So we were forced to stand outside in a line, in the freezing cold, for more than an hour.

When we were finally seen inside, the pencil-pushers decided to stand on policy and deny my younger daughter an adult passport, because she does not turn 16 for four more days. Four days. But they won't be anywhere close to us in four days. They will be back in Frankfurt actually processing all of the applications they collected in person today. So in four days my daughter may appear in person in Frankfurt and submit her application. But they would not take it from her today - even though the passport would not be issued until she was 16. Absolutely maddening.

Thank you, American government, for your help. Now explain to me why I must file taxes as an expat?