Yay! My passport arrived. On time. With a new entry visa to the U.S. in it. This has been a source of considerable anxiety for me since I decided to take this trip so, yay! Woohoo! Now I can proceed to Germany and Israel without worries.
Of course the hardest part about getting the visa turned out to be picking it up at the “post office.” I use scare quotes because we don’t really have post offices in Sweden anymore. That is, they decided to save money by having supermarkets take over post office functions like selling stamps and package pick-up. Predictably this is a big pain in the butt.
The woman at the counter very nearly wouldn’t let me pick up the package containing my passport because A. you need a Swedish ID to pick up a package and my only Swedish ID is my passport. B. I had written c/o my mom on the address so the woman claimed I needed to come with my mom to pick it up. Gah!
After about 20 minutes of arguing and calls to various bosses she admitted she had been wrong and I could pick it up.
Also: I am deeply indebted to my sister for saying to the cashier, “Legally speaking c/o means that only the person it is addressed to, not the person who is c/o can pick it up.” I need to start using teh phrase “legally speaking” more often.
