The adventure of standing in line

June 16, 2007

In comparison to some of the past weeks, this one was less eventful – a good thing. On Thursday Wes and I went back into the city and I began the day at the government office where I needed a card that would allow me to buy a car. We asked questions and I was directed to one of the lines so I proceeded to stand there for the next 2 hours although there were maybe 10-12 people in front of me. It was a long wait, but could have been worse. When I finally got to the window I gave the woman my papers and waited to see what was next. After only a moment she told me that I was in the wrong line and needed to go the next window. I stared at her incredulously unable to believe that I had just wasted so much time. I moved to the end of the next line and though the people seemed to feel sorry for me, no one offered to let me move closer in line. The guy behind me also had to change lines, perhaps because he had followed the same information as I had.

By this time it was almost 12:00 at which time the office would close for an hour. I think that I could have used the hour to get married had I wished. There was a young man next to me in this line and he began to ask me the standard questions –Are you a tourist? Do you have any children? Why not? To the latter question I gave my standard response that I want to be married before having children. I only heard one word from him in his next comment which was Latino? I pretended to not understand but I was pretty sure he asking whether I would consider a Latino. Later in the conversation I pretended ignorance again when he said that it is difficult to get into the US – unless you marry a North American. I hope that I did not understand everything that he said, but I am quite certain that I did. He then asked for my phone number to which I politely declined and said that I do not like to give out my number. The adventures never cease! He did not return to the line after lunch and when I finally got to the window it took about 3 minute, and then I was told to return to another line in 40 minutes for my card. I have yet to figure out why the line moved so slowly in the first place. During the 40 minutes I left and found an internet cafe. A much better use of my time.