Well, I am now less than impressed with America. This is the nation that invented fast food and instant service. But on arriving in Washington, along with roughly 1000 other people, we find that the number of INS offices available is... 4. 3 of which are only serving US citizens. Fortunately, somebody there realised the situation, took decisive action, and increased the number to... 5 (2 for non-US). I was in that queue for an hour, and if it had been much longer I might even have missed my next flight.
Now I know why foreigners who wants to take a tour up to the ISS goes to Baikonur rather than on the shuttle. I can just picture the scene:
Tourist: My shuttle leaves in 15 minutes and I have to be on it! I paid $20 million and I have command duties.
INS: I'm sorry sir, you haven't completed item 16 on your INS form. You'll have to go to the back of the line. You'll be booked onto the next shuttle.
But, here I am in Disneyworld, and it's just as packaged and tinkly and glitzy and fake and horrible as I expected, except that driving through it, all you see is trees and grass and canals.
1 comment:
Aah yes, immigration queues at IAD. I had the exact problem on my trip to IAD just a few days before you. In fact, it looks like, if you had made your flight, we could have met at the airport!
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