I know, I know. Two posts in one day. There may even be a third. But don’t hold your breath.

So anyway, last Monday we took the day to go to San Francisco to the German Consulate to get the Farty Pants twins their EU passports and register them as German Citizens. The benefits of dual citizenship, in these times, are definately a plus for us.

Like many things European, they have really short working hours. They are open from 9:00am to 12:00pm. Yes, that’s right. Three whole hours. I attribute this to the fact that there aren’t really any Germans in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Except, that is,  for the Bosnian man and the young American girl that were in the lobby with us. We didn’t see anyone else for the first hour and a half we were there.

So we arrived at 10:00am and entered Germany. I immediately bragged to the Farty Pants Twins that they should be thankful I take them to such exotic locales at such a young age. Already traveling the world at 2 1/2. So there we were, our feet on German soil. I have brought the girls to the Fatherland. I could feel the efficiency, the wheels were in motion. Everything was in it’s place and the mechanization of the Consulate was working on time, and in perfect order. Good German engineering awaited us as we …… WTF? There was someone in line in front of us. AND only ONE window open.

The aforementioned Bosnian man at the window was trying to get a visa to live in Germany with his elderly mother. After a half and hour of back and forth with the lady behind the window, he was sent packing with a swift kick in his ass and told “Nein”. No job, no visa buddy. Next!

I won’t bore you with the details of our conversation, but we were sent to another part of the Consulate to fill out other papers. All before 12:00 noon. So we headed off. After another half of an hour we were told we didn’t need to fill these papers out and to head back to the other part of the Consulate we just came from. Again, WTF? What the hell happened to German efficiency. I blame the unification of Europe. Germany never had these problems before. Trains ran on time, people got what they needed and the clock ran 24 hours a day, on time.

So back to the other partof the Consulate we tread. At this point the Farty Pants Twins are DONE. No more lines. No more waiting for Mom and Dad. Start paying attention to us. It was decided. It was time to go. It was 11:45am. 15 mintues until our visit to Germany must end. No passports, no citizenship, no NOTHING. Our morning was spent standing in lines and waiting for nothing. We needed to come back another day and finish the process. Our morning gone. And nothing to show for it.

So off we went back into the streets of San Francisco. Back to America. Back to fog, George Bush, and the war in Iraq. Our time in Germany was short, but it was sweet. Maybe next time I will stop by the Russian Consulate. I hear they hand out Vodka for those waiting in line so you won’t complain.

Hey girls, you want to become Russian?

[tags]  German Consulate, Dual citizenship, Russian Consulate, Farty Pants Twins [/tags]