First my Mom, Auntie and Godmother arrive in the Arlanda airport in Stockholm. That’s a major event in itself because they had a layover in Frankfurt and I was scared that they wouldn’t know how to transfer planes. Second, they met my Syrian boyfriend on the first night they were here. That’s a whole other event because my Mom, Auntie and Godmother (I’ll call them the 3 Asian Ladies from now on) don’t know anything about the Arabic world so much so the insights on our relationship. Third, they were only here for two days and having the time of their life when that moment came, the moment they realized, or my mom realized, that she had lost all three passports with a week and a half left in their holiday and a trip to Paris waiting for us.
It’s not the end of the world when you lose your passport in another country, it’s just a logistical nightmare that lasts intensely for a few days, but a week with the 3 Asian Ladies. The story is not so extravagant, it’s just a misadventure like losing your phone or wallet. It happens and for this story it’s nothing too dramatic, they just misplaced it because they were “extra careful”.
The most important thing to do is think positively, shit happens, plan alternatives. The papers, the calling takes little effort, but a lot of unintended time when thinking about a nice vacation.
I was in charge of all the logistics and papers, I had to call the SL train station, figure out what to do next, cancel all Paris plans, cancel credit cards, repeatedly asked people around us if they had seen it, contacting family members and the biggest headache, the papers that were needed to apply for a new passport in the US Embassy in Stockholm. They had no form of ID so we had to contact people from home to scan and send copies of old passports and IDs over to me. We woke up early everyday to do errands like go to the police and ask for a report. There are many requirements from the US embassy before you can apply for a new passport. It took us about 4 days to complete and get everything.
In the meantime, dealing with the sad 3 Asian Ladies in the beginning was a roller coaster feeling for me. Of course, they blamed it on my mom or anyone they can think of that has a bit of an influence on their loss. Then it becomes feeling sorry about themselves and not having any motivation to do anything and then finally realizing that they have to find other ways to have fun. So we went to Helsingborg and Copenhagen. My godmother had family there so we stayed for the weekend. It was great because I went with my friend Mark David to Christiana. 😉
Finally, we found out that the US Embassy understands how we feel and things like this always happen. They will get a temporary passport before their flight home on Saturday. It’s a hassle, but I learned a lot about the process and that it might be nice to work at an Embassy.
 |
| IKEA |
 |
| Hötorget Farmers Market |
 |
| In “France” |
 |
| In “England” |
 |
| Mark David helping my Auntie up the hill to the Zoo in Copenhagen |
 |
|
| When my godmother was mad at them on the Djurgården boat |
 |
| Helsingborg, Sweden |
 |
| Don’t ask me how many times they ate McDonald’s since they came to Sweden |
 |
| Cuties |
Happy happy family,
One more month in Sweden!
Dandelion Traveler
dandeliontraveler 