The US embassy is printing money ..

.. 80 euros just to apply and a total of about 60 euros just for calling to set up the appointment - the embassy might as well be printing money instead of visas.

And of the three of us that went there to apply, two received their passports two days later in the mail. I kid you not. We went there on Wednesday and they proudly found their visas in the mail on Friday. Guess who did not. Yours truly. More than two weeks later I dared to call them and was quickly disposed of with a "it takes three to four weeks normally" and an "We couldn't look it up even if we wanted to". Was it because I had been to the states four times before? Was it because I had been to Mexico? Was it because I hadn't paid enough tuition in one of their high schools? Was it because my name was too difficult? Was it because the two others were in line in front of me and America was now full? I started to think the best case scenario would be that my passport was "simply" lost in the mail and I would have the honor of getting another passport (and visa) in the two months that are left until the trip. The worst case would be them declining my application. And since - thanks to our odyssey to Frankfurt - they now have my fingerprints on file it would be quite hard to sneak by customs then.

But who would'a thought .. an innocent little envelope with my precious little passport and even more precious little visa was in the mailbox a few days after my call.

And that's it, things settled, I'm going to the Bronx in the summer. Scary.

We'll celebrate tomorrow.