my passport will expire in a few months so i filed a leave last thursday to go to new york..... yeah, yeah, i know i could just mail them my old passport and the forms and a self-addressed "trackable" envelope but i dunno, i just am not comfortable sending my passport thru mail so i just went to the philippine embassy in new york to apply personally..... plus if i do it by mail i need to notarize all the photocopies and i dunno how and where to do it and besides it's always fun to go to new york........ i love people-watching in new york........ they just dress so nice.........
anyway, so i paid $60 for 64 pages......... i just have a feeling i'll be doing a lot of travelling from this year until my passport expires (2013) so i thought, yeah, i would need those extra pages, haha, wishful thinking :-P but hey, who knows......... but i so wanna go to florence and vatican and paris.......
geez, i keep digressing......so anyway, i woke up very early (5am), called for a cab at 5:30am. cab arrived around 5:45am. was in the train station around 6am. got into a train going to center city (septa, R5) at 6:15. then i have to take a train (septa again, R7) to NJ-trenton station and then a train to new york penn station (njtransit - nec). i arrived at trenton around 8am and i reached new york around 9am something. i just walked from the penn station (32nd and 7th) to the 45th. i love walking in new york. when i reached 45th i turned right to go to 5th ave. and looked for the philippine embassy's building....
when i got there i was welcomed by a manong guard...asked what my purpose is, asked for my passport and listed my name and told me to go to the 3rd floor.... this is the first time i'm going to renew my passport..... i usually just give my passport to travel agencies because i don't want to go to DFA and fall in line, yeah, i'm lazy :-P..... anyway, when i got to the third 
floor there was a lady infront of the "passport" window so i waited behind her and when it was my turn the lady was kind of surprised and asked for my number, yeah, you need to get a number. so i went to get my number sat down and waited. it's a good thing i read the new york philippine embassy's website over and over to check for the requirements for passport renewal before i went to new york so i don't have to fall in line for the copy machine......i was hearing complaints that they should have posted that requirement on their website, well, it is on their website, how else were i able to find out that they need photocopies of such and such pages and documents. anyway, i waited for like 20 minutes i guess... when it was my turn i just gave them all the dox they need plus my old passport.... the lady in the "passport" window saw my self-addressed envelope so she asked me if i want my passport mailed to me and i said yes..... but actually i can get my new passport the next day (friday afternoon) but there's no way i could file a leave again and go back to new york and besides, i also read on their website that i can have them mail my passport as long as i'll give them a self-addressed envelope with tracking number....i paid $16 for the special 1-day delivery self-addressed envelope at usps near my office...... then i paid $60 to the cashier and that's it...... i walked back to the train station (penn station) and catched my 11:00 am train to trenton (nj).....
it was funny that i spent a lot of time travelling (6 hours) and just a lil over an hour in new york..... i really like going to new york (yeah i know, i sound like a broken record, )..... i'm really a city person..... i realized i don't want to live in north carolina anymore....
and oh, i received my new passport saturday morning.... i went to the embassy thursday...... i wish it's that fast too if you're in the philippines.....
0 comments:
Post a Comment