Eventually (in 7 ½ weeks to be precise), it will be Peace Corps Everyday but for now I’ll only bombard you all with it once a week. I’ll let you know what new discoveries I’ve made and how I am preparing.
A quick re-cap:
I was officially invited to the Peace Corps in mid-February and I’m leaving for “staging” in Washington DC on May 10th. After a few days in our nation’s capital for orientation, I’m on my way to Bulgaria! I’ll spend the first three months in the capital, Sofia, for pre-service training before being sworn in as an official volunteer. From there, based on how well I’ve mastered the training and language, I’ll be transferred to the community I will be living and serving in for the next two years. Whew!
Okay. Here’s the latest: I have a personal passport that’s still valid for the next two years (I went on a mission’s trip to Guatemala after high school and a dream vacation to Italy while I was in college) but now I need a government passport so I had to have new pictures taken and send them in to the Peace Corps travel agency, SATO.
I thought to myself, “Where in the world do I get passport photos taken?” The last time I got them taken it was with a disposable camera in Homeroom during my Senior year of high school. Miss Lisa, my high school secretary, would probably think it was weird if I showed up with a disposable camera and asked her to take my picture again so I asked around. Apparently they take them just about anywhere you can find a picture kiosk thingy.
So I go to CVS and the picture guy is on lunch and I’m welcomed to wait for 30 minutes. No thanks. So I go to Rite Aid and the lady says, “Sure, no problem,” and I think “Great, this is gonna be easy!” Hmmmm…
She takes this dinosaur of a camera out from the deep unseen recesses of the shelves, blows years worth of dust off the top, and asks me to stand in front of an old, rusty, grey filing cabinet. She then proceeds to point the thing at me while backing up one step, two steps, five six seven steps until she’s ridiculously far away muttering, “I can’t seem to get you in the frame.” So she’s basically calling me fat. Like the biggest, fattest girl she’s ever taken a picture of. So fat she has to take my picture from the other end of the store. And this is supposed to be just my face. So here I am standing awkwardly in front of a filing cabinet feeling like some sort of circus attraction.
“Come one, come all and behold Moon-Face Girl! Her Macy’s Day Parade balloon of a head affects the tides and can be seen from space! Be careful not to get too close, she could swallow you whole!”
“Say cheese,” she says. I don’t but I smile. She pushes the button and…nothing. It was out of batteries.
After she steals batteries from the store and puts them in the camera, she tries again. Click. OK, great. She hands me my photos, I give her $7.49, and I go home.
When I get home and compare these photos to my old passport photos I notice a discrepancy. The photos she took of me were from the waste up and my old passport just had my face. Uh oh. I want to make sure to get these right. So I scan them, blow up the image and print them.
Then I remember that I also need pictures for my Bulgarian Visa. I find the paperwork and see that the little example square that shows how big the picture is supposed to be is about ¾” x ¾”. SO SMALL. So I shrink the image on my computer and print. Too big. Shrink some more. Still too big. About five tries later I get it to the right size.
There are pictures of my face spread all over my room and I’m trying to decide which ones to send in to the Peace Corps. I’m pretty indecisive so I just send all of them. The envelope is jam-packed, full of my big, fat face and I’m thinking, “Whoever gets these is either gonna think I’m really full of myself or an idiot. Stupid Rite Aid lady.”
I mail it in.
A few days later I get a call. It’s a Peace Corps official with SATO travel. There’s a problem with my passport photo.
“Your passport photo is not regulation size, we can’t use them.”
“Oh. Um, are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“None of them will work?”
"No. None of these pictures will work.”
“Bummer.”
So I have to re-take them. I go to CVS. The picture guy is out to lunch and I’m welcomed to wait 30 minutes. Fine, I’ll wait. 30 minutes later I get my picture taken with a normal camera, at a normal distance, and they are printed and perfect in less than 5 minutes.
I Fed-Exed them about an hour ago.
Moral of the story: Rite Aid is Stupid and CVS is awesome. Also, the Mail Mart on Mt. Vernon in Grand Terrace is wonderful and every one there should be given “I’m an Awesome Mail Shipping Person” badges or a kiss, their choice.
That’s all. Til next week!
-Age
