madeline just received her american passport in the post. she's had her british passport for several weeks now. what a lucky baby to have both american and british citizenship. i hope she gives richard and me some credit for it when she's a teenager and doesn't otherwise like us.
my mom was visiting when we went to the american embassy for maddie's birth registry and passport appointment. it was surprisingly efficient and painless, but we were really unimpressed with the american embassy building. they have added a bunch of concrete blocks and temporary huts to the front for security (i guess they didn't have 9/11 in mind when they built the structure), and the queues for visa applications wrapped around the building. the marble lobby was obviously built to impress, but someone has plastered a large advertisement for shipping services over the sign welcoming visitors to the united states of america. this combined with the missing ceiling tiles and general 1970s decor make the building appear very tired.
we live across the road from a memorial to john f. kennedy, which is built on an acre of land within runnymede, the site of the magna carta signing. the british gave this land to the united states in his memory so i just have to go for a short walk to be back on american soil. i have to say that the beautiful runnymede meadows are a more impressive piece of america than the embassy in london.
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