Losing your passport is a bummer. If you’re in a foreign country this is a major major bummer, bordering on total crisis. Because not only will you miss your flight back to Les Etats Unis, you’re also gonna have to deal with locating the embassy, shelling out 100 precious USD for a new one, and arranging to get another flight. And contrary to what you’d expect, U.S. embassies in foreign countries aren’t pleasure palaces where your countrymen offer you a scone and invite you to take a load off in a lushly appointed suite while they solve your problem. In fact, they’re actually like DMV’s but full of even surlier people who are smirking at you behind your back because a Russian prostitute is probably already en route to America with your identity. Existential unbummer: being alone and adrift in a foreign city makes you feel like Ernest Hemingway.
