I always feel a

I always feel a little bit nervous when I have to leave my passport somewhere.

Yesterday, I went to apply for our visas to China. The Chinese embassy's consular section is very nice. Clean, well-lit, open space with plenty of writing desks and even glue sticks for attaching your photo to the application form. Not too many signs in English, but enough to get me where I needed to be and into the right line.

While I waited (only five minutes), I watched a woman with a huge pile of maroon colored Japanese passports sitting at a special desk in the waiting area, sorting documents and photos before submitting them. She must work for a tour company.

When it was my turn, I handed over the forms and passports and received a yellow reciept--one copy of a triplicate form. The white sheet was pasted to the applications and the pink copy was rubberbanded around our passports which the clerk then tossed into a bin on the floor.

I go back on Thursday to pick everything up. I won't lose my yellow slip. I hope they don't lose my passport.