have passport, will travel

Traveling nowadays is so complicated. I can't believe there was a time where you could just get on a train or a boat and go somewhere without any kind of documents, brazenly bearing liquids and sharp objects. Now you have to have a passport, and the name on the ticket has to match the name on your passport which also has to match the name on your credit card. Your photo has to be exactly a certain size and the background cannot have not blemishes and shadows and God forbid you accidently tilt your head or squint or wear a scarf or smile or forget to show your ears.

I went to go take my passport photo the other day - apparently you need a fancy electronic passport now if you want to take advantage of the visa waiver program, so I had to get one of those - and my first photo was rejected because of a very faint shadow behind me - so faint that I didn't even notice it until the lady pointed it out to me, and even then I was squinting skeptically. So I went to go get it taken again (wasted 8000 won, bastards) and the photographer kept fussing with the unevenness of my cardigan and the angle of my chin, and once he'd taken my photo he opened it in Photoshop and started PHOTOSHOPPING my passport photo. I watched him over his shoulder, curious to see what he thought my flaws were, but all he did was erase my . . . collarbones. My collarbones! I never knew I had offensive looking collarbones. And aren't passport photos supposed to, you know, look like you? What if they stop me at immigration and say, "CLEARLY this is not you because I CAN SEE YOU HAVE COLLARBONES while the girl in this photo HAS NONE."

Anyway. The logistics of trying to put together my flights for this summer are driving me a bit crazy, but I think I have it all in place now. Kayak.com is my new best friend.