Embassy Drivers

Apparently I have the worst luck with the embassy drivers. That or they hate me...

Today I was supposed to tag along with the head political officer to a meeting he had at the Portuguese Foreign Ministry. He had a lunch meeting, but the embassy driver was supposed to pick me up from here first, then pick up the boss at his lunch, and then together we would go to the meeting. It was exciting to get out of the office, and I was going to have a fun project to do afterwards with writing up a cable describing the meeting.

So I went down to where I was supposed to meet my driver, 5 minutes early even because I was tired of pretending to be doing work, and waited awhile. I had the same feeling of dread from my first day- and yup, I had been forgotten! I call upstairs to the woman who had arranged everything and give her the scoop. We somehow managed to get another driver to get me there hopefully in time for the 3 o clock meeting.. but no.

I hurriedly stroll in at 3:02 and realize I don't even know who the hell I am supposed to be meeting with. I mumbled some garbage in my glorious broken Portuguese that I was supposed to be here with Matt, but they were like uhh he's not here? Woo? hahaha The guards seriously looked at me like I was an absolutely nut who had probably killed some smart person for their embassy badge. I dejectedly call the embassy and am informed that I should just wait til the meeting is over, or take a cab. Smart me I didn't bring my wallet so I was stuck. I did manage to find the other embassy driver who had taken my boss (unfortunately my driver had already taken off) and made sure that he didn't leave without me. I sat around uncomfortably in the waiting area for the meeting to be over. Thank god it only lasted a half hour.. plenty of time to doodle and make some to-do lists without getting compleeetely bored and getting too many weird looks.

Lesson learned: I now and forever will not trust [embassy] people when they say they will have a driver waiting for me. And I'll always remember to bring money for a cab.