Monday, November 2nd, 2020

The US branch embassy is surprisingly scruffy. I don’t know if it was like this before. The governments recently switched some signs around and declared the branch in another city to be the main site. There might be a grander facade hidden behind the construction barriers. Everyone here is friendly. Getting in is trickier than I expect. Before I can get through the standard airport-style screening gate, I have to rent a locker at a cafe down the street and stash all electronics, down to my earbuds, in it. Once inside, I go to window six. I tell the young man in the booth who I am and where I’m from. He has a brother a few towns over. He goes through documentation. It turns out that I can’t vote here. I can, however, fax my ballot to New Jersey. As he guesses correctly, I don’t have a fax machine. No problem. He gives me an email address provided by the Department of Defense. If I scan and email my ballot to them by tomorrow, they will automatically fax it to the right place. I head out, get my stuff out of the locker, and wander through the city, looking for someplace to eat.