bvmikevath crosses the border
I haven't posted in a while. No excuses, just a combintation of lazyness and a lack of exciting stories to share. My week in Michigan was enjoyably low-key, and now I find myself on the road again. One of my coworkers - with whom I was supposed to travel this week - came down with a nasty case of pneumonia, resulting in a last minute itinerary change that led me here. I'm in Fort Frances, Ontario. Located just across the river from Internation Falls, MN, Ft. Frances is the home to a wonderfully pollutant paper mill. And a pretty rediculous border crossing. See, we're actually staying in "the falls" so we've had to cross over each day. Let me share our adventures:
Monday: The guy checking cars that pass through (customs) asked us to park and come inside so that we could talk to both the immigration people and the customs people. Immigration gave us the appropriate documentation to expedite our crossing each day, but asked that we bring by some extra paperwork on Tuesday just to be safe. Customs let us go with no problems.
Tuesday: The guy at customs again let us drive through with no problems, but then we parked and walked in voluntarily so that we could give the paperwork to immigration. A different lady was working that day but after a little bit of waiting everything was worked out.
Wednesday: Total chaos. The customs guy was a total ass, accusing us of smuggling software across the border, because they had let us through for two days prior. They were talking about making us pay all these taxes and penalizing us and all this craziness. At this point Chad lost his temper and got a little short with the Customs Officer. I don't blame him. So they made us sit and wait for a while. But the funny part was that as soon as the woman from the newspaper walked into the customs office to help us sort it out, everyone switched from bitch-mode to super-laid-back-anyone-can-cross-the-border mode. So she ironed things out with them while Chad and I shared a laugh about it all with the immigration ladies - our new best friends, apparently). In the end the customs people apologized for their harsh canadian ways, and all was right with the world.
Today was much easier. Crossing the border I mean. And now I'm sitting in the hotel having a glass of boxed wine and watching friends while laying out tomorrow's paper on my powerbook. Go Apple.
And on that note, goonight.
Monday: The guy checking cars that pass through (customs) asked us to park and come inside so that we could talk to both the immigration people and the customs people. Immigration gave us the appropriate documentation to expedite our crossing each day, but asked that we bring by some extra paperwork on Tuesday just to be safe. Customs let us go with no problems.
Tuesday: The guy at customs again let us drive through with no problems, but then we parked and walked in voluntarily so that we could give the paperwork to immigration. A different lady was working that day but after a little bit of waiting everything was worked out.
Wednesday: Total chaos. The customs guy was a total ass, accusing us of smuggling software across the border, because they had let us through for two days prior. They were talking about making us pay all these taxes and penalizing us and all this craziness. At this point Chad lost his temper and got a little short with the Customs Officer. I don't blame him. So they made us sit and wait for a while. But the funny part was that as soon as the woman from the newspaper walked into the customs office to help us sort it out, everyone switched from bitch-mode to super-laid-back-anyone-can-cross-the-border mode. So she ironed things out with them while Chad and I shared a laugh about it all with the immigration ladies - our new best friends, apparently). In the end the customs people apologized for their harsh canadian ways, and all was right with the world.
Today was much easier. Crossing the border I mean. And now I'm sitting in the hotel having a glass of boxed wine and watching friends while laying out tomorrow's paper on my powerbook. Go Apple.
And on that note, goonight.
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