Creeping ever closer

[Phil Pennock]

On 2006-08-23 at 03:26 -0700, candace wrote:
> Consulates do more than immigrant meet and greet.  They do diplomatic 
> things, too, right?

Not if there's an embassy.

Consulates are for trade and for taking care of the nation's own
citizens when in the host nation.  Embassies are for diplomacy.

Hence I can avoid travelling to Den Hague for the British Embassy and
stick to the British Consulate in Amsterdam.  And boy, what a difference
in security between now and seven years ago ...

Where there's no embassy, consulates might deal with embassadorial
affairs.  Where there's no distinct consulate, the plebs need to go
close to the nobs as the embassies deal with both sets of duties.

The American embassy here is nice, once you're past the security.  In
the heat-wave earlier this year, I did't want to leave the embassy -- it
had airco.  Not good airco, but a damned site better than many other
places.  The British Consulate to NL does *not* have airco in the
waiting area.  :^(

-Phil, the Brit married to the American and living in NL but moving to
 the USA.  Boy is that a _fun_ process.