I blame Oregon for this!

This has been a frustrating week. It has been so frustrating, that I’m not sure I will even be able to write about it without cursing all over the internet. But I’ll see if I can try.

Last week I took my Oregon Driver’s License to be translated into Arabic. It cost me 100dhs ($27). It took them two days to do this translation. I picked it up on Saturday morning. On Sunday, after work, I went to the Licensing Department. I was ushered into the women’s waiting room (past about ten waiting men) where I was helped right away. The nice woman at the Licensing Department began to open my application for a UAE driver’s license. She spent some time looking at my license translation and then informed me that the license wasn’t valid for long enough. At least I think that is what she was trying to say. And this is where I blame Oregon.

It would take me ages to explain why I blame Oregon, and I don’t want to bore you with the details. But what you need to know is this, the translated document didn’t include all the details they needed at the Transportation Office (to ensure that I’ve been a valid driver for longer than one month) and I was sent away to change the license.

I returned to the translation office and explained the problem. They said that they would fix it and to come back tomorrow (it wasn’t that easy, but I don’t have the heart to explain). On Monday I returned, only to be told to return again the following day (they also claimed they would call, but that never happened). Today I returned, yet again. Of course the translation wasn’t there, so I demanded a refund. Well I didn’t have to demand really at all, I just said, I want my money back, easy as that.

Then I drove home to change clothes and head back out to a translation office I’d read about on-line. This very kind man explained to me that while he’d like to help me, he needs a letter from the Licensing Department saying that he must translate all the parts of the license exactly they way it is on the license. SERIOUSLY!! Isn’t that your job?!!? I left his office in tears (for the second time in two days!) and headed straight to the Licensing Department.

The officers at the Licensing Department were very sympathetic. They were actually so sympathetic that it occurred to me that if I’d been a bit more pushy on Sunday, I could have avoided all of this in the first place. But if I think like that I get even more annoyed! So they told me of a place to go and said they would take care of me. Um…okay.

Just to give you a time frame I left my house at 4:45pm. At this point it is now 6pm and I’m headed to this “unknown” translation office. Which of course I can’t find. So I go back to the Man Who Sent Me Away in Tears and tell him that the officers told me to go to a different office. Well, that seemed to do the trick. He told me, no, no he will do it.

But he didn’t really do much, I had to do a lot. First I had to take my license and get it color copied at a place downstairs (20dhs). Return to the Man for the translation, which he hand-wrote. Then take the handwritten document to a typing office down the street to have it typed up (5dhs), then return to the Man. Then he glued the color copy of my license on the translation, stamped it, signed it and took my 120dhs. (So this was not only more expensive but a heck of a LOT more work.)

I returned home at 8pm and honestly don’t really know what to think about this whole experience. What I do know, is if Oregon would have just let me renew my driver’s license beyond the 2013 expiration date, none of this would have even happened.

So please, cross your fingers that my next blog post says that I’ve finally received my UAE driver’s license. Which hopefully will be tomorrow!!!!

The office of the Man Who Sent Me Away in Tears, is near this roundabout.