My new passport arrived yesterday. I first got a passport in 1984 when I was headed to Spain. Alisa always hated the picture in my old passport -- I had a longish beard, kind of a "Fidel Castro" effect. Since I was gone during the last semester of my senior year of college, I scheduled to take the GRE exam while I was in Spain. That morning, I got up frightfully early and took at taxi to the Torrejon AFB north of Madrid where the exam was being offered. It was held at an elementary school for the children of American servicemen. It was exactly like an elementary school had been plucked out of earth from the US and set down in Spain: there were signs on the doors that said, "Mrs. Smith" and "Mrs. Jones" and the like. There were English-language signs and artwork on all the bulletin boards. Having been in Spain for several months, at that point, it was tremendous culture shock. The exam proctor checked everyone's ID and said, "Is that really you? That doesn't look like you!" to everyone who was taking the exam. Except me. He looked at that picture in my passport and said, "Yep. That looks like you."
In 1994, I was a graduate student and not in a position to travel overseas, so I let my original passport expire. I thought about trying to renew it, but decided not to bother and to spare the expense. They had me send my old passport in with the application for the new one, but they returned it with a couple of holes punched in it. It only has three stamps in it, but it's a nice souvenir anyway.
The new passport has a bunch of additional security features the old passport didn't have. The old passport had my actual polaroid passport photo under the laminate. The new one has a digital reproduction with security printing interwoven into the picture and holographic elements embedded in the plastic laminate. The only other significant change is that passports now are in three languages (English, French, and Spanish). My old password was in just English and French.
It's a relief to have my passport arrive in plenty of time for my trip -- having already bought the transatlantic plane tickets, it's nice to know that I'll actually be able to use them. Now I just need to get work stuff squared away in preparation for being gone during two weeks leading up to the beginning of classes. I still can't quite believe I'm doing this.