If you live in a foreign country, the answer is probably reality! Aysegul, Mert and I spent our WHOLE morning attempting to acquire a residency permit. It ended up costing more than any of us ever dreamed of and more time than necessary. Let me give you a breif outline of our morning:
1.Arrive and go through metal detectors and passport identification.
2.Get in a huge line to get a piece of paper with a number on it.
3.Have Mert get in different line...
4... so that we can get in another line to have my papers typed.
5.Join Mert in line and wait, and wait and wait.
6.Smile at the man, he does his job and
...we go to other line.
7.Smile and flirt, get another stamp on some paper from a different line.
8.Get in another line using the number that we originally stood in line for and WAIT. and WAIT. and WAIT.
9.Get in line to get money.
10.Get in line to pay money.
11.Get in new line to give documents.
12.Get in another line to give final documents.
Come back and get your residency permit.
Then head to school to teach the kiddies. Beautiful morning though. Nice afternoon. All around nice. I wasn't denied residency meaning I don't have to make a border run to Iran, Syria, Greece or Bulgaria. Blessings abound! but if you EVER throw a fit about being at the DMV all day, forget it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not listening! At least at the DMV they speak some form of English!
2 comments:
I think it takes all of five minutes in Blair to get a car title, registration and pay the tax. It takes me longer to drive there and back than it does to get the paperwork done! Sorry for the long lines today - but glad it is over. Maybe you can make a "border run" to Greece when Becky is there for "J-Term". She will be studying Paul's Second Missionary Journey (I believe) for Bib. Lit. II. :) Jean
Laura,
I think it's reality. When we do immigration stuff, we have horrible waiting like that too. Only the thing that gets me is that there aren't that many people ahead of us in line. The people behind doing there job just aren't doing it. Nobody knows what is going on. It's really psychotic. This last time when we got our 3 month temp visas a woman who teaches from the school with us but who is Argentinian went along. And she got her one year visa. Yay right, well she got it last week and it's good for a year and it expires before our 3 month visa. They had it done but then just didn't look or lost it or something. How frustrating. I hate stuff like this. But when you live overseas it's rough. Actually, I have a friend who's husband is Panamanian and she says that the immigration for if you aren't a US citizen to go into the US isn't much better. I always think that it is because no matter how I try I still think I have a little bit of ethnocentricity but anyway. Fun times all around. Immigration is never on our list of tourist stops but we've spent more time there than in most tourist locations. Ha!! By the way, my word verification is katgut. I think that's hilarious. Love you!!
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