Immigration irritation, InSEA registration

At the conclusion of the last posting, or next to the last posting…we were heading off to the Office of Immigration to apply for the residency permit which I was convinced we did not need. We arrived after a tram and bus ride and the office opened on time and we sat down on time. Documents were presented, official tax stamps were presented, $90 USD, tax stamps were pasted very officially on the proper document, the stamps, $90 USD, were cancelled, rendering them useless, and at this point the very pleasant immigration lady with the painted on eyebrows said “you really don’t need to do this.” She concluded, after cancelling the stamps, that we had indeed officially entered Hungary when we returned from Romania and would not consequentially be in the country for more than 90 days. But…the forms were filled out, the stamps cancelled, $90 USD, and we get to return on July 25^th to see if they will let us stay until August 19^th. We should have our residency cards sometime in November, $90 USD.

Observation…there are no public restrooms at the immigration offices. We were there for about 2 hours, certainly a reasonable time to hold it, but… Picture this; the office was filled with families and their screaming babies, women in birkas, attorneys assisting their clients with immigration issues, legal aliens, illegal aliens, a guy from Atlanta working for a cell phone company, people requesting political asylum, hot German co-eds and us. Now if one of us needed a WC during our 2 hour visit, it seems reasonable that others of the huddled masses would require the same. When I inquired of the officially dressed security guard he said “nem toilette” and pointed across the street to the Tesco store (Hungarian Wal-Mart.”) I looked at the huddled masses and figured there must be a mistake; it was a very large building, lots of people coming and going, lots of official government business several water fountains, even a coin operated coffee machine, but when I asked the very nice lady with the painted on eye brows she confirmed, across the street at the Tesco. Getting to the Tesco is not easy and the difficulty could be enhanced by the addition of screaming babies, speeding cars, large busses and the fact that the crosswalks are on the opposite ends of the street. They should at least remove the water fountain.

We will be sitting on pins and needles until July 25^th.

The InSEA conference is in full swing. We were at MOME at 7:30 to help with registration. I escorted several people to the Bankomat to get Forints and gave directions into the city. Later in the morning actually went with Rachel and Moshe to Deak Ference ter and pointed them to the Cathedral and the Great Synagogue. They haven’t been seen since but I think Rachael presents today.

We have one of the delegates staying with us so I have been cleaning and buying flowers. I went to IKEA and ALDI yesterday to buy additional pillows, pillow cases, towels and a few things we need for the reception. Rachel, another Rachel, is from the UK and is receiving an InSEA Lifetime Award. She flies in this morning and will stay here for the next 4 nights. The flat is swept and mopped, the underwear is put away and the fresh flowers look nice. This afternoon we install the show at Birs. The reception is at 8 pm on Tuesday. They are excited as it will be their first big event; remember they only opened 7 weeks ago. Stefan has planned a nice selection of snacks and we will serve Hungarian red and white wine as well as lemonade. Eva will be a special guest. Lisa has asked Rachel (sorry I don’t know her last name) to make a few opening remarks. We have invited people from InSEA, the Fulbright office as well as the American Embassy.

Our friend Debbie Smith-Shank is in town for the conference. She was at NIU and mentored Lisa thru her doctoral program. She is now at Ohio State and was recently named department chair. We went out last night to celebrate. Dinner at Listz Ference ter and dessert at Gerbeau. Fancy.

Anyway…we have been busy. I have missed writing the last couple of days. I will include pictures of the conference. Aniko and Andrea celebrating the birth of their InSEA baby, other conference pictures and a few others. Hope everyone is well.