Miška and I went back to the foreign police today to finally turn in the last set of documents for my work and residence permits. We caught the 06:40 bus, with hopes of being some of the first in line, but alas, when the numbers were given, we got 62. Well, when I think back on it, it wasn't such an unpleasant wait. Miška told me all about the process of making wine, which her family does, and she's going to take pictures when she goes home this weekend so that I can post them here for all of you to see :D And we had time to take a stroll to the nearest grocery store, where Miška showed me how to recognize nasty carcinogens on the packaged product ingredient list.
Once our number was finally called, we went to the window with the least friendly/sociable officer in the whole office (probably). She didn't greet us, but to her credit, she did accept a majority of my documents. The one thing she had a problem with was my FBI background check. We had it translated into Slovak, but the translation was attached to a photocopy of the original document, and she needed some proof (ie notarization) that the copy was a true reproduction of the original. We let her look at the original to see for herself that it was legitimate, but that wasn't good enough; she sent us off to the notár and said we didn't have to take a number if we brought it back today. A little bit frustrating, but I guess we should be glad that we were allowed to cut the line.
So we went to the notár and paid only 1.60eur for her to look at it closely, ask Miška a few questions about it, and put the right stamps in the right places. Unfortunately, Miška wasn't able to go with me back to the foreign police, so I had an extra little adventure going without her. Actually, I wasn't too worried; it was Miška who was scared for me to face the officer alone and with so little language skill. ;) But, like the good guide that she is, she wrote out some useful phrases for me to use and we came up with a game plan in case I had any trouble. The plan was, I would say something like, "Ja si bola, nepotrebujem čislo...doložiť iba prosím." (Eng: I was here, I don't need a number... add it please.) And once she takes it, I was supposed to ask, "Kedy možem prísť vyzdvíhnúť? Napísať, prosím." (Eng: When can I come pick it up? Write it down, please.) If there were problems, I was supposed to call Miška immediately.
Ok, I got it! I felt ready for the adventure! I got on the bus and diligently practiced the most difficult word (vyzdvíhnúť <--- notice that there are only 3 vowels) and tried to recall any other important Slovak words I've picked up since being here. I got off at the right bus stop and tried hard to remember the way we took to get to the office (kind of a diagonal path, cutting across parking lots and some little areas of grass and trees). I got a little bit lost and walked past the building, but now I'm glad that I did, because on my way to get back on the right path, I encountered a middle-aged gentleman who asked me, in Slovak, about where the Albert grocery store is. I only recognized one word, "Albert," but how many things could he logically be asking me about the Albert there on the sidewalk? A ton of different words from different languages came to my mind as I thought of how to tell him that the Albert was "just over there," but it actually just came out as, "Uuuhhh, nehovorím po slovenski, maar, uhhh..." and pointing towards the Albert that could just barely be seen in the distance through some buildings. That actually got the point across! As much as I LOVE language, sometimes the lack of it brings me the same fuzzy feeling.
Once in the foreign police, I had no trouble going to the unfriendly officer's desk and giving her my notarized paper, all the while stumbling over my script. The more friendly officer next to her had a free moment and was able to answer all my questions in English. Whew! I need [to have a Slovak speaker] call in 2-3 weeks to check on the status of my permits before I make another trip back to pick them up.
In other news... I've been going to the public Slovak course and learning a lot! The teacher only speaks Slovak, so it's really a stretch to understand him sometimes; but I would teach English to a class of multilingual beginners in the same way, so that makes the frustration more bearable. I attended the class last night, and he had me read aloud. My very first time reading aloud in Slovak and I didn't even know what he was asking me to do at first. I felt like I was in high school again; feeling worried about if I was saying anything right and what the other students would think about my accent. It was sickening, but almost refreshing in a way (what? I guess I'm rarely nervous anymore..), and a good reminder before beginning my first week of teaching on this coming Monday. We also learned all the present simple verb conjugations (there are different ones depending on the last vowel in the infinitive, kinda like how there are -ir, -er, and -ar verbs in Spanish). Actually, I don't think the verbs are going to be so difficult. I think, so far, the most difficult part is that the words don't have Germanic or Latin roots, and therefore no connection to my understanding of the meaning of each word.
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