Thankful List :: February 2013

• 4 euro jeans from a thrift store that fit perfectly,
• Brittany's successful foreign police visit,
• Erik's new "role model": Tevye  (from Fiddler on the Roof)
• Heather's back from Cali and fully supported,
• The 2000 piece puzzle is finished- and Erik helped,
• A ride to Bible study (lots of these, and several rides home that we were also very thankful for),
• Erik passed his driving test!
• The sun is shining on a Saturday morning,
• Erik still has weekends off,
• Our new rice cooker (we named it "Blahoslav," meaning "Blessed") 
• A perfectly pleasant Sunday,
• The Melos driving us home after church,
• The weather is nice enough for a light jacket,
• We have that special piece of paper that I thought would take weeks to receive,
• The foreign police actually accepted that special piece of paper and only asked one question- which I understood and knew the answer to,
• Out of the foreign police by 9am on a Wednesday morning,
• A mid-week date to the city center with Erik,
• The sun is shining another day,
• Our living room, warm with sunshine,
• Another meeting with my Slovak/English conversation partner,
• The foreign police are very, very sorry for rescheduling our appointment again,
• India documentaries,
• All the wealth we didn't know we had until we watched the documentaries about India,
• A person doesn't necessarily need an education in order to make a living,
• A visit with Katie,
• Katie's available to do worship while we're in Hungary,
• We get to get out of town next weekend,
• Perfect weather,
• A couple short conversations at the grocery store (and one very long amusing one)
• Dish soap on sale,
• Weather nice enough for a grill party,
• Jakub's mom is willing to translate for me,
• Our mint plant is still alive,
• Leftovers (so we don't have to eat at Divny Janko)
• Erik cleaned our kitchen,
• We got to sit down on the bus when we were so tired,
• exercise 
• My legs aren't sore,
• The used Slovak book that we bought months ago finally doesn't smell like cigarette smoke any more,
• Lots of people at Friday night Bible Study,
• Danka agreed to do my taxes,
• Erik's driver's license is finished and ready to pick up after just a week or so,
• We didn't get stuck in the snow drifts while driving in Hungary,
• The new CD from Scott Cunningham,
• Getting to meet some of Erik's old friends in Budapest,
• Home, safe and comfortable again,
• Spring is "technically" here,
• Erik's free business training,
• A trip to Ikea when it wasn't crowded,
• Coffee date with Brittany and her encouraging words,
• A house full of friends,
• Left over pizza dough,
• A clean house again,
• Good news in the mail- I have permanent residency!
• Girl time with Heather,
• A smooth medical exam,
• Erik- my electric mixer ;)
• A bunt pan for 50% off,
• Passover with our really big "family,"
• Good Friday ecumenical service wasn't toooo off,
• Songs in Slovak that we didn't know could be sung in Slovak,
• A relaxing day just with Erik,
• A nice day with friends on a drizzly Saturday, getting blessed all day long,
• The glass cooking dish on sale,
•  I won Bang!
• Simon is visiting,
• Brittany's new flat,
• Vacancy listings in the English I can understand,
• Time to sleep in,
• The History Channel's Bible Series, despite the inaccuracies,
• Our new Irish/Slovak friends, and their encouraging words about Slovak medical care and child birth,
• Time for dinner with friends after church, and perfect bus connections on the way home

Life of an immigrant: The Questioning!

Background info: We’ve been preparing documents to apply for my permanent residency in Slovakia since November 2012. Finally, despite a couple bumps along the way, the application is in and we were called in for a real, live questioning! 

By 19:00 we were all together with our translator (Ester), and entering in through the služobny vchod (not the door that people push and shove each other through at 7:30am, 4 days a week), and into the corridor that you can see behind the iron gate near the work stations 7 and 8.  

  

You know, the place you go when they put you in handcuffs.

We put down our things, handed our IDs over, and Ester and I immediately were led to a small office down the corridor. 

I had big expectations for this room- I was picturing something dimly lit with nothing but a thin wooden table and 3 wooden chairs. Maybe an old Soviet lie detector sitting in a corner, and of course a locked door.   

The room was small, with one door on each of three of the four walls, but the two doors on the sides were blocked off by old furniture. There was a desk with a computer, cluttered with papers and junk. That's where the officer sat. I sat on a rolling office chair, and Ester sat on a wooden bench. There was a yellowed map of Slovakia on the wall to the left, and a large map of the world to the right, next to the computer desk.  The wall opposite the open door had a window; the silver metal blinds drawn shut. The door stayed open through the whole interview, and Erik could hear everything I said from where he sat by the entrance. (And he said he was proud of me for my answers :) ) 

The officer was tall, but not thuggish like some of the other guys spotted around the office during the day. He had a sharp nose and thin cheeks, and eyes which were small and almost sunken in. His full, dehydrated lips all but hid the crooked teeth that sometimes affected his pronunciation of the letter S. His blond hair was styled like GI Joe.  His countenance showed complete concentration, and as he stared at the computer the crease between his eyes got deeper and deeper. 

I really wanted to find a picture of someone who he resembles, but I couldn’t quite find it, so here’s a picture of Rolfe the post boy from Sound of Music.

So the interview began- he gathered some of my personal data: Name, date of birth, education, permanent address, and residence in Slovakia.  I was a little nervous, what if I say something wrong and quickly fix it, but they think I’m lying? What if he asks for my zip code that I can never remember?

 

It took him forever to type everything in, probably because he was using only TWO fingers! Mavis Beacon must’ve been deported…

 

Tich…tich.tich..tich tich tich…tich..tich..tich

I looked down at my legs and saw that they weren’t crossed, nor were my arms…open body posture. Maybe I wasn’t really as nervous as I thought… 

Once the preliminary data was entered, he explained very nicely that I shouldn’t take this so seriously, or be offended by any of the questions; it’s just protocol to weed out the couples with less valid marriages.  (I guess.) 

(I tried to ask if Americans are typically the ones to stage marriages to sneak into Slovakia, but I didn’t actually get an answer to that question.) 

Okay, okay, I’m calm, but I’m still going to take this seriously. 

So many questions! Starting with some basics about Erik- his name, date and place of birth. Oh crap, where was he born? I think it started with a T.  “Can I look at the map?” The officer found the info on Erik’s ID entered it into the computer as if I had given him the answer. Whew!

How did Erik and I meet, and can I describe some details surrounding our first meeting?  Did anyone arrange this meeting with the purpose of introducing us so that we would get married?  

                Turns out he didn’t want quite as many details as I was ready to supply :)

What do I know about Erik’s family? Not much.. Does he have 3 brothers? Or was it 4? Is one of them in Spain, or was that that other guy from Erik’s childhood who went to Spain?

What kind of education does Erik have? Did he complete maturita? Or attend university? For how long? I pulled the ol’ American excuse, “We don’t have maturita where I’m from, so I don’t remember if he has it or not- it’s not something I’m really familiar with, so that part of his education just isn’t that important for me.”  (That’s true actually- I don’t know if I’m even spelling maturita right.) Recording where Erik attended after high school was a bit of an obstacle as far as spelling goes. Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe in Vajta, Hungary turned into “Ts-al-vary  Hg-apel Biblia Shkola, Vajta Madarsko” 

“How do you spell Vajta?”

“I don’t know, it’s Hungarian...”

The officer leaves the room to ask Erik, who explains the whereabouts of the school, “in V-a-j-t-a (ok, the spelling’s not that hard for that particular word), the nearest big city is Szekesfehervar. Feeha, who knows how to spell that?! It’s south of Budapest…”

What is Erik’s current career?

How many dates did we go on before we got married?

Did anyone tell us that we should get married to each other? 

Whose decision was it for us to marry? Mine, his, did we decide together, or did someone else decide for us?

Did we live together before we were married?

Where was the wedding ceremony and reception? Who paid for it? 

Who were the witnesses at our wedding? Did I know them personally? 

Who attended the wedding from my family? Who attended the wedding from Erik’s family?

Were we offered any compensation money for marrying?

Do we live together? Do we communicate with each other by phone? What language do we speak together?

Am I interested in learning Slovak? 

Do we live together in intimacy?     <giggle>

Are we planning to have children?

What are our other plans?

Have we spent any time apart since being married?

What does Erik like to do in his free time?

Why do we want to live in the Slovak Republic? 

Why do I not want to live in America?  Like, the most difficult question ever! “You know, when you spend a lot of time outside your country and then you go back home and it’s hard to adjust because you feel like a foreigner, but you’re technically at home and you just feel like you don’t fit in and you can’t adjust…” 

Can I please expand on my reasons for not wanting to live in America? “Well, I just feel like I don’t want to live there because blah blah blah…”  The officer: “I’m just going to write, ‘I would like to stay in Slovakia so that I can live together with my husband as a family.”  Yeah, ok, that’s also true…

If I’m not granted permanent residency in the Slovak Republic, where will we move?  Uuuh, Japan?

Where do I work?

What countries have I been to in the Schengen Zone?

Have I worked anywhere else besides America and Slovakia? Did I have a work permit for those places?

How did I arrive in Slovakia? 

What do I know about Erik’s health condition? What do I know about his faith? (grouped as one question)

Has Erik ever been to jail or been on trial for committing a crime?

Have I ever been to jail or been on trial for committing a crime?

Does Erik currently have any financial debt?

Do I have any financial debt in America?

The interview is now over, do I have any suggestions for them?  

Get a chair with some lumbar support for yourself, and invest in typing lessons! And could you iron that wrinkle out from between your eyes?

“No, I don’t have any suggestions.” 

As I wait outside your office at 5:30am I sure have some suggestions, but right now, no, I have no suggestions that I would like to share. 

Ester and I re-read the answers to all the questions again, fixed some spelling errors, and signed all five pages of it in blue ink. Meanwhile, Erik and the officer called our landlord for more clarification of the fact that we do have permission to live at this address.  

Then it was Erik’s turn to answer questions while I sat in the corridor near the guy at the front desk. He was watching something like Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman in Slovak on a 13" box TV, and working on a computer (but from the sound of his constant mouse-clicks, I think he was working on the same thing I was working on with Erik’s phone: Solitaire).  Erik came out of the room, and we were given our IDs back, at about 22:15.  The officer apologized again that we have to go through this process, but it’s just protocol. He’s not sure he can push our papers through any faster though because there are other applications in front of mine that are close to expiry, so they have to finish those first.  

What’s next? His boss will read the reports from both our interviews and make a decision. And they might come for a home check to see more evidence of the legitimacy of our relationship. Then we’ll get my permit?? We’ll see!

Thankful List:: October 2012... a little bit late...

• Managed my first solo trip to the Slovak doctor,
• None of my students are ill this week,
• Hungarian bread on sale for 50 cents a loaf,
• Erik's left over chicken soup,
• The friendly chat with the pharmacist (in Slovak),
• The books Autumn lent me,
• Time to read the books Autumn lent me,
• My nose isn't stuffy,
• Erik's allergies are gone,
• Only a little bit of coughing last night,
• We already have probiotics in our fridge,
• I missed being at work while I was away,
• My first paycheck from one company and my last paycheck from another company,
• A couple more ticket restaurants,
• Good lunches 90% of the time,
• Bus drivers who know how to bypass a bit of traffic,
• A pretty view of the Danube during my commute to work,
• All the sunny days and not-rainy days.
• Huge patches of green grass that I never noticed before,
• Lots and lots of trees in this city,
• Everything changing color,
• All the ways Erik and I have been able to easily adjust to each other,
• The knife promotion at TESCO,
• A solution for our microwave problem,
• Erik's tips and pay bonuses,
• Erik's cleanly habits,
• Laundry soap on sale,
• Parents who don't tolerate bad behavior,
• The beautiful red sunset on a Friday evening,
• Getting to stand at the bus stop so often and for so long..maybe someday I'll learn to be patient,
• Indian summers,
• Friends,
• Good hair days,
• The silver sliver of the moon,
• Getting to ride over the Danube twice every day,
• When I get a seat on the bus,
• Being a native speaker,
• The lake near our flat,
• The low cost of living,
• Frozen pizzas on sale,
• Freezer space (to store frozen pizzas),
• Sale on Nivea lotion,
• Living so close to a bus stop,
• Erik and I always get to go home to the same place,
• Not being tied to my phone,

I know, it's pathetic that I wrote this in October, lost it, and haven't written a single thankful list since then. The winter actually hasn't been that bad, and there've been more than just a few things to be thankful for.

Here are the highlights:

  In November I switched from teaching kindergarten aftercare to teaching some 2nd and 3rd grade classes. That was good because I could get off work a little bit earlier to come home and spend more time with Erik, and it came with a teeny bit more money too. One of my students brought me chocolate on my first day, which was a definite bright spot for me.
Also in November, one call from the foreign police added an interesting twist to the following months, even until now. Apparently I was living and working illegally because I lost my work permit when I changed jobs.. the fact that I'm married to a Slovak doesn't change too much, except that I'm allowed to apply for permanent residency, which is what we're doing now. Long, long, story, but the good part is that we had to take some urgent trips out of the country! We went to Belgrade, Serbia first. Turns out that the reason we went was kind of null in the end, but it was still kinda fun. I liked it anyway (Erik didn't like it that much). We stayed at a nice hostel, and got to do a lot of walking, and we were almost (but not actually) ripped off by a taxi driver. The disappointing thing about Belgrade was that people were smoking everywhere, especially in the buildings, and it was chilly outside so we often had to choose between protecting our lungs or being warm and comfortable. We asked someone why everyone smokes so much..he said, "We are proud that this is a free country and we have the right to smoke anywhere!" That's one way to look at it, I guess...

Back to the thankful things...

• We ate good cake for breakfast,
• We found a nice restaurant that sold us take-away food so we wouldn't have to eat in their smoky building,
• Some signs were in cyrillic, which was fun and exotic for me,
• The nice hostel,
• No problems during the air travel,
• I think former Yugolsavia is interesting, so I was happy to see some of it!

December was pretty much normal, except for the holidays that everyone loves... We spent Christmas in Hungary, and ate cold orange soup with whipped cream! Nothing's quite like Christmas at "home" with the traditions you've grown up with your whole life, and I was a little sad to be spending my second one in a row away from my family in Arizona. But at the same time, I'm thankful that Erik's family lives relatively nearby and they welcome us with open arms.  We enjoyed letting them beat us at Monopoly, playing other games (which we sometimes won) and eating lots of food.

January and February have been pretty cold and gray, with lots of snow. I'm not allowed to work because of the unresolved immigration stuff, but it looks like we're almost to the end of the drama with the application process for permanent residency.  I've enjoyed having time off to relax and practice house-wifery, but I think I'm going to be glad to go back to work again.

The Thankful highlights:

• We got to go on a quick trip to London... drank Starbucks, went shopping, met Erik's friends, visited his old church, ate Indian food, bought books in English, and re-entered Slovakia as a tourist,
• Rachel came to visit!
• We've been building new and stronger friendships with others in Bratislava,
• I've discovered hundreds of uses for vinegar by reading about them on the internet,
• Erik is done with his driver's ed course, and takes the exam tomorrow! (I've gained respect for European drivers- all their signs and intersections and laws make the American driving credentials sound like the Lego Land driving school)
• The days are getting longer and we've even seen the sun a couple times this week!
• Despite having to cancel Slovak lessons while I'm out of work, I've had plenty of opportunities to speak Slovak, or at least smile and nod when people speak to me :)

Check back later because I might add pictures to this post...

Thankful List :: May 2012

• Our wedding announcements were printed for free
• We found a flat to live in after the wedding
• Grill party at the Higgins
• Lessons to substitute (= more money)
• Paja helping me with online banking
• The smell of rain
• The clean air after the rain
• The satisfaction of a clean house
• Erik and I navigated our first furniture decision without an argument
•  Erik's Nike shoes for €26.30 :)
• Nice compliments from a satisfied student
• My "long" Slovak conversation at the vegetable stand
• Seeing circus animals from the bus
• We have enough znamky for 2 pots now (actually, since then we've been given enough for 4 pots!)
• Made it through Monday
• A nice weekend
• Good food at Dobry Trh
• Allowed to leave Dobry Trh when the rain started
• Coffee time with Erik on Sunday afternoon
• Managed to navigate the VistaPrint website and order wedding announcements (on sale!)
• Maria can drive us to Lučenec next weekend
• I coaxed the toilet into flushing
• My mom (yes, MY mom) is turning into such an optimist!
• čsob internet banking is working again
• The roses are blooming
• The Slovak book for €1
• All the nice new friends from Vienna
• Maria and her driving skills (without Maggy's help) 
• We didn't get too lost
• Jim's mom driving us to the bus station
• Good English breakfast Saturday morning
• Low café prices in Lučenec
• Lovely morning date with Erik
• Slovakia beat Czech Republic and Canada at hockey 
• People still came to our evening program in Cinobana, even though there was an important hockey game going on
• Erik got to play football with some kids (+ William)
•  Meeting nice friends in Cinobana
• We found Cinobana
• Music was good at the evening program and on Sunday morning
• Erik getting to translate my testimony at the evening program
• Erik's testimony po Anglicky on Sunday morning
• Fast, safe trip back to Bratislava on Sunday
• Received our rental contracts in the mail
• Nice dinner and conversation with Heather and William 
• Thursday always comes
• My wedding band is almost finished
• I got some of the things I need from the fabric store with only using Slovak (and some pantomiming) 
• Skyping with Laura

Frozen anti-Diarrhea medicine

You know how sometimes the back of the refrigerator gets too cold and ice builds up and sticks things to the inner walls? It's not a common problem, I suppose, if you keep an eye on what's in there. But sometimes that one bottle of something that you don't use very often gets forgotten and constantly pushed against the back wall.  That's what happened in my refrigerator over the last few months (since the antibiotic overdose incident in February). I had noticed that it was getting a bit icy back there a few weeks ago, but I honestly didn't know what to do with the anti-diarrhea medicine that was clinging to the back wall: Do I throw it out? Give it to a friend? Save it for later? Can that stuff go bad??

Yesterday, as I was waiting for my dinner to cook, I realized that the bottle of elixir, still in the box, was not only stuck to the wall, but actually it was beginning to take up too much space because of all the ice that was growing around it. By the look of it, I thought the stuff had frozen and broken the bottle, which was a really interesting scenario in my imagination, so I immediately took a spoon to chip it off. It came off with little difficulty- probably the hardest part was suppressing my giggles so I wouldn't disturb my housemate who was watching an important hockey game in the attached living room. The lower of the two pictures is what I removed from the fridge. The upper picture is from after I thawed it enough to tear off the wet box and find that the bottle hadn't shattered and the liquid inside was still liquid (the above picture).  A bit disappointing...


And something completely unrelated:
I saw a tiger, a zebra, 2 llamas, 2 little ponies, a camel with 2 bumps, and a man poking at a lion with a stick (all completely REAL and ALIVE), as I rode the bus to the grocery store this morning! It was all part of the traveling circus that's in Bratislava now. Something that might cause public outcry in some American cities: The only thing that kept these animals separated from the onlooking families were the two layers of temporary fencing! (That is, as far as I could see from the bus window.)  I really don't like circuses (for reasons that I won't list here, but if you know me well then you can probably correctly guess that my opinion has almost nothing to do with animals being kept in small cages), but there is something really cool having my morning thoughts interrupted by seeing big animals on the side of the road :)  Sorry I don't have pictures!

Thankful List :: April 2012

Another sparse (and this time belated) thankful list. It's not that nothing good happened this month, it's just that I didn't take the time to write something down every day. škoda :/

• No April Fools jokes
• Nice weather
• Everything is blooming
• New lessons on my schedule
• Lots of long weekends
• Sale on duck meat
• Duck sandwiches
• Cranberry sauce
• Trip to Vienna
• Special train tickets that took us to Vienna and allowed us to ride all the Vienna public transport for free
• Cream for profiteroles
• Left over cream for scones
• Some time to spend with Sara before she left
• Healthy lemonade
• My first foreign OBGYN appointment wasn't scary, and the doctor spoke great English
• The zoo! (Free entry on the free city day)
• Skyping with Hannah
• Skyping with Laura
• Skyping with my parents
• Laura finished her thesis and passed everything with flying colors
• 100 days till the wedding (now fewer!)
•  Delicious crepes from Chez Amelie
• Gabko's birthday and good food,
• A savings account (and Paja setting it up for me in the most hassle-free way possible)
• Translation of my birth certificate: Done!
• Stano playing at City Light 
• Erik won the Rocky Steps competition (I'm happy for him, even though I lost)
• Wedding invitations designed and ready to be printed
• Lots of fun new games for teaching kids
• Workshop with Bea and Ed
• So many (undeserved) znamky from Tesco!!
• Green pears
• Little or no allergies
• Erik's getting a tan
• Summer clothes on clearance

Thankful List :: March 2012

• It's finally March,
• Some signs of Spring are beginning to appear
• Spending time with Erik,
• A fairly successful trip to the embassy,
• Another useful Slovak lesson,
• Thursday evenings,
• Friday afternoons,
• Good food at the Awesomeness report,
• The little bits of real chocolate in the chocolate Dobre Rano bars,
• More hours at work than last month,
• We finally have Leah's affidavit for marriage,
• The affidavit for marriage is apostilled,
• The wedding menu is sorted,
• International Women's Day,
• Meatball sales during the week at Ikea (and other pleasurable time spent there),
• Nicer weather to spend time at the park,
• The trip to Koliba,
• The trip to Slavin,
• Package from home 
• The postcard from June in the package from home,
• Lots of wedding ideas (and a listening ear) from Heather,
• Premarital counseling begins,
• I bought more credit for my phone and only used Slovak,
• The air smells nice and springy,
• Waffles (and Erik quickly learning how to work the industrial waffle maker while under pressure at 5am)
• Nutella, maple syrup, etc.,
• American Peanut Butter from Gabe,
• No illness in the (future)Racz(ova) family this month,
• Heather's birthday,
• Heather's birthday tirimasu,
• Mascarpone on sale,
• The lady who renewed my bus pass spoke English,
• I found my keys (and didn't have to describe them in Slovak),
• Gabe taking our engagement pics,
• Erik made really yummy food,
• Spring onions on sale,
• Finally some good feedback on my lessons <whew>,
• My oldest brother was born 27 years ago,
• I didn't have any nightmares about my demo lesson,
• Positive feedback about the demo lesson,
• The transportation benefit from work,
•  Erik has a new bed,
• My birth certificate made it to the US and is apostilled now,
• Erik's new shirts,
• My 2 euro shorts,
• All-you-can-eat accidental Indian dinner,
• The first Magnum ice cream bars of the year,
• Dinner with Zuzka and Slavo, and the Slovak lesson from their kids,
• Erik is allergic to cats ;)