Czech This Out

31 May

Successful trip to the foreign police (FoPo) = a new visa to work here next year!
We arrived this morning at 6:10 a.m., whihc means we got up at 4:30. When we arrived, Katie asked if we had all the right paperwork at the information desk (which is a BRAND-NEW concept) and the lady told her that if it were her, she wouldn't accept it as enough, but we could wait and see. So we did. After almost 3 hours, we got in and all of us got our Visas! There was one small problem...I had run out of pages in my passport! "How?" you intelligently ask. I only got this passport 2 years ago. Well, lots of little trips to Germany, Hungary, Austria, Poland, etc...last year add up to lots of stamps. The embassy is only open until noon, so I rushed over there - and when I say "rushed," I mean took an hour to go the distance that would probably be a 10 minuite car ride! Then I rushed back to find my visa lady at lunch. I waited, mostly patiently, for her to return and when she did - Presto! I magically had my visa. It's astounding. The old way, you bring your stuff to this tiny dank (yeah, that's right!) office building, where you wait for 6 officers to wait on everyone. If you accidentally got the wrong number, too bad - come back tomorrow and try again! Then you leave your things there, they check them over and give you a paper that says to come back in 30 days! Of course, we're gone for the summer by then, so we have to come back in the fall and basically repeat the process. In the last few months, they've moved, have about 20 officers now who put all the info in the computer (so "goodbye" to some of the old crabby women who used to work there). Some of these people even speak English! It's so much more pleasant.
All in all, a long day, but successful, so it was worth it.

Thus ends my month "committed" to blogging....but I'd be sad to let it go, so I will still attempt to write daily comments. Please keep reading if you're interested! It's been great to hear feedback on some of it. I like knowing that even if we lose touch a bit while I am here, I can still let you know what's going on in my life. Instead of having to coordinate times to be at the phone, I write whenever I have an moment or something to say, and you can read it when it's convenient! Ah...the beauty of the internet.

posted by Kassidee Kennedy @ 2:11 PM