Well I was about to just start writing about my trip to Rome, and then I realized that some pretty big stuff happened in the 5 days I was home between Paris and Rome. I got a roommate and a 5 year visa!
So on Thursday, I taught my 1st art class, and then had to have a sub cover my other 3 classes because we went to the visa office. There weren't too many people in front of us in line until some crazy Chinese people kept letting more and more people in front of them. So after waiting in line for over an hour, we got up to the window. We had all the papers we needed, we just didn't notice the line in Tom's apartment contract that said he's not allowed to sublease to anyone. So Jessica got her picture taken after showing them her birth certificate and proving she was Tom's daughter, but since I'm not family, I couldn't get mine. So we started calling people and trying to figure out another another way to get me a legal address. We called Mihai, my landlord, Kristie, and emailed Tom's landlord. But none of those panned out quick enough because I needed to get this taken care of in the month of March, or else I had to go back and wait forever at the health insurance office again & pay for the month of April. And then I would be cutting it super close to my 90 tourist days I'm allowed in the country. So Gela ended up mentioning my whole situation to Delia, my language teacher, and she said she could help me draw up the papers saying I live with them. So Monday morning, Delia's husband, Bogdan, and her mother picked me up and we ended up going to 5 different notaries before we could find one who would do what we needed. Some said that since I didn't know enough Romanian yet and didn't know exactly what I was signing, we would have to get a translator involved, which would be a big ordeal and take a lot more time. The last one we went to, Bogdan knew the lady because she does all of his legal paperwork, and she agreed to do it and have it ready in an hour! So we went to Starbucks while we waited, but of course, this is Romania and nothing happens that quickly. So we waited at the office for another hour or so, then signed and got everything stamped and whatnot. And 3 hours after we set out, I had a legal residence! I then went directly to the visa office, where miraculously there was no line! This just doesn't happen here and I didn't know what to do because I was assuming I would have to wait for a while, and Pratt would have time to get there and help translate, and I could fill out the forms. But thankfully I found a pen, filled out my forms, Pratt showed up, we handed everything over to the guy, and there were no problems! I probably look ridiculous in my picture because I was just so happy it was done but I wasn't allowed to smile. So praise the Lord because I officially have the little piece of paper saying I have a 5 year visa to Romania!!
I also have a new roommate as of Friday morning at like 2am! I found out she was coming for sure Wednesday evening when I got home, so I spent most of the day Thursday cleaning and getting everything ready for her. Her name is Rachel Griffin and she's a 29 year old American, but has been living in Prague in the Czec Republic since October. She's been teaching music classes and choir at a Christian school there. And the reason she's now living here is because of her visa issues, and we nicknamed her the "visa refugee." She's way over her 90 days and has turned in her paperwork and is waiting for word to come back if her visa came in. Then she will have to mail her passport to a friend, who will go out of the country to pick it up for her, then mail her passport and visa back to her. She really has no clue how long this will all take, so she's just hanging out in Romania and helping out with music at BCA until she can go back to Prague. It's been great having a new friend and showing her around the city some. It's also kind of nice not being the newbie anymore and knowing more Romanian that somebody! But after only being here for 4 days, I left her to go to Rome, but she was fine and did a lot of exploring the city and some parks and museums, so now she has to show me around Bucharest!
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