US Embassy Adopts Hungarian Ways

Years ago when I went to the Király thermals, I used to laugh at the system they had. Once in the door, you bought a ticket. You then walked five feet where another woman is sitting at a table with more tickets spread before her like she is going to read your fortune. She would reach for your freshly purchased entry slip and with a look of boredom that could make Medusa envious, she ripped it in half.
If you had any delusions you were now ready for the waters, you were mistaken. She handed over yet another ticket, but if you looked uninitiated, she would point you in the direction of the stairs. 

At the top of the stairs, if you were lucky enough to enter without waiting for a locker to free up, an attendant would take your ticket, hand you a towel and tell you to wait in place. Coming around the corner, there would be yet another attendant who came to escort you to a freed up locker and hand you your key. Much has changed at the thermals over the years.

Today, Ron and I had to go to the US Embassy to get our new passports. I hate having to do this so soon; ours do not expire until May 2013. However, we are going to Ecuador over the holidays and Ecuador requires that your passport be good for up to six months when leaving the country. The math did not jive.

Admittedly, US Citizen Services did answer my e-mails speedily. They have all the forms needed online and they can be filled in online also. When you print them, they were ready to go. There is also an appointment program online making it quick and easy. We had gone to the 'authorized' photographer for our required 2x2 inch photos. Our entire Hungarian photo needs have been taken care of at photo booths in the metro stations at significantly less cost. Two days before, they sent me a reminder of the appointment, all the directions were reiterated, and we were ready to go.

I was so nervous about being late and then rejected for our appointment, we were 20 minutes early. The process is more extensive now that security has been beefed up worldwide. When we finally entered, we were the only ones there. No one was waiting. We had an appointment, but still had to take a number to wait, and wait, and wait. I could see employees standing around talking, looking rather casual with coffee cups in hand. Why are we waiting when we are the only ones needing assistance? Is this a punishment for being early?
Ten minutes later our number was called. We turned in our paperwork. The woman seemed impressed and pleased we were completely prepared. She was indeed very professional, even if we had to wait. Once she did her part of this passport process; I wanted to hand over the $220 for our two passports and be out of there. That was not about to happen.

“Now hold on to your number and we will call you again to window 7, where you can pay the cashier” she directed. Window 7 had the blinds down. No one was home. It was now past 8:30 so why wasn’t anyone working. Did they go to refill their coffee cup? Are they checking Facebook? What is more important than collecting our US dollars? Still by this time, there was only one other person in the entire waiting area. He looked like he was ready for the long haul of waiting. Finally, he was called to a different window from any we had been to, so he much not be an American.

Number 502 appears on the board directing us to window 7. The blinds go up and there is a young blonde man there. “Hello, are you paying in cash? It will be $110 American or…” I did not give him a chance to finish as I held the wad of greenbacks to display them through the glass and his vision. “I am paying for two people” I remind him and turn over $220. He disappears for a minute, returns and tells me to hold on to my number. They will call me again to the other window to pick up the old passports and the receipt for today’s payment.

Why couldn’t the original woman do all of this? They certainly are not interested in moving people out very quickly with this system. It would behoove them for security reasons to keep the less number of people in the building as possible. If for some reason the woman cannot take the cash, the cashier should be there at the ready to collect the money, hand over the passports and the receipt.

In one week, one of us has to return to collect the new books, where they will fill the old ones full of holes making them sad looking.
With the new books in hand, we will have to return to the Hungarian Immigration Office to have our Residency stickers transferred to the new books. Another chore I am not looking forward to doing.

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Life Musings

It has felt like there has not been much happening, yet it is not true when I reflect back. Besides working diligently on trying to get my book finished, little things change daily causing me to edit and rewrite what I have already written. When I called the Dohany Synagogue for a guest, the number I had was changed. When I called the new number offered, that was disconnected. Finally, I had to track down the new-new number. Ron and I were invited to a US Embassy reception, hosted by the Regional English Language Officer. We went for a relatively short time. The room was suffocatingly hot and although many were from IATEFL, I knew few of them. We did meet the new English Language Fellow (ELF), who is working with Roma college students and their English skills. It made me wonder if I could get any of my students to volunteer time to assist them as well. Something to ponder. It would intertwine nicely with my Race and Ethnicity class. It they had turned on the A/C, which they do have in the building, we may has stayed longer. After interviewing a medical tourism company run by an American-Hungarian M.D., I have decided to have laser surgery for vision correction. Later this month, I will go for a two hour exam to determine if I am eligible and if so, will have the surgery the next day. The surgery takes 15-20 minutes, but they tell you to block out two hours. Once the surgery is over, my next medical project is an evaluation of my teeth. My whole mouth has been non-stop annoying pain, sometimes throbbing, while other times just painful enough to make me aware of it. Our regular dentist is great, but he is not a cosmetic dentist. Both he and my dentist from CA both muse that even if I am a model patient who flosses abundantly and brushes as prescribed, I am the victim of three generations of really poor teeth genes. Fortunately, Hungary is known for its dentistry, with substantially reduced cost. That is life in the big city for now.

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US Embassy Invite

It is always a thrill to receive these invites, though I never go to any of them. I wonder if I moved back to the US if the Hungarian Embassy will send me invites to the 1956 celebrations?

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The Jailbird Flies the Nest

Our jailbird friend has left us today. After spending hours trying to retrieve his passport, his laptop, and other sundries scattered hither and yon through his adventures, he now has to wait it out until Monday to try yet again. From his perspective, the US Embassy does not get a A rating for helpfulness. Hesitant to take his word as gospel, I did tend to agree when his sister starting forwarding me the letters she was receiving from the Embassy employee assigned to aiding him. The fact that he is banned from going anywhere near the embassy and they do not answer the phone when he calls does not promote their reputation in anyone's eyes. I made him promised me to send a postcard from the US when he arrived. I wanted to make sure he made it and we would not have any more surprises waiting at our door some evening.

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Prison Break

No, this is not a rehash of the American TV show, Prison Break. This is prison break, Hungarian style. Who said my life is not interesting? Um, that would have been me. What was I thinking? Last night I checked my e-mail after a small dinner party we hosted. There was a cryptic message "I am John Doe's sister. I need for you to contact me immediately regarding him." Certainly, his name is not John Doe. Duh! I am saving him from public disgrace, but this story is too interesting not to share. I e-mailed her back stating we had not heard from her brother for months and I was a bit concerned. He is an American living here in Budapest, but only has been for the last five months. John Doe was a B and B guest a couple of years ago. He landed in Budapest with some friends who were going to hang out here for a year. After a few weeks of being a roomie, he could not take their fighting, so walked out and landed in our apartment. He paid for a week, but then was getting tight on money, so asked if he could barter his services for things about the apartment. We reluctantly agreed to barter another ten days. John fulfilled his part of the bargain, convinced to barter for more work and another ten days. He completed all of his obligations, but left before his freebie nights were used. We gave him an I.O.U. or in this case a WE.O.U. for twelve more nights to be used whenever we had a vacancy. He disappeared for over a year, without any contact and no responses to my e-mails. In September 2007, he reappeared out of thin air back to Budapest. Popped in to see us, but only Ron was home. They had coffee. A couple of weeks later, he e-mailed to come over and see us. When he did, he needed a place to stay. He was living with a woman friend, but it was not working out. He came here for three nights, but during that time, met a hostel owner who was closing the place for the winter and agreed to let John stay there in exchange for keeping an eye on the place and doing some work. John left us to go there. Thanksgiving came and we invited John to dinner. He brought a date. A young man we wanted to card to see if he was of legal age. John is in his mid-forties. This was the last we saw of him, but he did send me a couple of e-mails regarding his adventures with getting a long term Visa to stay in Hungary. That was at the end of November. Nothing after that. According to his sister, in December, he took a bag of drugs he found at the hostel to the US Embassy claiming it belonged to the workers there. He was arrested and put in jail. When he was released, he went back to the hostel and broke windows. He was arrested again and put in jail. Upon release, he went to the Marriott hotel; we were already on vacation by this point, so he would not have been able to reach us. He became disruptive and abusive at the hotel and they called the police. Once again, he was thrown in jail where he has been since December 18th. While in jail, he became combative with the guards, so they put him into solitary confinement for two weeks. His family in the mid-western part of the US hired two attorneys here. The Embassy official finally convinced John to sign a release of confidentiality statement, so they could keep his family updated. In this release, he also named ME, stating we are the only family he has here in Budapest and he trusts us. Notice the plural pronouns, but only my name had been given. Ron lucked out on this one. My guess had been that he was bordering on bi-polar, but now it seems he has had a psychotic break. He had called his mother to say he was named Ambassador to Hungary by President Obama and was having a private jet sent to pick her up. He told the same story to the embassy people and the guards at the prison. Life is interesting.

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Putting My Body Where My Mouth Is

A couple of weeks ago, Democrats Abroad asked if we would volunteer for registering people to vote at the "Hungary for Obama" concert event. At the time it sounded like a great idea and we both said "Sure, why not?" We have both been volunteer registrars at other events with dismal results so a black cloud was floating over this idea once I said yes. To be supportive, we registered and bought a T-shirt with the "Hungary for Obama" logo on it for 3,500 Huf each. When 6:30 pm came around last night, I really did not want to drag myself out of the house to go to this event. It was held at the Merlin Theater, a venue that used to have many plays in English, but has since moved more toward German and Hungarian. In the past, we had season tickets, but had not been for over a year since there was nothing in a language we spoke. They spiffed up the place and it was looking mighty good. Merrill Oates, the organizer has a platoon of volunteers handling the shirt sales and distribution. His organizational skills would have made Amazon.com envious. The theater has a large restaurant on the second floor where the event started. Each table was embellished with a plate of sandwiches, Hungarian biscuits, cookies, and candles. Being an audio-visual techie, Merrill had slide shows going on both huge walls, while a bandstand was ready for the musical entertainment. This obviously was not a slapped together event and would have made any Democrat proud. The US Embassy sent a Hungarian employee from the Consular Service to assist us with registration. Since each state has its own rules and regulations of what information they require for a person to register, thick books were on the table for referencing each states requirements. Anyone who walked by us, we asked if they were registered. When we received numerous "I am already registered" responses, I was beginning to think this was another waste of time. However, after an hour into the event, we started getting people coming over to register. The Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Florida people especially made our hearts sing out with joy. One woman from Alaska came up to register too and shared her feelings about Palin reiterating all we have heard from the news and the YouTube video in this blog. What was especially exciting were the people who took up to ten applications each for friends who were not able to attend the event, but still wanted to get registered. The music was lovely with a band and a soulful singer. The lights were dimmed forcing us to have a secondary light source on our table for people to see, but it made for a dramatic event. We registered close to twenty-five people. The Embassy assistant had encyclopedic knowledge and was an excellent resource. We finally closed down by 10:30 pm, but the party was still going hot and heavy. The attendance approached 200 minimum by all who were counting, but as we were leaving, people were still arriving. As happens many times, I have reservations about commitments I make when the time approaches, but afterward, I leave with great satisfaction. Last night was a prime example.

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