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The day before I left for the US, I finally got my lovely residence permit, which, according to the IB-groep website, entitles me to receive a bit of money from the gov't every month, as well as free public transportation during the week for the duration of my study. Which is a Really Good Thing, since I live in the middle of nowhere, and the train
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Of course,I know all about the bureaucracy part, and the lack of straight answers, after nearly four years in Prague. Luckily I was in the capital city, but still, most government offices were only open Mondays and Wednesdays 8:30-11 and 13-16, so I always had to cancel most of my afternoon lessons to spend an hour on the tram to get to some place or another, only to be told that I, of course, had the wrong thing. At least your Dutch is good enough that you can argue with them. Most of the time I could manage only a few extra sentences in Czech before stomping off toward the tram stop, muttering and writing nonstop SMSes cursing the entire world!
My personal favorite was being told that there was only one person in Prague 4 who was authorized to put a stamp on a paper that i needed, and she was on vacation for two weeks. When I came back, she was ill. When Czechs are ill, they go to they doctor, who puts them on house arrest for at least a week... Now, I don't always agree with this American, expendable workforce, work through every sickness society, but Christ! Authorize someone else to do the job when she's away! You can't just leave stuff undone for WEEKS at a time!
Hmm. Anyway, speaking of arguing in Dutch, I was quite proud of myself a few weeks ago when I managed to first confuse the guy at the place where I was picking up my rental car,then argue with him. He seemed very confused that I didn't have a Dutch address, even after seeing my passport. In addition, they wanted an 860 euro deposit, which would have been fine, except this place didn't accept credit cards. i'd reserved the car on a website which said I HAD to have a card to reserve the car... Whatever. we finally worked it out. I think the guy felt sorry for us eventually. And he kept speaking Dutch, which I consider an accomplishment in the Randstad when talking to people under 50!
Leslie
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