by It’s a bit of a frustrating day: outside it’s wet; inside I’ve had no running water since I got up this morning. I’ve had to use one of the water fountains in town. Like most people here, I normally use the fountains anyway to collect drinking water.
Talking of frustration, back in June (or perhaps earlier) I managed to lose my registration certificate. That’s the crappy-looking A5 sheet of paper, no thicker than a sheet of newspaper, that officially allows me to stay in the country. My best guess is that I left it at the doctor’s surgery when I saw the ENT specialist and had to present and fill in a bewildering amount of paperwork on three different floors. Until last week I survived perfectly well without the piece of paper, relying on my passport, but having an actual employer changed things. (I still don’t know when I actually start the new job.)
On Tuesday morning I went to the immigration office, quite a grim place with yellowing, peeling sheets of paper stuck to the walls. It seemed I could get a replacement certificate without much hassle, but I’d need to get one or two things photocopied and come back the next day because the office would soon be closing (it’s only open from 9 till 10, and you have to queue). Day two: I got there well before 9am with my photocopies and was almost at the front of the queue. Great. But no, apparently I also needed to make a declaration that I’d lost my original certificate. How and where would I do that? Take Ionescu, the bloke at the office told me. (“Take” here is not the very common English word, but instead the first name of a Mr Ionescu who is now immortalised by having a long street in Timișoara named after him. It’s pronounced “tackay”, more or less. It’s an unusual word because the letter K doesn’t normally feature in Romanian at all.) He told me, in English, that it was “near the judge”. Near the court, I guessed. I knew Take Ionescu had a bunch of official buildings but I drew a complete blank. Back to the office, which thankfully was still open. An actual address, please. This time he told me I needed to go to Piața Unirii and walk down Take Ionescu to get there. OK. I found the notar (notary public) where I had to make two declarations, the first to say that I could read and write enough Romanian to understand the second. Initially I was quoted 95 lei for this, and even though it cost me just 60 in the end, I can’t stand wasting any amount of money.
Day three: back to the office. I was lucky not to have any lessons before 10am all week. I had my photo taken and had to sign something electronically (the only sophistication in the whole office). Day four (yesterday): I got my new piece of paper. Phew. But wait, look at the validity date! 6th September 2022. That’s five years from last Wednesday, not five years from my original communication. Does that mean I could pull this trick over and over, and live in Romania indefinitely? I’ve now photocopied the new piece of paper and filed away the new original in a safe place where I, er, can’t possibly lose it.
A week on Monday I’ll have my first lesson with a girl of just four and a half. She lives in Dumbrăvița, a few minutes’ walk from the nine-year-old boy I teach. It’s a shame I’m unable to schedule back-to-back lessons with them, but kids who still attend kindergarten need their sleep. This teaching thing is certainly presenting me with some challenges, but none that I’m not willing to accept.
Last week the Red Sox won a monumental six-hour, 19-inning game over the Blue Jays. It might just have been the fillip they needed. I’ve been reading a bit more about the 2004 World Series-winning Red Sox, and watching a few YouTube clips. What a motley, unkempt bunch they were! They were fallible, they were human. The Yankees on the other hand were slick, professional, clean-shaven, and that contrast only helped endear the Red Sox to the public. Of course the team from Boston hadn’t won the big prize for absolutely ages and were trying to clamber out of an almost impossibly deep hole in the series; it all made for a great story.
