new york new york
It’s a wonderful town. The Bronx is up and the Battery is down. And the people ride in a hole in the ground.
Peter and I will be there soon. We will arrive next Friday night around 10 pm and stay for two weeks. We (I) am beginning to make lists of what we need to do before we leave and what we need to do while we are there.
I have been quite remiss in sending updates this summer. There have been several developments in the past weeks that you should know about:
1) The FILE WAS FOUND!!!! Peter’s INS file, that it. It happened like this: When we finally made our arrangements to come to New York, I called our Congressman’s office to ask them if they could help us get an appointment at the INS. A young man answered the phone and to my GREAT disappointment he told me that my contact there (Maritza) was out on Medical leave until the middle of October. Furthermore, nobody was taking over her workload. Our only option was to call back in the middle of October. Of course, you can clearly see that this was of absolutely no use to us - as we would already be back in Prague.
So, I hung up the phone and cursed for a while. Feeling better, Peter and I discussed what we could do. We decided that we should call our Senator’s office - and ask them for help. So I called Chuck Schumer’s office - kind of reluctantly because I didn’t want to confuse matters at the INS. To my great delight, Marie, who helped me, knew our old contact at the Congressman’s office and seemed to be very efficient and precise. I sent her an e-mail explaining in great detail the whole situation. Two days later she e-mailed me back saying that the file was found. HURRAY!
Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t found in the best place. It was at the National Records Center, the place where all inactive files are kept. Apparently, the New York INS office DID send the file to Vermont. Vermont, in the idiotic fashion of the INS, sent the file directly to the National Records Center without producing a green card. Now you ask WHY did they do that? To quote the e-mail from Schumer’s staff person “who knows?!”
SOOO, now the New York office must request the file from the National Records Center, receive the file, and then send it back to Vermont, where they should finally produce a card. Do you have any idea how long this might take? One month? Two months? No. Eight months, IF everything goes very smoothly. Why it must needs take eight months is completely beyond my comprehension. It seems to me that my old theory is proved true: The INS doesn’t use automobiles (not to mention the US Postal Service) - they have only one delivery man for the entire United States and he walks.
2) I spent the afternoon yesterday with 11 seven-year-olds. It was very interesting! I was helping a friend of ours with her daughter’s birthday party. Her daughter attends the British International School here in Prague. As a result all her friends speak English. So I was there as The Native English Speaking Adult. It was really very fun. I taught a hand full of the kids to make oragami figures. Liliana, whose birthday it was, was disgusted that I had a book with diagrams showing how to fold the figures. She insisted that I really didn’t know how to do it since I had to use a book. However I was extremely thankful that I had the book. It is pretty confusing trying to explain to 7-year-olds which part of the paper to fold.
Toward the end of the party, one little girl came up to me and said “I need the bin.” I said, “You need the what?” She said “I need the bin.” I said, “You need a pin?” “No, I need the bin.” “You need to pee?” “No, I need the bin.” “The bin? Can you show me?” She just looked at me. “You need the bin?” I asked, confusion written clearly across my face. Another little girl standing near by said “You know, the rubbish bin.” I broke out into laughter and said “OH!! The garbage can!” As I took the little girl to the GARBAGE CAN I was still laughing and saying to anybody that was listening “I’m not British!!!! The bin!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s a garbage can!”