22-III-2010.
We printed the map in the hotel, and of course I didn't get the exactly right place where to exit the looping by Lincoln memorial, it being quite convoluted and completely unlike its aerial image, but then we somehow got into the area where I walked a lot in 2007, and we got to the embassy by 9:40 - they open at 10 - and my parking spot of five years ago was waiting for me :), above the valley where the park is. That's where I once took the USquad for a stroll, when we had lots of time to kill before the airport, and it did seem insane that such a jungle, almost tropical, would be found in the middle of a city, what with kudzu climbing up the trees and the bridge, just in style with a former civilization being taken over by nature.
Thinking that the passports may be issued by some rather important office, we entered the embassy by front gate, and then the doorman sent us to the small building in the back corner of the yard, where the consulary [division] is. Walking around the building, we see the concrete is all covered with dark purple blotches, stepped in and smeared. A mulberry! How long was it since the last mulberry! Too bad, out of season, the spots are of last fall. But it's the black one, ummmm. There's a tree in our 'hood, on the way to the park we passed under it, and had picked a few from time to time, but then the neighbor must have spotted us, decided that the branch was dangerously low, some sixfooter may hit his head and sue him to hell and back, so he cut the branch off. Dang. In these ten and a half years we find two trees and don't get to eat even a whole handfull.
There in the backyard we see it's a remodeled garage. Inside, a waiting room for no more than six persons. We submit our paperwork, sign where they said, and are told to come back in an hour and a half. We go for a walk. It's embassy area, the chinese is on the nearest corner. Smoke break, walk, taking pictures, ... hey, another Smart parked right in front of the embassy. The contraption is becoming popular, this is the fourth one this year.
We soon got bored so we showed up in the consulary garage far ahead of the scheduled time, and guess what, the passports were ready. We left the embassy by 10:45, got in the car and... exactly then the downpour began. A good one. The young guy there bent backwards to serve us, really hospitable and well mannered... we just felt at home. The passports are in our pockets! And they got immigrants in the embassy... assuming that squirrel which entered the territory was an american citizen. May have hopped from the chinese embassy across. At 10:45 we left the embassy and got into the car and got going. Exactly then a downpour began, a good one.
Not seeing my landmarks properly, I missed one turn and... got somewhere. Not quite sure where. I recognized a few turns from five years ago, when we picked Lena's passport. And then I missed a right turn and then wandered a lot.
I recognized several places again, from the times when I drove here to catch the train to NYC, but no use of that, I still didn't remember how I got out of it then. This silly façade, with unusually lively colors, appeared while Lena navigated, using the geepyess on her E71 nokla (the cost of that usage was 10$ in the end). She did lead us out of it, and then I took another wrong exit and instead of hitting the I-95, got myself driving through Crystal City, where I tried to get a job ten years ago, and then took that route all the way out of town, where I finally got to the highway. Specially between Dale City and Quantico, it was sloooow, even in the HOV lane. For this last part I drove in fourth, sometimes third, gear (out of six), taking care to see the back lights of the car ahead of me. Nothing else was really visible anyway. That's the rain curtain. It would ease down, then hit us full force, then ease down, some 4-5 times.
But that too passed and we got home. We have the passports, now to see about everything else. In the afternoon, emailed my parents:
When we returned, we saw the green peas grown twice as large than what we left it; the radishes got thick, and the rest of the green onions sprouted; what we let grow from old onions (not to go to waste) will be ready to pick in about ten days. Roses grow left and right, the midgety ones first, they have branched and leafed already, we expect flowers in two weeks. Carrots and parsley have lined up, tomato saplings are growing nicely, and peppers also sprout. The craziest is the oregano, as she counted on germination being surely below 100%, but it's sprouting like crazy, will have to separate them with tweezers.
[re Go coming here] we keep arranging it with her since december, and it's all really soon now, just let me see what happens with this, then needs to match some deadline first, then other deadline, then to see with her boss when he returns from the vacation, then when he returns he says don't ask me ask him... so it is when you're in demand, busy all the time. It's good that she got this much. She's already hit the max vacation (you get some time for each workday, but no more than 162 hours, after that the count stops until you use some of it), so she'll have as much by the end of the year again, so we'll see.
[Ender kind of employed...] Easy come easy go. They haggled for 16$ an hour, which is more or less a majstor's fee (he is a certified technician, after all, above a regular mechanic who does what he's told, does no diagnose and no fix, only dismantles and replaces parts). And even that he was supposed to start with 14$ for first three months, and then... which was already on the bottom against the cost of commute, assuming 40 hours a week. Day before the supposed start, the boss calls and says it's no deal, it's 12$ and I don't guarantee 40 hours, and even less guarantee you get the 16$ this year. So Nina told him to not take it, having signed nothing yet. And even if he did, I wonder how would the boss cover the breach of contract.
[about Utrecht] I think I've told you already - news come in some ten days ago, she's accepted. She already got a load of details about how it's there, how is this „University college“ (quite a silly name, no matter how official) related to the city university, of which it is a part. Curiosity: just two days after the news came in, she was running a yoga class, and while chatting during a break, someone asks where will she study, and she says Utrecht. Then one japanese guy or whatever chimes in „I've studied there for a year, it's great“. We weren't able to guesstimate the (im)probability.
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* at the time it was still not politically rectified into a „rain forest“, so no identity complained about using the term „jungle“
Mentions: Ender Aquila (Ender), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), majstor, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, USquad, in serbian