Emailing my folks.
In your street the renumeration of houses was not executed, instead they all carry numbers they had before the filling of empty space. How the new houses on the beginning of the street on the odd side are marked I don't know.*
It'll be ridiculous if they don't renumber it completely. Nina and I went this saturday, in Richmond, to the credit union to get my annual stock of deposit slips, and to transfer some cash to her, that she can show it when she gets interviewed for the green [card]. Theoretically it's required, so okay, let's. I found four addresses where they're open on a saturday (and we started early, about half nine, we usually go around noon) and picked the nearest. Found the street, looking for number 5432, the street starts with 1500, and each corner should be another hundred. We reached the end of the street, with numbers around 4000 on a shopping mall. So I parked and went into UPS (a courier service, like DHL or Fedex), counting on them to know how addresses go. Sure enough, the guy there sent me some two blocks back. Now how did number 5432 come to be across from 3200 I have no clue. Well the street where Zero used to be had only two numbers - they were on number one, and the hotel across the street was 2000. Go figure.
Yesterday I drove Nina to this final encounter with immigration, and the conversation took half an hour, and none of interrogation or any such inconvenience, it's that clerk took his time to precisely fill all the forms. Everything's fine, she's got a temporary stamp in her passport which she can use to prove she has the green card, to serve until the actual card arrives. It's something in the format of our old IDs, just made of stronger plastic, and the photo and signature are chemically engraved. The driver licenses are of the same technique.
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Yesterday they called from the belgian embassy, few papers were missing, so I scanned and emailed them (as they require all paperwork to sent in that manner), the only thing missing is the confirmation from Antwerp that they'll pay insurance for me and a pro forma air fare reservation.
We're glad with your preparation for the trip to Belgium. While it lasts, ask around whether you need any transit visa for any countries you pass along the way, if you couldn't find a direct flight to Belgrade.
Nope, this is a schengen visa. I can even go through Hungary :).
They mention Đuđa again, how „she never went to school, but her years of work were internally recognized by the post office as first elementary, then high school. Had she stayed a couple of months longer, she'd have a higher school as well“. Števa came by, they say he recovered nicely but is still on sick leave. He plans to quit DBA and go teach english in Zmaj. Tejka also called to ask whether I'll be coming to maturski.
For Nina's birthady we made no cake, bought some loaf instead and put three candles - two blue ones to count as ten each, and a white to count as one. The girls sequestered the Agfa so I couldn't take any shots :). They avoid it, say I keep catching them on wrong foot. It's now established that I have to ask permission, otherwise they raise their defenses.
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* They remained unnumbered until 2022, when we noticed that the cab drivers try to find us 150m down the street, and then I saw on some online maps that we got a different number now. Still nothing official came to us.