If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium - 2/5/08

If It's Tuesday, This Must be....Wednesday??

Okay, so I missed the Tuesday post time for my weekly update on preparations for my transfer to the Brussels office of my firm.  You would think that a day billed both as "Super Tuesday" and "Fat Tuesday" would have been enough to remind me to post yesterday.

Actually, I missed the post because I've been running around town fulfilling the fantasies of bureaucrats.  Over the past few days I've:

1) Gotten a medical exam from the only doctor in Washington DC approved by the Belgian government for "official" exams (there are only 7 in the entire US).  The odd thing was the doctor seemed like he was old enough to be in medical school around the turn of the century - the LAST century (1900).  I literally was reviewing CPR procedures in my head while he was examining me in case he didn't make it through the procedure.

2) Gotten a chest X-ray at a separate medical office to prove I don't have anything I'm going to spread to the Belgians (a blood sample went to a third lab for analysis).

3) Returned two days later to the doctor to pick up my signed and stamped medical certificate, which I then had to run up to the Belgian Embassy (one of the benefits of working in DC is that just about everything needed is right here).  Given that the Embassy was only 3/4 mile from the nearest Metro stop (and the fact that all the taxis were on strike that day), I decided to walk there and back.  Naturally it started to rain just as I left and continued until just after I returned....and I hadn't brought along an umbrella because there wasn't any rain in the forcast.  Oh well.

4) Running out again to Ritz Camera to get two ID photos taken for my passport visa.

5) Sending all of this along with my CV, copies of my college diplomas, copies of every single page (even the blank ones) of my passport, and a few other pieces of paper to the Brussels office so I can get a work permit.  [Of course, I still can't get that until the FBI runs a background check on the fingerprints I had taken a couple of weeks ago]

Once the work permit is issued I will have to take that up to the Belgian Embassy again to get me visa.  Once I (finally) get to Brussels I'll have more paperwork to do in order to get some sort of residency card.

I'm beginning to see why some immigrants to my own country bypass the official procedures....you could grow old waiting for all the paperwork to be filed.  And I'm only going over for a few years.

Okay, next week I'll have some pretty pictures and travelogue info...until then, I've attached one photograph from my previous stay in Scotland.  See you next week.

P.S. See the "related items" list below for previous "If It's Tuesday..." posts.

[Note: This is a recreation of something I spent 20 minutes writing, only to have it disappear suddenly from my screen just as I was getting ready to post it.  We are not amused.]