![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3 Nisan/18 March, 2010
Mar. 18th, 2010 11:00 pmToday I took four different forms of transportation including four different subway lines (green, blue, orange and yellow). By train, ferry, subway and bus I traveled in three New York City boroughs and had a really interesting day.
It was a really warm and sunny day that felt like summer and I felt good about it all, despite the occasional mild unsteadiness that still sometimes happens. (I realized recently that I really learned to live with it and ignore it and just push myself to be as normal as possible. Yeah. I really do feel like me again and that is just nice.)
We had to go to the city to pick up our passports with a new Belarussian visa and to apply for the stupid travel visa, which is such a ridiculous thing. Mama and I went straight to the Russian embassy to wait in line, while Papa went to Belarus consulate and then joined up in the line. The absurdity of the whole experience was just so silly and ridiculous at the same time. It reminded me later, as I thought about it, of something that I think happened in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” either book or movie. It is the whole thing of asking for documents that are just redundant but that is the only power the bureaucracy has. We brought all the documents that we were supposed to bring, according to their own website, to get this ridiculous travel visa that will allow us to be in the country for three hours to go from international to domestic airport terminal. And of course, after looking at our passports and seeing that Papa and I were born in Belarus and that Mama was born in Russia, the girl at the embassy window wanted to see our official rejection of Belarusian citizenship (which we got in 2001 to go to Belarus to visit the first time). Now, Belarus consulate has already gave us a visa, which meant that we gave them all these proper documents AND if we actually had Belarussian citizenship we would not need a Russian travel visa since Belarus and Russia have a travel agreement where Belarus citizens don’t need a visa. But, of course, that was not enough and we were graciously allowed to submit our application and to bring the copies the next day (which involved extra travel for Papa). THEN they also wanted copies of our US naturalization certificate. Now we gave them our US passports, which we would not be able to get if we did not have the naturalization papers. But obviously just the US passport in not enough. Urgh. It is really a comedy, but it will only be funny after April 1 when we are scheduled to actually pick up the visa.
After that whole comedy show, we walked in Central Park all the way to Columbus Circle enjoying the truly glorious weather and being amused at people with dogs including one woman who had a baby carriage with a baby on top level and a little doggy resting on the bottom of it. Then I left my parents to go meet a friend for lunch in Brooklyn.
I got to spend three hours with my friend Michal walking around a pretty Brooklyn neighborhood in the sunshine, eating Thai food (and it was incredibly nice of her to pay for lunch too; I let her since she makes real money), catching up and chatting about life in academia. I haven’t seen her in a while, and it was really great to finally get together. It is funny, we started grad school at the same time but we didn’t really get to know each other and become friends until we went to London at the same time to do research for our dissertations. And I’m really happy we did become friends.
When I got home I watched “Did you hear about the Morgans?” (I like Hugh Grant) and I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. I wasn’t expecting much. It seems a silly stereotypical romantic comedy but I liked the relationship between the two main leads and a romantic comedy about a husband and wife trying to reconcile their relationship after an affair. And it was more funny than I thought it would be too. Very watchable.
It was a really warm and sunny day that felt like summer and I felt good about it all, despite the occasional mild unsteadiness that still sometimes happens. (I realized recently that I really learned to live with it and ignore it and just push myself to be as normal as possible. Yeah. I really do feel like me again and that is just nice.)
We had to go to the city to pick up our passports with a new Belarussian visa and to apply for the stupid travel visa, which is such a ridiculous thing. Mama and I went straight to the Russian embassy to wait in line, while Papa went to Belarus consulate and then joined up in the line. The absurdity of the whole experience was just so silly and ridiculous at the same time. It reminded me later, as I thought about it, of something that I think happened in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” either book or movie. It is the whole thing of asking for documents that are just redundant but that is the only power the bureaucracy has. We brought all the documents that we were supposed to bring, according to their own website, to get this ridiculous travel visa that will allow us to be in the country for three hours to go from international to domestic airport terminal. And of course, after looking at our passports and seeing that Papa and I were born in Belarus and that Mama was born in Russia, the girl at the embassy window wanted to see our official rejection of Belarusian citizenship (which we got in 2001 to go to Belarus to visit the first time). Now, Belarus consulate has already gave us a visa, which meant that we gave them all these proper documents AND if we actually had Belarussian citizenship we would not need a Russian travel visa since Belarus and Russia have a travel agreement where Belarus citizens don’t need a visa. But, of course, that was not enough and we were graciously allowed to submit our application and to bring the copies the next day (which involved extra travel for Papa). THEN they also wanted copies of our US naturalization certificate. Now we gave them our US passports, which we would not be able to get if we did not have the naturalization papers. But obviously just the US passport in not enough. Urgh. It is really a comedy, but it will only be funny after April 1 when we are scheduled to actually pick up the visa.
After that whole comedy show, we walked in Central Park all the way to Columbus Circle enjoying the truly glorious weather and being amused at people with dogs including one woman who had a baby carriage with a baby on top level and a little doggy resting on the bottom of it. Then I left my parents to go meet a friend for lunch in Brooklyn.
I got to spend three hours with my friend Michal walking around a pretty Brooklyn neighborhood in the sunshine, eating Thai food (and it was incredibly nice of her to pay for lunch too; I let her since she makes real money), catching up and chatting about life in academia. I haven’t seen her in a while, and it was really great to finally get together. It is funny, we started grad school at the same time but we didn’t really get to know each other and become friends until we went to London at the same time to do research for our dissertations. And I’m really happy we did become friends.
When I got home I watched “Did you hear about the Morgans?” (I like Hugh Grant) and I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. I wasn’t expecting much. It seems a silly stereotypical romantic comedy but I liked the relationship between the two main leads and a romantic comedy about a husband and wife trying to reconcile their relationship after an affair. And it was more funny than I thought it would be too. Very watchable.
