October 31, 2003 : illegal but tolerated.

(this is in reply to my dear friend Missy's **knock** knock** asking me to wake up from my no-more-entries) :)

No approximation will do. At midnight last night (tonight, this morning) over a couple of Maes pintjes (beer) I became illegal. It's not like they'll be likely to kick me out, but officially, I'm no longer really, technically legal.

Yesterday Eva and I managed to turn in a 160 page dossier detailing our commitment to each other...or rather in 160 pages we tried to prove that we've known each other really well and taken care of each other and spent oodles of time together over the past 3 years. What a strange concept. Something like 4 official documents, 60 pictures, 3 diplomas, 30 pages of plane-ticket stubs, and 30 letters from friends and family saying "they like each other and Andrea should stay here."

Apparently Eva had understood that I was supposed to get some sort of paper that said my "dossier was processing" but I didnt' get such a paper. We waited for four and a half hours in the district house (the one I've written about several times before) and finally it was our turn, number 249 at loket (stall) 27.

The lady was completely clueles about what to do with Article 9 sort of people (Eva and I) and had to get help from various people in order to even fill out her computer form. When Eva said, "doesn't she get some sort of paper?" the lady said, "not really...she's technically illegal...but it's tolerated."

Now what sort of statement is that? "If somethign happens with the police...just have them call us." Ok.

I suppose this should have been an entry for yesterday, but I've been swamped with work and obviously the stress of the dossier was a bit too much to handle. On Wednesday night Eva and I went to bed at 9 and didnt' get up till 7 the next morning. We're a bit tired of the whole thing. Not the whole thing, but the whole making and worrying.

All of this to say that they can still look at those 160 pages and if they are having a really bad day, can decide to send me back to the states for 3 months before we can try again. Eva's asleep on the couch at the moment and for some reason I can't imagine how our lives should be anything less than what it is right now with our being together. (same country, same town, same wee little appartment)

On a completely other note, while at work today I suddenly had the impulse to look up a friend of mine who I used to be close with, then hurt, then lost touch with, then briefly (two emails) reconnected and then lost completely. It pained me to receive the "this email address does not exist" return email...and I must admit that I spent a greater part of my most-productive time-slot looking for Vanessa Gifaldi.

When I got home from work (Eva and I were both a bit sad, as we had planned to do something fun for our turning-in-dossier-becoming-illegal, we had planned on doing bowling and sorta a pub-crawl. (the bar-hopping more my idea of a way to bring in the new month, the new illegality, the halloween...) But none of it panned out. I got home and told Eva of my hunt for Vanessa, and as I told her that i had already found Vanessa's father, grandfather, sister, cousins, etc online, but no her, she said, "just call them."

Well I did, and after a few no-longer-numbers, one complete stranger, one father's answering machine, and one small chat with the grandfather...the grandfather said, "where are you calling from? Belgium? I fought there in the war...and Vanessa? Well she happens to be here at the moment..."

No need to tell the rest of the story...its was sort of a "it's been awhile" conversations along with, "well, since you called..."

I'm hoping it's not so long between that connection and the next. She was a good find the first time around...we invited her to Belgium. Nothing like, "hey, I haven't talked to you in something like 5 years...wanna come to Antwerp?"

One never knows.

IN THE NEWS:
Based on a Census Bureau survey of 50,000 households, the department estimated that 3.8 million families were hungry last year to the point where someone in the household skipped meals because they couldn't afford them. That's an 8.6 percent increase from 2001, when 3.5 million families were hungry, and a 13 percent increase from 2000.