Just a quick post that we safely arrived to Dubai. I am unable to write much, as our life seems to have fallen apart by the overwhelming amount of things we need to take care of. So far, I thought there is no more bureaucratic country than Hungary, but with our luck, we managed to find one.

An example just to wet your appetite, I got my SIM card 6 days ago with the promise that “It will be active in 2 hours sir!!!”, and yet, I am still without a phone. Go figure, that is Dubai for you.

Having said that, we are still enjoying it a lot, and we appreciate all the things we are presented with in Dubai. The weather is a bit too hot, feels much like having a hair dryer blowing directly to your face constantly when you are on the street, but its still somewhat pleasant.

We just have found a place to live at, in the Greens, which is an area very close to my office, and we will move in next week, once we bought all the necessary furniture.

This is what the flat complex looks like where we have the rental place:

Its a relatively nice place with lot of Green areas, which is why its called the Greens. Momo, our dog will join us on the 10th of June, she is coming with a Lufthansa flight booked as cargo, which is what Dubai requires. So from the 11th of June, we are back to normal with all the crew onboard

What’s left still is buying cars, opening bank accounts, and discovering Dubai Stay tuned, there is more to come….

So you’ve heard the news already right? No surprise to you? Well, believe me it was hard enough to keep it confidential, but since it had to be kept, it was kept. So we are finally allowed to say it, we are moving to Dubai next week on Wednesday hopefully, depending on my successor’s training speed.

We were thinking about this move from Late December 2007, and it was only decided finally in April, 2008. Yuka and I are going there next week, and Momo, our dog will join us in mid June, by which we are hoping to have a rental flat readily available for Momo’s receipt.

I will post here more info as soon as I get them.

Cheers

Before you get scared of the picture posted below, its not some weird alien or a strange shot of the moon, its my Nephew in 4D. Yes, I am going to be an uncle pretty soon, and my sister just sent me the fresh 4D shots of the baby. She said it was an amazing experience seeing it live, they even have a video in 4D that shows the baby turn, yawn and even move his arms.

And click for more if you want to see another shot.

]]> http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/27/i-am-going-to-be-an-unlce-in-june-first-4d-pics-of-the-baby-here/feed/ 0 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/18/slovensky-grob-traditional-slovak-restaurant-few-kms-out-bratislava/ http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/18/slovensky-grob-traditional-slovak-restaurant-few-kms-out-bratislava/#comments Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:03:09 +0000 bence8810 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/18/slovensky-grob-traditional-slovak-restaurant-few-kms-out-bratislava/ Hi

Last thursday, on my visit to Bratislava, we went to a traditional restaurant a few kilometers away from Bratislava, once the work was done at the office. Read on for more, and here is a teaser picture for you:

The restaurant was a good 30 minutes drive from the Center of Bratislava, and the village we were heading was called Slovensky Grob. This village is famous for the typical Slovak Winter food, Goose and Duck with Loksa (potato pencakes).

I once had it already, but my colleague who was with me that day never had it, so we went there even though it was not the season for the kind of food. The season should be from late autumn until Christmas as I heard.

The restaurant was designed with a very Slovak taste as you can see it from the pictures. The Waitress was very kind, and to our suprise she was fluent in Hungarian too.

Here is the menu we ordered from, we both took the 1st Menu, as that was the most promising quantity wise

The food was amazing, we had a quarter Goose with 100gramms of Goose Liver and 4 pieces of Loksa, the potato pencakes sprinkled with goose fat, yummy.

This is yet another shot of the food

This is our table loaded with goose. A local colleague of ours had only a “light” meal, 300-400gramms of Goose Liver, thats the other dish you see on the table.

And the desert that followed our meal, Loksa filled with Poppy seed paste, Cottege Cheese and Jam. That’s what I call a good Central European diet

And finally, some pictures from the restaurant. If you are ever in Bratislava, and have a good 3 hours to kill, I suggest you drive down to Slovensky Grob, and have at it….

Cheers

]]> http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/18/slovensky-grob-traditional-slovak-restaurant-few-kms-out-bratislava/feed/ 1 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/12/march-9th-elections-on-health-fees-and-tuition/ http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/12/march-9th-elections-on-health-fees-and-tuition/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:33:28 +0000 bence8810 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/12/march-9th-elections-on-health-fees-and-tuition/ I earlier posted about the upcoming elections of March 9th of 2008, and I wanted to report on it as we are now passed it.

Quickly again, the elections were about Health Fees and Tuition. The outcome was that over 80% of the voters who actually went to vote rejected these fees, so the goverment is going to dismiss them as of the 1st of April.

I also went to vote, and this is how the bills looked like we needed to vote on. You see 3 bills as there were 3 matters to vote on.

Read on for more pictures

This is what the place looked like where we had to register. The country is split to regions and municiplaities while we vote, and each person gets a notation about the place he/she needs to go to on voting day. I live in the 12 district, and in our area we were called to a Clinic. Most usually the locations they choose are in public places like schools, clinics, hospitals, libraries, etc. The workers there are volunteers who take up the role of administering this elections and counting the votes.

And finally these are the sealed boxes we needed to slide out vote-slips into once we were done.

If you have been to Budapest before, and you know the city well, it won’t hit you by suprise if I say we are flooded with homeless. Some people are angry at them (I am one of them), but the majority of the people just feel pity for them, and rather not do anything to fix the situation. People give them money, which attracts more of them to the streets and underground stations day by day.

Anyways, before I become labeled as someone socially irresponsible and radical, I just quickly share my surprise that struck me the other day I was walking through the Underground Station in Blaha Lujza square.

There were a couple of chairs put in a circle, just like it is in your living rooms, and there was even a carpet in the centre. I saw homeless sitting there drinking just like as if they were at home, enjoying with family and friends. Look at the picture, its really bizarre.

Read on for more details and another picture:

Every day I pick up a Metro magazine on the way to the underground while making my way to work, and this was no different on the day after I saw the chairs and homeless enjoying at the square. I was reading through the articles while riding the old, rusty subway, when I saw a picture about the scene I was describing above. It was labeled something like “Social Gathering” and apparentely it was set up by some Art University Students from Budapest, someplace in Germany and Portugal. I read the article, and it said they set this place up for people to meet, and they wanted to show the uniqueness of Budapest. Once the students were gone from the place, it got taken over by homeless on the instant. When I got out of the subway at the very same square, I saw some homeless sleeping in those chairs, and wine bottles were laying around them everywhere.

I thought, if this is the way Budapest in unique, i would rather not take pride at it, and show it in news papers, etc

Anyways, here is another picture of the scene. I let you judge this story, but I am not shy to state my opinion, this is one thing I hate about Budapest. Every day I am disgusted at the people I meet on such squares / stations, and this is how my mornings start each day, seeing them.

Cheers

]]> http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/10/weekend-cafe-cake-and-hot-cocoa/feed/ 0 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/10/dog-beer-finally/ http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/10/dog-beer-finally/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:39:13 +0000 bence8810 http://www.celifornia.com/blog/2008/03/10/dog-beer-finally/ This last time when Yuka and I went shopping for Momo-chan, we found something on the shelf that we didn’t want to believe ever existed. It is Dog Beer, and if you think I am joking, look at the pictures below. Now if you know me, you know I am crazy for beer, be it any kinds of beers, including Dog Beer of course. Since Yuka was there, I was unable to get through with buying any, but believe me, the next time she goes back to Japan, Momo-chan (our dog) will not see a single drop of water for the whole interval…..

It’s a bit on the expensive side (499HUF ~ 2EUR), but what the heck, its beer so it deserves it.

At the end of this fine February, on the 29th !!!!!, Yuka has finally become a permanent resident of the Hungarian Republic. But how exactly did we get here? Well, that was no easy task even for a Japanese, Hungary did give her as much pain and sorrow that not many would have bared. Read on for details and to see what the Permanent Residency card looks like.

Looking at these images is easy, but getting them, oh boy…

We got married in Japan, and went to the Hungarian embassy of Tokyo. Things went really smootly, the ambassador was a real gentleman, and we got our papers needed for the Hungarian acceptance of the marriage in a matter of a few weeks including post, etc. The temporary VISA of 6 months was in our hands, and we were looking forward to our life in Hungary. We had no idea what awaits us on the Hungarian end at that point…

Once we arrived to Hungary, we had a few months to settle things, so we got started. We needed first to get Married in Hungary, I mean to get our Japanese marriage accepted. For this, we needed the Japanese marriage papers, which were already translated by the Hungarian consulate in Tokyo, at least we thought it was. We went to get married to the 12th Disctrict Municipal office of Budapest where we belong. There we were quickly rejected, as the translation was not valid, and they even said who are we kidding with such papers. Okay, well it was only stamped by the Hungarian embassy of Japan, but whatever, we were off to OFFI, the Hungarian National Translation Agency, which is the only place we can get it translated so that it will be accepted. Guess what they did? They translated the docs with the help of the Hungarian consulate in Tokyo, who actually already translated it once.

Well, this is only the beginning. It cost us a small fortune, and took a few weeks again. Our 6 months VISA was running out quickly. We finally had the Marriage certificate translated, so we headed back to the Municipal Office, where we were again rejected, as we had no leagal witness with us, who would do the translation between the Municipal officer and my wife. They had the feeling that this Japanese national (Yuka) was so eager to become Hungarian that she paid a Hungarian national (Myself) to go to Japan, marry her, and get her the residency in Hungary. I mean, come on, where are we, US? Is this such a desirable place for Japanese that they will come here like Southern Immigrants make their ways to the US?

Well again, we were off to look for a witness. Of course they could have told us this once we were rejected at the beginning about the Marriage Certificate, but they didn’t. We convinced one of my friends to do the translation for us. I made yet another appointment with the Municipal Officer, and we were on our ways, the 3rd time now. We met the Officer, sat down at a table, and the witness was only there to sign, I did all the translation between my wife and the municipal officer. You smell bureaucracy here? I am sure you don’t

After 5 minutes, and some ridiculous questions like “Ms Yuka, Did Mr Frank forcefully bring you to Japan” and “Are you just looking for an easy living in Hungary?” we got the papers.

Once we had the marriage certificate, we were officially married in Hungary finally. We had to decide about Yuka’s post marital name and our future children’s name, and believe it or not, my post marital name. Yes, Hungary is one of those “modern” countries where the Husband can get the wife’s family name should he desire.

So we were off to the Immigation Office. If you have seen a place out of order and in a complete chaos before, multiply it by 2 and then you may be close to how this place looked. Packed mostly with Eastern Europeans and Chinese, we were all waiting for the Immigration Officers to call our number. We finally got to the beginning of the queue in a matter of 3-4 hours and were called to a seat. There, in about 2 minutes the officer has already sent us home for more papers to prepare. Of course this was too difficult to say over the phone when I called. We had to get some assurance from my Mother, that she will take care of us providing room and board, as we are living with her (on paper). My mom had to go to the Hungarian National Land Registry Office to get a copy of her Flat’s registration, proving that she actually own this. Fine. We also had to get a few dozen of shots injected into Yuka’s arm and wherever, to make sure she won’t bring some crazy Japanese 3rd world sicknesses into our safe heaven of Hungary. I mean Japan, you know, is even further to the east from us, it can only be worse, right? Dah….

Once we had all that, we again went back to the Immigration office, and after another 3-4 hours of waiting in the filthy waiting room, we found out that WE forgot to bring medical insurance for her. Yepp, we forgot it, not them. They clearly mentioned it to us on our first visit. Again, whatever. We were off to the Medical Insurance Facility, a government run business.

At this point Yuka was ready to scream, and leave the country, as clearly this country doesn’t want her, at least the situations made her feel so. So, again, in the line at the Social Insurance for a few hours only to find out, that without her Immigration Papers settled, she cannot get the insurance card. The law changed a few months ago, and now this is how its done.

Okay, so the Insurance Company requires her to have the Immigration settled, but the immigration requires her to have insurance. At this time we were so ready to get on live TV, and send all these officers and other government officials to high heaven or wherever.

We went back again to the Immigration, and as it was our 3rd or 4th time already, we feared so much what the outcome will be. Sure enough, Yuka was deported at this point, as we were just not able to match their requirements. And the officer called for the next in line. So this was the point where I said enough. I asked for some manager, and although showing us a bad face, she did call a manager, who finally had some human qualities to himself and understood our situation. Yuka’s deportation ended there, but she was illegal in Hungary for 30 minutes or so. We had to appeal, and they after a month or so, generously accepted our case and gave us the 2 year Permit for Staying.

In this 2 years, we almost forgot the horrors of the story thank god, and recently, when her permit came to an end, we went again to the Immigration, but this time fired up with a private insurance policy set, and they found no way of sending us away. Plus, Yuka is still my wife, so it seems she really didn’t come all the way from Japan to live on Hungarian social funds , and she got the 10 year permit.

We both hope never to see that office again, but I guess in 2018, we are going to….

I have a collegaue at work, she has an American Husband, and they went through just like what happened to us, so its seems we weren’t just the unlucky ones.

Make no mistake, if you are coming from a 3rd world country like America, or Japan, you will have a tough time getting through immigration. How is that for an irony…..