Follow up

 In my blog about  COVID earlier this month, I told of all the precautions being taken by my church.  The next day, I received a message from the secretary that beginning October 5, all faculty, staff, and students would be required to wear masks inside the university buildings. That makes classes a little challenging as I feel that I need to project more and it is really difficult to hear some of the more soft-spoken students. Last week in church, the pastor said that beginning this Sunday, October 17, we will be required to wear masks at church.  Our fellowship after church will have no food or drink. 

Last Sunday (October 10) , we met inside for our fellowship rather than outside in the courtyard because it was too cold to stand around outside to visit. One of my friends who keeps me abreast of the happenings in Hungary, such as the number of COVID patients on ventillators jumping from 14 to 100, gave me some pointers about shopping for coats and warm shoes in Szeged. On Saturday, I found a really warm, fuzzy coat and some comfortable street shoes with closed
toes.  As you can see from the weather report at 8:47 this morning, Szeged is quite cold.  The buildings are warm, so I have to wear summer clothes under my winter coat to keep from suffocating in the classroom.

Sunday, October 17, we began wearing masks to church. The pastor said that it is not a sign of a lack of faith, but a way to show concern for our communitiy. We had fellowship inside (no food or drink) after the service.  Who said believers can't fellowship without food.

In my saga about documents, I related my continuing saga about obtaining a residence permit. Last Wednesday, having waited three weeks and checking my mailbox every day, I went to the immigration office to see if there had been another delay or if perhaps the letter I was supposed to have received had not yet been delivered. I was assured that everything was in order and my application was sitting on a desk awaiting a signature. The officer said that I should receive a notification in my mailbox in a week or two... or three.  I still have not received  the notification and went to immigration this morning only to be told that they are closed on Fridays.  I suppose if I had had an appointment, they might have let me past the foyer. I did notice that there was someone in the waiting room. I noticed that after I left, the guard locked the door behind me.

Shortly after I published this blog, the postman knocked on my door and delivered the residence form. There is still a card that I will have to pick up at the immigration office, but now I can proceed to the next step and presenting more documents to the health department.  Some of those documents are forms that the human resources department of the university provided me to fill out. The HR office is only open on Tuesday and Thursday. The secretary arranged to meet me at the building at 8 AM on Thursday, but later told me that all we needed to do was pick up the forms and she would do that for me.

Tuesday morning, October 19, I went to immigration with the residence form to confirm that the process was complete. It was not. The official said that I still needed to collect the residence card, which is like an ID card. She checked and found that it had not yet arrived at the immigration office. She said that I should come by on Thursday. I told her I have a full day of classes on Thursday, which does not end until 8. I also have classes on Monday, so I suggested I might come on Tuesday. She said that the documents would definitely be ready by then. 

Tuesday, October 26. I finally have the documents in hand. I am to meet the secretary from the school at the door of the health building when it opens at 8AM. I arrived at 7:57. There was already a line of about a dozen people gathered in front of the door; the secretary is not one of them. She sent a task that she would arrive in 10 minutes. I sent her a text that I would wait in line and get a number. I got the number and before I could sit down to wait, my number was called.  The secretary had helped me fill out the forms the day before and I had them with me, along with my folder of immigration documents, so I had no reason to panic. The officer also spoke well enough in English to confirm that he had all the papers he needed and that they would send me my health card by post.  I was finished by 8:22. As I left the building, the secretary arrived.  

I had some other business to do with the bank and needed her services as a translator to help figure out a transaction on my card which I didn't remember and a $2 fee for an ATM transaction which I thought should be free. I vaguely recalled that when I set the bank account up I was to contact them when my residence permit was finalized.  The transaction that I panicked over was from three weeks before to my landlord and reminded me that I needed to set up automatic monthly payments for the utilities. The fee was removed when they confirmed my residence permit. Starting next month, I should be able to take money from the ATM machine without incurring a charge.

It has been a while since I talked about my language learning Milestones. I have found some sympathetic, patient vendors who repeat prices for me rather than writing them down. The onion vendor had to be very patient because I didn't see him hold up to fingers and did not recognize the number 20. I thought I had heard a 5 and guessed that it might be 15 forints, but was sadly mistaken. I had several 20 forint coins in my hand, which he indicated was the price. The eggplant vendor was also patient. I heard 150 (saz otven) rather than 160 (saz atvan). She indicated that she needed another coin, I need to review my numbers. It seems that 3 and 5 are the only numbers I recognize lately.  Two weeks ago, I understood four of four vendors correctly. Last week, I struggled with one of three; in that case, though, it wasn't just my lack of fluency that caused a lack of understanding when he mumbled the price to me.

Today, I had a linguistic challenge of a different sort. Upon my return from the market, I greeted one of my neighbors, who was standing at the corner. I had keyed in my code and was about to enter the building when he approached me saying something about a card or flyer. I wondered if there had been some announcement that I had missed about a new way of entering the building or if he was telling me to be careful about leaving the door open (that was an announcement that I had asked the secretary to interpret for me a few days after I moved in).  I stepped outside the building, allowing the door to shut and lock, but he was still saying something to me that had nothing to do with the door being opened or shut. He unlocked the door and let me in. A few minutes later, he came back down and presented me with a business card with a note in Hungarian. I took a picture and sent it to the secretary at school for help interpreting it. My neighbor and I talked in the corridor for a while, only establishing that I did not understand. He recited the days of the week in English, counted to 10, and said something about a brother in New York or Florida (who had perhaps moved to Florida), further establishing that his English vocabulary was only slightly bigger than my Hungarian vocabulary.  I could google translate the top word: he is an art history teacher. The bottom message was a little more difficult because I could not decipher the handwriting, but the secretary told me that it says he can help me sell paintings. I'm not sure what paintings he thinks I have, so I sent the picture to my landlord.