Deportation and Sweaty Men

Okay, so I have tired of trying to trace backward over all of the days I missed due to lack of internet, so I am going to write about today and yesterday instead. Yesterday Reagan and I were shuttled off to Miskoc to finalize some paperwork with the immigration office. It had something to do with my landlady and getting paid, but I was not able to get any more information about it than that. So we went to a depressing immigration office that reminded me of every welfare waiting room that I have ever seen in a movie, and we sat. And we sat. And we sat. Over an hour later we were ushered into a room where official looking men and women had on uniforms with little scarfs knotted at their throats. Very intimidating. I was pushed into a chair by Adrienne... cougar that she is... and they began all rattling away together in Hungarian.

Then Adrienne asked me for a number of things that I did not have. Specifically a different passport photo than the Triple A office had given me back home, and our passports. Prior to leaving for this trip I had asked Adrienne if I needed to bring anything and she said no. I asked "Are you sure we don't need our passports?" Nem. Okayyyyyy. Now there she was asking for the passports. It did not matter anyway though, because apparently half of our paperwork was wrong or missing as well. The immigration officials then informed Adrienne that if this is not cleared up by the 22nd, which gave us 4 business days, we would be deported permanently back to the United States effective immediately. Sooooo.... we will find out tomorrow if my school cleared everything up. I swear, I was put in the most backward inefficient town in this country.

On a different note, my students were quite funny today. I had them watch a dvd of my boyfriend's band and then write "fan mail" to the group. Some of them grasped the concept, and others wrote letters that only make sense to them. Ah well.

My night ended with my first aikido class. Yes, I was asked to join an all male aikido class that is held every Tuesday and every other Thursday. I am game to try new things, so I agreed to come. I showed up dressed in a tank top and yoga pants, and the master wanted to know where my gi was. Ummmmm..... I guess that did not make the cut when I was trying to stuff 10 months of my life into 3 bags.... not to mention I do not own a gi.... They let me into the gym anyway. I was the only girl along with about 15 men/boys. The ages ranged from 6 up to 50, with most being my age. Three of my students were in the class, a first, third and eighth grader. The first and third graders were excited to see me, but the eighth grader avoided eye contact.

I was then led through an hour and a half of pretty brutal full on contact. The men were literally flipping me head over heels onto the mat. Chops to the throat, piercing pain on pressure points that dropped me to my knees, pinning me down and bending my limbs until I cried uncle. It was great! I'm totally going back next week.