To say I am lousy at organization related stuff... well it's a merciful saying. The truth is, I'm the worst. Which is why, in my uber-important-life-changing-project, I felt the need of writing everything down in a huge Excel file with no less than 9 sheets, each one containing one aspect of the preparation (school papers, scholarship bureaucracy, work, car, trip, house, luggage and so on). Each sheet contains items gathered in a table, with "YES" or "NO" written under "is it done or not" for each item. I've just finished counting the items and there are no less than 59 things to do, WITHOUT the luggage items. Ok, scary. But I've managed to solve 12 of them in 2 weeks, which can't be that bad. The problem is that most of the things I managed to solve are the simplest ones that are do-able by just a few clicks and some reading.
Anyway, leaving the complaining part aside, I can say this proves to be a quite funny process. And the example I will talk about today is my attempt to figure out what documents I need for the residence in Italy. Because, yes, I have to make a residence because I am staying for more than 3 months.
Here's how it was:
- step 1: google it :)
- step 2: search through forums of Romanians in Italy, find a piece of law text that sounded reliable, but yet having tons of doubts about which category of residence applicants I fit in
- step 3: call the Italian Embassy in Romania. Result: "We don't have this kind of information, Miss. Please call the Romanian Consulate in Milan."
- step 4: call the Romanian Consulate in Milan. Result 1: "We don't have this kind of information, Miss. Please call the Italian Embassy in Romania."
Shock: "WHAT? THEY sent me to YOU. So can I please have my information, from somewhere in this World???"
Result 3: "I'll pass you to my colleague who MIGHT know what to tell you." Then, after 5 minutes of being put on hold, and after a 20 minutes conversation with the colleague who "might" have known what to tell me, the situation is as following:
- I do need to make a residence (yes, I knew that).
- I do need to get a "Codice Fiscale" (it seems that in Italy you don't exactly exist without it).
- No, I don't need to change my driving licence (for now).
- Yes, I need to bring all kinds of papers, but I can't know exactly which papers until I find out which is the "comune" that I will be a resident of. This is because Milan is managed in a funny way. Administratively speaking, the core of the city is "the city", as in "Comune di Milano". The suburbs, that are "glued" to the city, and that have even metro stations from the city metro lines, and that are often more comfortable to reach than different parts of "the city" itself, well... each one of them is a separate "comune". The thing is that each "comune" has its own rules so each of them might require different documents for residence. Marvelous.
- I do need to make a medical insurance. Which one to make... still a mystery. The consulate guy says I must get that European Insurance card. The law text on that forum says "European Insurance card is NOT valid". The response of the consulate guy to all this: "stop reading stupid forums!!"
- I do need to translate in Italian and legalize ALL my documents that are in Romanian. "Don't get the stupid idea of translating them in Romania", says the consulate guy. "They are not valid if you do so. Only translations and legalizing done here in Italy, are valid. I'll give you the contacts of the person who can do this."
Shock: the person who can do this is, according to him, is... him. :))) (of course the guy didn't know that I had his name and mobile number already, from the colleague that passed me to him on the phone).
The conclusion to all this? Well, the consulate guy offered me his perfect solution: "...Or, find yourself a "fidanzato" (= boyfriend) and make him solve everything for you".
Epilogue: Well, I DO have the fidanzato, but for your information he is not the employee of the consulate, and he is not paid for doing YOUR job.
I think this was only the beginning of the "residence novel" so... more info soon ;)
But what I do feel happy about right now, is the fact that I FINALLY managed to finish the thesis chapter that I had been working on for the last 3 months.
So, life is beautiful!!
Love,
La Reina Rana
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