Not In Bruges: Stateless

I'm in a period of limbo right now with Brussels. Ever since the NATO gig fell through, I have had no idea what country I will be living in two months in the future.

It seems like getting a job in Brussels will be difficult. With a flood of new college graduates combing the jobs, most of them with EU work eligibility in place and knowing many more languages than me, I'm a bit outgunned in the job market. The German company that I interned with last summer offered me work as a freelance consultant, but getting the work permit and an extension on my visa has been impossible without a fixed contract.

My primary residency in Belgium expired at the end of April, about a week after NATO pulled the plug on the internship. At that time, other Americans and myself understood ourselves to be on an automatic three month tourist visa. However, after consultations with bureaucrats and lawyer-types this does not seem to be the case. The tourist visa can only be activated by leaving Europe and reentering, something I didn't do until I went to Dan's wedding in Connecticut in June. So for May and half of June I was technically an illegal resident of Belgium. The good news is that now I have a tourist visa, to expire in September.

I am in communication with the authorities about getting the permanent visa and work permit, but the period of illegal residency seems to work against me, as well as the fact that the job is freelance and not salaried. No decision has been made yet though, and they have processed documentation relating to my address change to the new house.

Last week, I had a meeting with the police relating to my address change. The entire interview was done in French, with me still struggling to understand spoken French and having difficulty with constructing sentences on the spot, but I made it through. The police didn't seem to worried about my former illegal presence; actually no one seems to think I am trying to live here illegally. I know that this would not be the case if I was from another country, and I don't know how I feel about that after watching friends from Russia and Kenya being chased out.

The failure to speak French well was frustrating. I feel like I've been here long enough that I should have a reasonable grasp of the language. I also feel that my knee is not healing as fast as I think it should be. Clearly some changes have to be made. I was thinking about this, and remembered my physical therapist who I haven't gone to in months. She doesn't speak English, and I ended up practicing quite a bit of French when I had sessions. I think I will start going back to PT, and viewing it as a sort of medically-subsidized French lesson. The sessions aren't free, but I should get my money's worth.

I'm starting to apply to places in DC, and actually applied to a job in Oslo, Norway that sounded very interesting. But I don't know where I am going to land. I think I will need to be out of here by mid-September. But who knows anymore.

Mom, Dad and Lara, along with cousin-by-marriage Stephanie came to visit a few weeks ago. It was nice to see everyone and show them around Brussels, and go with them to Paris and Amsterdam. Also I went to Rome in June with a friend I grew up with.

Photos

Uploading pictures to this blog takes kind of a lot of doing, and they are the same pictures I put on Facebook, so I think non-Facebook people can click on these links to see the pictures. If this is too annoying I can try to post some.

~~ Rome ~~