20-IX-1999.
No emails for this day, apart from those for aman (where there's a report of a member of Otpor! who got beaten by the police in Kragujevac, under the pretense of "your gathering wasn't registered and is therefore illegal", and the technical side of reporting - the guy there should call by landline, as the price of a mobile call would be too much for him, and someone on the Belgrade side should record everything and then type an article from that). Actually, there's a lot of mail on the subject, things are cooking up back home.
Afternoon, was driving Nina and Lena to some doctors' outfit to get checked and vaccinated for school. We eventually managed to convince the nurses there that the dates in their booklets mean what they mean - nobody here ever saw dates with roman numerals for months, and month in the middle of a date - and still they administered at least the pertussis one, that was completely unnecessary, as a booster (and then later they both contracted it anyway). But they're admissible to school now. Their schools are both within kind of walking distance, but that's relative. The high school is only four blocks away, and the elementary is six, but the size of a block here, away from downtown, formally out of town, is a lot. So they'll both have to ride their school buses, which stop at the nearest corner, which is only two houses away... though it's actually down the hill, across the creek... about 100m.
The „formally out of town“ bit matters, administratively. The city is one of those virginian standalone cities, surrounded by the county but not part of it, and the county's seat is in town. The border between the city and the county is next street, so we're not in town. Greg explained that this is important, the county schools are much better. We later gathered that the county has more money, as that's where the richer guys, like he, live in them suburbs, while the city is mostly students, retirees and the actually poor. More money, better schools.
Lena still doesn't speak a word of english. Whatever we had on that CD with "fish for dinner, please" doesn't seem to help much. She later recounted how she just stared around, understanding nothing, just did what others did. Then by lunch end her teacher asked „are you finished?“ and she understood that. That's what started the ball rolling. Within a month or two she spoke english like old.
The picture was taken by some disposable camera I got - the darker corners make that obvious. It being not digital, we had only prints - don't even remember whether we got the negative. Only four prints survived. This is Lena in front of her school, first day. About one third of the school grounds is the parking. I love it how they have forest everywhere in these parts.
Around this time some guys from a team which „aids parents to get government aid for their university students' tuitions“... Which I thought must have been somehow arranged by Ford or someone such, as some part of plan to help us manage our stay here. I really didn't have any clue as to how much would Go's college cost, so this was also a part of scouting the field. We two went there to attend to their lecture, where it all looked like those fuckers who picked us for the free vacation on Palma de Mallorca (v. march 1996.... But okay, let's see how a sales pitch (another expression I learned later) looks in the country where it was invented. The lecture, aka advertising, they held in a smaller hall in the same hotel where we stayed two weeks ago, with all the graphs, overhead projections, all very professional. They did tell a whole bundle, were very convincing, I even wrote a check and picked up their brochures.
And then at home we went on studying those brochures and realized that they actually offer to do nothing and guarantee nothing, they are just there to help fill the gov't forms and avoid the typical pitfalls where people who should have gotten it actually lose. Well, I said, if I could wade through hungarian forms for work permit and visa after just three months of the language, I don't see why would be unable to fill this without you guys. So I went back to the hotel, while the guys were still there, they had more lectures for the following groups scheduled, and took my check back, and tore it later. These were the first fog sellers there that I met close up and personal (another phrase), and it actually cost me very little. Right there I remembered the black guy we saw in Battery park on Manhattan, who was selling 'orginal rolexes' from a briefcase... same work, just more complicated to organize.
This is where I first met the expression „free money“. At first it sounds ridiculous, why would anyone buy money, but then it's not, they are used to having to put something in before getting something out, every income comes with a cost, loan with most. So when they say „free money“, it's not exactly free, it's just that this one time you don't need to pay anything to get it. It's been paid already, it's tax money.
And Go didn't enroll in any university this time, because she didn't want to continue architecture, it's pointless here. She went to an architectural bureau for a few days, some architect pal of Greg's, where she saw how they do absolutely nothing original, they aren't even attempting anything of the kind, they combine and recombine known elements (all plank, of course) to achieve something that already exists. She found it not at all to her liking and she quit soon. Until she comes up with something she'd want to do, she found she could attend the common courses, which she'd have to pass anyway wherever she enrolls, at the local community college, which was something along the lines of our „workers' universioty“ by organization, except the courses she completes there will be credited in pretty much any university out there, while being much cheaper and local, here in A-burg, twenty minutes ride, west exit.
Mentions: march 1996., Allan Robin (Ford), aman bre, Annenburg (A-burg), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Greg Reubenthal, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), in serbian
6-II-2014 - 23-XII-2025