I promise to get around to pictures soon, but we haven't been sightseeing. Today was very busy dealing with lots of moving in issues.

We slept well. The apartment is not palatial but comfortable. At 7 a.m. the church bells up the street began ringing rather loudly.

At just before 9, Matta arrived to help us learn the tram system and walk us to the Fulbright office. The tram's last stop is right in front of Parliament (Syntagma) Square. From there it was a short walk to Fulbright's offices. We didn't even stop to take pictures of the guards or anything.

She was going to wait for us but they advised her it would be a while. We had some paperwork to do, and after we had to go three places. Most of the time we spent with Nicholas, a nice young man about as bilingual as you can imagine. It's nice to have a Fulbright Commission here: in 1995, none existed in Slovenia. Nicholas had so much already prepared for us, and has done quite a bit in advance to grease the wheels, including dealing with 14 Greek Consulates in the US making sure they provide the correct visas for Fulbrighters and their families.

First we had to go to the Tax ministry. There's a lot you can't do without a tax number. We took the subway - Kim even navigated transferring lines - and walked a few blocks to get there. After finding the correct floor we waited in line (several other internationals needed the same) then worked with a very nice man. We presented the letter provided by Fulbright (in Greek, of course), but still he had to call Nicholas for information. Evidently laws had changed and he needed a different bit of info.

Second, we got back on the Metro to find our way to the national bank. We had to cash our check from Fulbright (travel reimbrusement and adjustment) at the bank where Fulbright has its account. Again we waited and produced the letter that Fulbright provided. We had to then take the cash from there and walk to a differnt bank. Greek law requires nonresident aliens to open accounts at a specific bank. After waiting we presented another letter in Greek to the bank and they processed our information, including the tax papers we had gotten earlier.

We stopped back in at Fulbright to pick up two large sacks of 42 Fulbright applications (I'm helping interview candidates in two weeks) and then walked back to the tram to head home. We got back about 4. We called our landlady Martha and she came over about 5. We signed the rental agreement, paid our first month's rent and security deposit (now that we had enough Euros) and then she volunteered to take us to the phone company. It was there that we arranged our Internet using a 3G thumbdrive to connect wirelessly (note: 3G is still not available in Muncie). It took time to set up (of course) so Kim, Martha and I crossed the street and had coffee, then returned.

As we walked back to the apt. we stopped in a grocery store and picked up a few items. We haven't done serious grocery shopping yet but we were hungry (hadn't eaten all day) and just wanted to get stuff we could go back and eat.

We're now back online! I may even get on Facebook again one of these days.

I'll finish with local news. Farmers are striking because of the low price of food. They have pelted police with all sorts of produce. Here's a picture from the news that my friend Tim "modified" a little. Look carefully.