Registering in the Commune & MOBISTAR*

So I'm trying to find the balance between blogging just about life in Belgium and stuff that's going on, and things I'm learning and want to share and remember on it.

This is a blog about life here.

So you can stay for up to three months in an EU country without doing anything in particular, just with a passport. Cool huh? No need for visas and all this malarkey. And so I originally had the intention of just coming back to the UK at least every 3 months, to save having to do anything else.

The spanner in the works came with my housemates not wanting to bother signing up for our own internet when you can piggyback on other peoples for free. And my not really feeling comfortable doing it. And therefore investigating the ways of getting my OWN internet. To save pottering along to the internet café nearly every day.

However, I now only have 7 months left in Belgium, and internet packages don't generally come with 7 month contracts, but they told me that if I was registered at the commune (like the region council officey place for the bit of Brussels I live in - Ixelles) then when I leave I can get a letter from them and can cancel the contract, on account of the fact that I'm leaving the country. And I figure for them, 7 months of my money is better than none!

So off I pottered to find the commune, firstly went to a police station which is apparently NOT the commune. Lol. So got directed to chausée d'ixelles. Where there are actually about seven buildings, all along it at various intervals of the hundreds, with signs proclaiming they are the "commune d'ixelles". Turns out however that the one I needed, was the one at the OTHER end of the road, from the end I got off the bus at. And I only discovered that after going to the WRONG building twice when it was shut, then looking at the opening hours, then going when it was open, only to be redirected AGAIN to the correct building.

Ahh. So at last I find it. And there's one window for EU residents. And about 7 or 8 people/couples/groups in front of me waiting. And I had maybe just over an hour until my French lesson started. So I waited. No queue, just a gaggle of people. Not even the usual ticket machines to be able to reassure myself every time someone new came in, that they couldn't push in front of me.

45 minutes later, I got to the window. I showed her my passport. She copied my details and asked for my address in Belgium. Said I'd get a letter in the post telling me when to come for an interview. A what?! I did NOT sign up for that! But too late by that point to say, "oh, actually I think I'll not register in your commune after all. Cheers now!" Hummm.. So yes. Now waiting for a letter to summon me to the commune, AGAIN… to be "interviewed" to see if I can register in the commune. I don't know if it's like pass or fail. Lol! :S Hopefully it will be after Christmas anyway and I can chill for a bit.

Anyhow, the upshot of all of this is, that I bought my own internet. It's a dongle and as yet is waiting to be activated. Annoyingly, this should have happene d a day or two ago, but I was patient, and only went back to the shop this morning, where the same guy already had my paper out and said he had been just about to call me. (SO glad I went in person!) Because it had been rejected because of my address or something! Golly! Sooooooo we figured it must be because I'd only JUST registered at the commune (I felt stupid because when I originally went to just ask about it all, I'd told him I WAS registered at the commune, but before I was, by mistake… it happens in speaking french, quite often for me). So had to explain all that, and then get back on the tram and come home, get some proofs of my address and then go back again with those for him to fax to MOBISTAR.

So. If you're reading this, it's hopefully an indication that I AM activated and online, and have been able to upload my blogs. WOOP.

ps. i take it back. it still doesn't work but i'm at tim and emily's watching the strictly come dancing semi-final so thought i'd stick it up rather than waiting goodness knows how long...