Ah, so the world spins and things change.

Further developments on the residence permit for Croatia from today:

I contacted Croaticum, the school that is approved for residence permits if enrolled. We traded e-mails yesterday and they told me to come in at 11:30 today to talk to someone. So, Esad and I take the train then a taxi to get there on time and the person is not there. We wait for a full hour and she's still not there. They had told us that she'd be back at noon, so we waited around. Then, around 12:30 we see everyone packing up to leave for lunch and ask what's up. They don't know where she is and can't call her for whatever reason. We ask if she'll be around later and they don't know. They basically cannot give us any information at all. Totally fucking worthless motherfuckers, a complete waste of time. So, we leave and are fucking pissed off. We have encountered this kind of bullshit incompetence at every turn with all the dealings I've been having with schools and government. Cocksuckers.

The other day, I received a letter from the police asking me to report in at the main station. So, having talked to the police 3 times now, I just expect more bullshit. There's always some fucking stupid reason to ask me for some new paperwork or some other bullshit. So, expected that. We waited in line for maybe 45 minutes or so. When we got in, turns out this lady was great. She's the very person that denied my permit for residency when I applied from the States and had called me in to clarify what was going on as I am now here on a tourist visa and am at a different address than the one from my permit application.

Okay, whatever. But she's nice. And she knows everything about what's going on within the system instead of being some fucking machine that does no more than required. I ask her about the school situation, then ask her about what if I started a company here. And, she told me that basically that's the way to go. She said if I register a company here, I can get a one year business visa. Then that can be renewed with no limit each year. And, after 5 years, if I know the language well, have the company and am a good citizen, I can apply for citizenship.

Now, I had been talking to a local friend here in Gajnice about this very thing. But, the law firm he's at basically told me that I had only the smallest chance of success and it would not likely work. They have a lot of Chinese moving here and he told me they were tightening up the rules because of this. I told this woman that and she laughed, like "that's bullshit". She told me it was easy as long as I have 20,000 kuna (about $3,500) to put into a business bank account on hold until the company is approved (which is the regulation posted on the government website). Then I can use that money to pay employees, withdraw funds or whatever. And not only that, but she called a lawyer friend of hers and sent me over there to get this started. I don't wanna hear any comments about corruption here or anything. If this is what works, then it's what works.

So, she got me started with this. And we chose a company name. My nickname in Gajnice is Žujo. So, the company name should be Žujo Stripovi. The local beer I drink all the time has it's nickname of Žuja, so my name is based on that, and stripovi means comics. She's gonna get the ball rolling, then she goes on vacation until January 10th. We hope to wrap this up before February 1st. But then it sounds like I'll still have to leave and go to the States for 3 months. But, we will close out my application I put in from the States and this will be a new one that I can do from here. If all goes as planned, I will then have a one year permit. I'll leave February 13th, then return mid May and be able to stay for a year and then renew this for another year and so on.

So, there you have it. That's the latest. Long, tiring day.