I think I've reached the stage where I don't want to repeat the experience of bureaucracy by writing about it ... ADC has suffered much more, as he has been the one actually doing things like buying a car, but we are very ready to spend a few days in Vermont (not that they will be completely bureaucracy free, either).
Anyway, the highlights of the weekend and today: We have a car! And I have already driven in it! (Only a short way, behind Ariel as we had to return the rented car this morning). The rules of the road here are terrifying - why can you always turn on right on red or left on green unless explicitly forbidden?? - and apparently Maryland drivers are the US equivalent of Cape Town drivers in South Africa; in short, in terms of courtesy on the road, I may as well have stayed in Israel, so I am told.
The children successfully took the TB test, and their vaccinations are good for starting school (S is missing one to two as far as they are concerned, due to the differences in schedules between England, Israel and Maryland, but so long as he has them done within three weeks of school starting that should be OK). Apart from that, we still have not finalised registration, as our landlady's attempted work around did not work; in the meantime, we have received two pieces of official mail to our residence, so we can fill in a form saying that we share residence with her and thus prove that we have a right to send our children to school in Montgomery County. We were so fed up today, after spending nearly four hours at the same place we had gone to last Tuesday, that when we realised that the ESOL test was not intended to determine whether the children could function in an American classroom but whether they were eligible for help there, we decided to waive the test at this point (as soon as the woman there heard ADC and me speak, she suggested this, as there were no appointments until after the school year began, anyway). Our landlady is being very accommodating, and she contacted the county ombudsman on our behalf to complain (because the shared accommodation is really for cases when you are staying with your cousin and things like that), but in the meantime, in case things don't work out there, she is meeting Ariel to sign a form tomorrow and have it notarised (which can be done in one's bank for free, in this strange place. The level of trust in banks seems disproportionate).
And now for actual fun things: after ADC spent Saturday morning buying the car, and despite running very late, we managed to get into DC to meet his cousin M (whom we had met at the family reunion) and her husband D (whom we had not met). They took us for a walk through central Washington, including the White House from several angles, and it was just a relief to do something recreational and touristy at last. We ended at their favourite gelato place, which was very lucky, since it allowed us to go shopping (again!) for food and small kitchen utensils (we desperately needed wooden spoons), despite the late hour. Sunday was very nice indeed. Finally, IP and her family returned from out of town, and we went over to their house, where the children were very happy to reconnect with her son Y, who is going into 7th grade at the same middle school that A will be attending. He is a fan of the Settlers of Catan game, as are both boys, while his sister, AP, is not, so a get-together to play that will definitely be happening. We then walked to the weekly farmers' market, where we finally bought edible bread, some very nice cheese, and blue potatoes, which S has been looking forward to since we started talking about a sabbatical in America. We got home close to noon, ADC and I collapsed, and then we made up for the truly disgusting frozen pizza we ate on Saturday night by preparing tacos from scratch (well, the tortillas were from Giant).
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