I've been downtown twice in the last two weeks for my Bulgarian ID card.  On a good day the office is crowded but recently they've been monitoring flow into the building because it's been so crowded. Who knew so many people needed to get, update, renew and the like their Bulgarian ID?!

Luckily, the American College has built some--dare I say--connections over the last 15 years.  I guess it's inevitable. At 9 to 15 new teachers in a given year and the fact that we all work on yearly contracts so that we have to go through the process each year for work permits, permission to stay and the Bulgarian ID, it's probably not a surprise that our school has built a relationship with this office.

To the best of my knowledge there aren't any short cuts, our school just makes the applications in bulk. As teacher we show up, sign documents in front of the appropriate person, they take our passports type some numbers into computers (glare at the screen) and thye joke around with our Bulgarian counterparts.

I like to think they are dark jokes about bureaucracy.  But maybe they are laughing at the fact that as Americans we smile in our passport photos. This is a no-no in Bulgaria. No smiling in identification photos. I mean, this is <em>serious</em>. <!--more-->

This system saves time. Kind of. The thing is time generally isn't something that the Bulgarians at the the identification office seem to worry much about. So for the foreign teachers, the school's system gives us the impression of efficiency and saving time.  Generally I think it's true.The school tells us when to go, they take us, they tell us where to stand, where to sign and then they do the process again and again for each teacher.

But given the huge amount of time invested in the process, I am not sure how much time is ever saved. In fact between time it takes to fill out the huge amount of paperwork these documents require and the time it takes to wait for the paperwork to be processed between trips downtown it's sort of incredible to think that anyone ever gets a Bulgarian ID.

On top of all of this, the Bulgarians have gotten serious about identification. This year they've implemented digital photos.  Wosa! I know, for my first two years in Bulgaria, I had to take in appropriate hard copy photos. This is no longer the case. For my American readers who are used to going to the DMV and smiling and walking out of the office with a new driver's license in hand--Bulgaria's not quite there but what's the point of comparing.

In addition to the digital photos, Bulgaria is also collecting finger prints. I am of two minds when it comes to this. It was really cool how easy it was for Bulgaria to collect the finger prints but at the same time, it was almost too easy. What are they going to do with these prints? Also, what does it mean that the Bulgarian government now has more information about me than my own government?

Now I am back to a waiting phase. The picture has been taken, the paperwork has been made and now I wait for my new identification. Luckily, I am getting better and better at waiting. Oh the things Bulgaria has been teaching me.