Could I have a little logic with that please?

Sometimes things just dont make sense... and please do not pull out your "well its a cultural thing, you wouldnt understand," because, sometimes thinks just dont make sense in any context, no culture, religion, language, history thing about it...

And its true, when you come from "another" context, you notice things more. My first year here I was channeling Obelix (you know, Asterix and Obelix) with the constant refrain in my head: These Romans are crazy

Lets take the first thing all new immigrants are exposed to upon entering Italy, which is the application process for a permesso di soggiorno ie residency permit... I will put aside all the welcoming advertisements found outside all the offices new immigrants need to go to, things along the lines of "No more immigrants", umm, thanks for the warm welcome, wont you please come in and have some coffee. (I have to point out it was election year, and I dont think I have to point out what party was putting up these flyers)...but I trangress...

So to get a residency permit, you need to first go to the police station to register that you are in Italy and begin the process. First step into a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Setting: a bare room with scattered chairs and a picture of Virgin Mary holding Jesus (seperation of church and state is understood differently in Italy it seems). With a dozen or so non-Italian looking people standing in some form of order not in any way resembling a line

We wait to finally arrive at the glassed in section with 3 employees, and one computer looking like it was purchased sometime in the 70's

Us (being my poor Italian husband who had no idea what he was getting into, and me): We need to register to start the process for the residency permit

Man behind glass: Well you need to first register for a number

My husband (my Italian is nothing to be proud of): All right then, we need to register for a number so we can register for a residency permit

Man behind glass: We dont give out numbers now, only in the morning

My husband: So we need to come back tomorrow morning to get the number?

Man behind glass: Yes, numbers are very limited, so you will probably need to line up for a number, usually around 4 am

OK, first introduction into does this friggin make any sense??? I mean the beauty of numbers is that they can go as high as you want! Just give me a number, lets say it is 6,249 and I will know not to come register until Mr. or Mrs. 6,248 has done so. Why stop the numbers at 100 or whatever random cut off they have invented?

Another example of "Huh, am I insane?, or does this make no sense" was when, after months of registering, filing, submitting photos and information, we were informed that now the police needs to come to our house to ensure we actually live together. Fine, whatev, just give me the residency permit. THEN we discover in order to get an ID (so I dont have to walk around with the permit - which by the way is a full page document-not so easy to lug around), the police needed visit to ensure that I live where I indicated I live.

Wait, you say, but you already DID THAT, right? I mean the police verification and all...

Nope, that was State Police, not city Police.... Ohhhhhhhhh, I see, my bad.

Ok, ok, fine I dont want to be a rotten sport, I can play along..Visit number one, check. visit number 2, check. I will not go into the fact that neither times did the police actually come to the house, turns out there is a big backlog, I wonder why.

Now what?

So then we had to go to register for a residency certificate (which does not come automoatically with a residency permit- go figure). This was so I can get an ID.

Naivelly, we wander into the local beauracratic hell stop at 10:30 am. This is where Italians go to do all the things they need to do, IDs, drivers liscense, etc. We go to get a number (Italians LOVE numbers, even to buy bread you gotta have your number, unless you are a cranky 80 year old Italian woman, but I digress)... We go to get a number, and find the number giving machine (whoever makes those is making a killing in Italy) is drapped in plastic. Oh, we naively thought, its broken. We go to inquire:

Us (and by us I mean my poor husband): We need to get a number to register for a residency permit

Man behind desk whose job is to smoke: Numbers are finished

My husband: huh???

Smoking man: There is a new law, closed numbers, you need to come here earlier, dont you know about the new law???!!! Numbers are finished.

Are you getting the drift here? and can I please have some logic on the side