rants and raves

so today i continued my quest to apply for a student visa/Hungarian residence permit. i say continued b/c yesterday, gabi and i spent 2 1/2 hrs waiting for our number to be called at the immigration office so that we can submit all the paperwork, only to find out that we needed to pay for the fees first. the thing is, you can only pay via postage stamps (don't ask why) and the post office was already closed. after hearing this, i imagined myself as a cartoon character whose face just turned red w/ anger and steam came blowing out of my ears, eyes and nose...
several logical questions came to mind, like "why don't they state that on the application forms?" or "why don't they have a sign in the waiting area to pay x-amount at the post office before taking a number?" "why did i waste that much time only to have to come back the next day and do it again and come to find out once more that i'm missing some forms?"
i've learned that administration in Hungary is very inefficient. they make you take a number and you wait....not to be helped, but to pay whatever fee there is. then you take another number and fall in another line for them to tell you whatever you requested is available....and then you wait. THEN, you get the help you need! if they did away with the first 2 sets of people that "help" you, things would run more efficiently. granted 3/4 of the current workforce would be out of a job, but i don't give a damn!!!
the immigration office is just one example of the inefficiencies of this great country. i'm sure i'll run into more. it felt like the CA DMV, only worse...

**the lone bright side.....the workers weren't a-holes.