CCM Journal 1: In Which Sam Is Nearly Kicked Out of the Country

My cramped plane rolls into Amsterdam at 6:30 in the morning. Or 12:30 at night Toronto time. My seat mate is hammered, or so my other seat mate tells me. I smile tightly, afraid of setting off a drunken brawl. So this is the city of vice.

Everyone seems to think this is why I wanted to go to Amsterdam. Up until my departure it's been all nudges and winks and knowing glances. But I am actually here because of the opportunity to work under the supervision of Thea van Oosten, plastics conservator extraordinaire. Not only is she brilliant, but she's also terribly nice. She is here to pick me up at the airport and drive me to her house where I will be staying until my apartment is ready. Instead of going straight to her place we stop by the lab to start off Our Adventure in Bureaucracy and my personal Adventure in Jetlag.

Thea fills out forms for my internship and introduces me to several people. I stare at them blankly in my sleepless haze. It is now 3am Toronto time. All of the Official Rosetta Stone Dutch I've studied has proven worthless. No one wants to talk about red apples or running boys. Luckily everyone at the institution speaks English. Despite my haziness, I am overjoyed to be in the ICN lab. Wait, scratch that. I mean RCE.

There has been an official name change to go with the new year. A big cupboard of plastics against one wall of the lab. They are organized by colour. That little bit of un-sciencism touches shriveled little heart. Thea even tries to show me the FTIR machine and explain the readings she is getting for artificially aged cellulose acetate. I'm really excited about this, but my jet lag has brought my comprehension skills to an all-time low.

Our next stop is the Expat office, where I am to get my SOFI number. This is so I can get a bank account for the stipend I am (very luckily) receiving. We are told we need an appointment, but somehow we make our way to an office to start procedures. There are forms. In Dutch. Thea fills out most of them, while I sign where necessary. My passport and long form birth certificate (both authorized and legalized) is checked out. And suddenly our smooth sailing turns stormy. I'm missing a stamp in my passport. We're told we need to speak to the IND immigration official. We are led into another room where a stern and angry looking man flips through an authoritive looking book. The conversation between Thea and the official is in high speed Dutch. I catch something about working and about four months. Red apples or running boys are not mentioned. We leave the office SOFI numberless and stampless.

The next day after several calls to IND and RCE's HR department Thea and I find out I do not have the proper visa arranged. Although I thought this was being done by the institution, due to company upheaval (the change from ICN to RCE, the HR person Thea had dealt with leaving) and my Canadian citizenship (all previous interns had been from Europe, thus requiring very little paperwork) I am visaless. And since visas take months and months and millions of dollars to arrange, there is no changing this. I have to leave the country after 3 months or I will be clogged to death.

As if I am in a movie, whispers of my CCM Internship Manual dance in my head "Processing of visas can be time consuming," "Is extra preparation required in this area?" Luckily my program supervisors are understanding and willing to work with Thea and I in order to solve this conundrum. I will be logging in as many extra hours as I can... otherwise it's off to the canoe museum for a special 3 week internship!

ALTERNATE POINT FORM VERSION

(in case you don't feel like wading through my hyperbole)

-Hey international interns, double and triple check all paperwork needs. Even if you are assured that you don't need a certain form, get one anyway.

-Are you going to a different country? Practice, practice, practice that

foreign language. Otherwise it will slip away.

-Artificial light and heat aging of cellulose acetate samples is super cool

-Also amazing: the stress showing machine. I'm not exactly clear on how this works, but the highly stressed areas of the PMMA show up as rainbow coloured, while PMMA under less stress shows up as clear

-My English is an asset! As part of the popART project the polypropylene tapestry treatment will be featured on a website. I'm coming up with questions ("Would you like to learn more about FTIR spectroscopy?") and will be expected to help with phrasing/word choice issues.