She Who Must Be Obeyed joined me for a session at the Gemeentehuis to renew our residency and get my Belgian and International driver's licenses. Technically, the Gemeentehuis staff are not supposed to speak to us in anything but Flemish, but our local group is pretty accomodating in that regard. We first took care of my licenses because we would have to wait for those to be completed. The woman who helped us with that was pretty strict about speaking Flemish but fortunately, SWMBO has been studying and has mad skilz. The functionary was pretty impressed with SWMBO's ability to interpret for me. (I didnt have the heart to point out that she had done the same thing a couple of weeks ago.)
Once the licenses were done, we did our residency card application. We need to renew each year when my company issues my new work permit, thereby proving that we are not derelicts who want to take advantage of the permissive welfare state of Belgium. The woman who helped us through this part is very nice. She was quite enthusiastic and supportive of SWMBO's Flemish skilz, which made SWMBO very happy. After about an hour, we had successfully renewed our residency and I am a permanently licensed Belgian driver with a temporary International license. By this time next year, I am sure that SWMBO will be doing a full on translation so that I can maintain my almost complete lack of Flemish. Alstublieft SWMBO!
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