But with the aid of some incredibly helpful people at the company here, I've managed to get just about legal, having received my residency permit and temporary work visa this morning. Now I just have to register with the police (yes, I'm libertarian enough to find that appalling; no, I'm not going to try to buck the system.) and set up a bank account -- an activity that seems, incredibly, even more complicated than the official stuff.

I got laughed out of one bank when the worker asked to see my contract (!?) and explained that, since it was only short-term, I couldn't open an account. The other bank was just surprised when I walked in and told them what I wanted to do. "You can't do that today, sir," I was told. "You have to make an appointment 10 days in advance."

So now I'm hard at work as a Redaktor -- I hope I get business cards, because I'm pretty sure that title (which translates ad "editor" is the name of the bad aliens in the next Star Trek movie) -- a job that so far has consisted of hashing out cover story topics, coming up with article ideas and trying to find freelancers. Next up: figuring out how the coffee machine actually works.