Ramin told me that I have to fill an application for the residence application at the civil administration in Austria.

I went with Ramin to Wien 1180 District Administration office.

It was a rainy day.
The streets were quiet and wet.
Everything around me is completely different.
In my homeland in Palestine August is considered as a hot month.
The morning is a live hour ...
But, I am in Wien now...

At the nearby shop, I stopped to buy a postcard for Romi.

We arrived the civil administration office around 7:30am. We had our entry ticket. I filled in the residential staying form. The administration employee start looking for "Palestine" under the list of countries at the office computer.
He didn't find "Palestine" in the list ...

Palestine is not recognized. He said: maybe I mention your nationality under Israel ?
No, I'm not Israeli, you shouldn't do that. I'm a Palestinian.

Ramin became angry...
He asked, why Palestine is not recognized in the computer ? Is this a mistake ? The worker said, "This a political question!!!" It's not a mistake. It's a political decision made by the European countries.

I showed the worker my International Press Card which was issued in Brussels, a European country, and recognized the word Palestine. The worker looked at my card, he said, "This is not a computer word, it's a print one!!"

The civil administration office, asked by phone the officer in charge about that. The officer said that I have to be mentioned under "Unknown" nationality!!

Ramin is aware of what he is doing, he is careful not to make any noise that may wake me up at the morning. He was preparing breakfast and coffee, waiting for me to wake up.

I was sleeping like an exhausted bird looking for a safe nest during a rainy and windy day...
Nights and nights ... weeks and months I wasn't able to sleep in my house. The nightmares of what the IDF soldiers were doing on the rooftop of my house still follow me, and my thoughts are stealing my nice dreams at night...

Troublesome nightmares.
Wake me up screaming...
I look around me...
No soldiers...
It was a nightmare...
Strangling my dreams...
In bed...
In Wien...

I live with Ramin, like a friend, as sister and brother. He tries to make me feel safe and comfortable, he made a new order in his house.

It's a new beginning, a new life which wasn't acceptable for me. I'm still thinking about my house, family, work and homeland, even during the night I dream about that ...

I feel as a foreigner ... a foreigner who does not understand the language, the people, the culture ... a foreigner without friends, money, house or privacy. I am hiding this feeling in front of Ramin and trying to be normal ...

I changed the order of Ramin's house. I organized everything ... Ramin never cared about that before, he is a man, and men are nearly the same all over the world.

Since over 20 years, I didn't cook, I tried that for the first time, like a professional cook !!

It's a new life ...