After running around the lovely city of Santiago, I am now DONE with all my tramites, thank the Lord. The adventure started on Wednesday, when I had to go to El Centro to get my visa stamped into my passport. Miraculously, I only had to wait 45 minutes and it was done. Score. Yesterday, I went to the Policìa Internacional, conveniently located (note the sarcasm) on Calle Borgoño. I´m sorry, what? Where is this street I have never heard of? Luckily, I got D to go with me, so that made it a lot better. It was actually kind of a fun day, because we took some time to walk around the markets over there (near metro Puente Cal y Canto), and walked through the Mercado Central. We didn´t stop and eat lunch at one of the many restaurants, but we did swing by and get an empanada with queso y camarones. Yummy! At the Policìa Internacional, I only had to wait 2 hours to get my Certificado de Registro. Aaaaaand the final step today, I went to the Registro Civil (I think that´s it, I´ve been to so many places lately I´ve lost count) to get my Carnet. The good thing about this step is that the Registro Civil has many different locations, so I was able to go to one in Ñuñoa that is only about 10 minutes from my house. Again, I only had to wait about 45 minutes! The guy who helped me was super nice, too... he put all of my information into the computer, which assigned me a R.U.T. (finally!), took my picture (I think it turned out pretty well, miraculously!), and then put a crap ton of ink on every single finger. I mean, is that really necessary? But whatever, he gave me some lotion afterward to clean it off so it wasn´t really that bad. And now I´m done! So I just have to wait about 2 weeks and I can go pick up my Carnet. Let me tell you, it´s such a relief to have all this mess done. And.. knock on wood... this whole process has been incredibly smooth, which is surprising. :)
In other news, I met a teacher at the Institute the other day, and one of the first things she asked me was, ¨Where are you from?¨ Now, up until this point, she had been really friendly, so I wasn´t prepared for what was coming. I replied, ¨North Carolina¨, and she responded by smiling and saying, ¨Awww, that´s cute ... I´m from Chicago.¨ Hold on just a minute now... CUTE? The fact that I´m from North Carolina is cute? You may think I´m exaggerating or reading too much into things, but believe me, the way she said it (and the words themselves) were a bit condescending. It was as if she was saying, ¨Ohhhh, North Carolina... well fancy that, what´s a little country girl like you doing in a big city like this? I´m from CHICAGO.¨ I mean, give me a break. Sorry if I´m a little sensitive about this subject, but that´s one of my pet peeves. I can´t STAND it when people think they´re better than me just because they´re from a big city.
Alright, enough ranting. Have a good weekend everybody!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Oh my gosh I totally know how you feel! A lot of times when I say I'm from Vermont either people don't know where it is, or they say something totally snobby like "Oh, my family has a ski cabin in Stowe" or "We summer in Woodstock."
dont you love the giant amount of ink they put on your fingers!!
"I only had to wait 2 hours to get my Certificado de Registro."
HAHA, you have been brainwashed by the Chilean culture that teaches you "only" waiting 2 hours or 45 minutes is a efficient and fast. :P
Abby - isn´t that so annoying?!
Shannon - yeah, that mess was gross. looked like they were putting tar on my fingers.
Kyle - Ha, I thought about that after I typed it and realized, crap... I´ve been sucked in to the culture of inefficiency! ;)
Post a Comment