Migratory crisis: averted?
Okay, so living in a foreign country´s tough, right? We knew that. Hello! My first week of university plus work plus (sometimes) teaching English was just about enough to pound my head into the ground Ostrich-style, but nothing can top my day yesterday.
Things started out okay I suppose. Oh, but no. It all started with a phone call letting me know that I wouldn´t be able to get my student residency without my FBI background check. What. Yes. It´s true. The local police report is no longer good enough. They need a letter from the fuckin´ FBI. Ok, I know, I´m a highly suspicious profile, certainly. So what do I do?
US Embassy to the rescue (and they´re surprisingly helpful and friendly, and in fact makes me miss the US´s hospitality and kindness which I have grown to used to not having). They inform me that in order to get the FBI check from here, I must download FBI forms to fill out, and then take the Fingerprint card to the local police station, wherein they would take my prints, and sign the form. Easy enough, right? Well, in Argentina that´s more complicated than you´d think. Anyway, after going to 2 police stations, I was able to convince them that they could do what I was asking for (they were trying to send me away AGAIN), and they did my prints. Man, it was an experience. They took me on a behind-the-scenes tour of an Argentine police station, complete with dirty prisoners staring at me and hovering behind their screened-window. Yikes. Slightly creepy. And Young Argentine Cop asking where I´m from, and saying ´FBI!!!´ in English, like, that´s just every Argentine cop´s role-model! And him explaining to Old Cop what R. Index and L. Pinky mean. Very awkward but interesting story to tell in the end.
(btw, for those of you who didnt know, ie everyone, my boyfriend never should have let me penetrate a argentine police station alone. it is scientifically proven that 94.6% of argentine cops are hotties).
So that part over, now it´s just some mail-tag and embassy-tag fun and games and probably some 2 months away to finally being able to get that damn residency.
In other news, I´m the only foreigner in my class (obviously) so sonetimes I feel a bit of a novelty. When I talk everyone pays a little too much attention to me. And I´m one of only 2 americans who are trying to study here long-term. The other has mexican double-nationality. How about them ham and cheese croissants.
Next problem of yesterday: 5 hours in the ´hospital británico´, for a supposed UTI that in reality now they don´t even know what it is, all I know is that I´m in pain, and that the Argentine medical tradition is highly lacking in discreetness (for example, take your pee cup full of pee through the whole hospital to the laboratory. I miss the American style ´put it in a cabinet in the doctor´s office´s own bathroom, and they take it away later, so that you dont have to feel embarassed about your pee cup´.)
But anyway, crisis APPARENTLY averted, and I´m ready for the weekend to ROCK! or sleep. Let´s start that off with Flamenco class!
Things started out okay I suppose. Oh, but no. It all started with a phone call letting me know that I wouldn´t be able to get my student residency without my FBI background check. What. Yes. It´s true. The local police report is no longer good enough. They need a letter from the fuckin´ FBI. Ok, I know, I´m a highly suspicious profile, certainly. So what do I do?
US Embassy to the rescue (and they´re surprisingly helpful and friendly, and in fact makes me miss the US´s hospitality and kindness which I have grown to used to not having). They inform me that in order to get the FBI check from here, I must download FBI forms to fill out, and then take the Fingerprint card to the local police station, wherein they would take my prints, and sign the form. Easy enough, right? Well, in Argentina that´s more complicated than you´d think. Anyway, after going to 2 police stations, I was able to convince them that they could do what I was asking for (they were trying to send me away AGAIN), and they did my prints. Man, it was an experience. They took me on a behind-the-scenes tour of an Argentine police station, complete with dirty prisoners staring at me and hovering behind their screened-window. Yikes. Slightly creepy. And Young Argentine Cop asking where I´m from, and saying ´FBI!!!´ in English, like, that´s just every Argentine cop´s role-model! And him explaining to Old Cop what R. Index and L. Pinky mean. Very awkward but interesting story to tell in the end.
(btw, for those of you who didnt know, ie everyone, my boyfriend never should have let me penetrate a argentine police station alone. it is scientifically proven that 94.6% of argentine cops are hotties).
So that part over, now it´s just some mail-tag and embassy-tag fun and games and probably some 2 months away to finally being able to get that damn residency.
In other news, I´m the only foreigner in my class (obviously) so sonetimes I feel a bit of a novelty. When I talk everyone pays a little too much attention to me. And I´m one of only 2 americans who are trying to study here long-term. The other has mexican double-nationality. How about them ham and cheese croissants.
Next problem of yesterday: 5 hours in the ´hospital británico´, for a supposed UTI that in reality now they don´t even know what it is, all I know is that I´m in pain, and that the Argentine medical tradition is highly lacking in discreetness (for example, take your pee cup full of pee through the whole hospital to the laboratory. I miss the American style ´put it in a cabinet in the doctor´s office´s own bathroom, and they take it away later, so that you dont have to feel embarassed about your pee cup´.)
But anyway, crisis APPARENTLY averted, and I´m ready for the weekend to ROCK! or sleep. Let´s start that off with Flamenco class!