Permanent Residency Visa and Thanksgiving Weekend

So it's that time of the year again.

What am I referring to, you may ask?  It's time for me to go through the visa process again, but this year is different.  I'm applying for a permanent residency visa.

The word permanent sounds, well ..... permanent.  My plan isn't to be here permanently, but the appeal of being considered a permanent resident and having a visa that is good for 5 years is very attractive to me.  It always seems like the visa process in Chile is never easy, and so if I can minimize the need to go through it I'm more than willing to do that.

So about 2 weeks ago I began compiling the neceesary paperwork.  Here's a partial list:

photocopies of my passport pages showing my previous visas
photocopy of my Chilean ID card
photocopy of my registration with the International Police
a report from the International Police showing I haven't committed any crimes
a report of all travel completed in the past year
recent photos with my ID number on the bottom with my name
photocopies showing my income with the boleta system
a letter stating why I'm applying for permanent residency
my college degrees approved by the Ministry of the Exterior

They also required proof that I had paid taxes and such in April, but by then I hadn't had my boletas and didn't have to file, so I included a letter stating so.  The same thing happened with a few other requirements.

I was anxious about missing some important piece of paperwork due to what happened this time last year.  As I was at the airport going home for Christmas last year, I got a call telling me that my visa was rejected because I didn't include all of the paperwork that they required.  The missing paperwork was easy enough to get, but I had to wait until I was back 6 weeks later to gather it and get my visa approved.

So I double and triple checked that I included everything that they said I needed before heading off to the post office.  I gave the woman there the envelope and asked for it to get certified (as requiered), and she spent a few minutes typing things up.  She gave me the paperwork for the confirmation, and she spelled my name wrong.  I pointed it out to her, and she had me correct it on the paperwork before I signed it and before it was formally submitted.

I've done everything I can, and so now I get to play the waiting game.  Hopefully by the beginning of January I will have the official letter telling me that it has been approved and is being processed, or en tramite.

With having the paperwork completed, I was able to enjoy the weekend without having it hanging over my head.  Saturday was the TeachingChile reunion, and it was great seeing everyone again.  It was on Bruce's rooftop, and there were burgers, snack, drinks, sunshine, a swimming pool, and good company.

It was really great catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, and we found it hard to believe that we are going on two years here.  I also met some new people that are looking to stay in Chile beyond their time with TeachingChile.

After a quick stop home I was off to a coworker's apartment for Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was mostly Americans, but there were a few people from England and a few Chileans also.  Here's what we had to eat:

Turkey casserole

carrots and sweet potatoes

spicy potatoes

mashed potatoes

mac and cheese with tomatoes and bacon, based on my Mom's recipe

Needless to say, I had a huge plate of food.  Even though we're far from home, everyone agreed that they enjoyed the dinner and it was a really nice event.  The Chileans and British also enjoyed having their first ever Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  For now I think I'm going to go lounge by the pool.  ;-)

Good Times, Good Friends, Sensation, and Japan

The weather likes teasing us here in Santiago.  We've had days that have only gone up to 70 and have seemed like autumn, which are then followed by days with a very strong sun and temperatures of almost 95.  I actually prefer the hot weather to the cold, so if mother nature wants to tease me a bit with a cold day every once in a while but still give us nice summer days I'm ok with that.

Last weekend I went to a barbeque with friends on Cerro San Cristobal.  There were about 7 of us there, and it was nice catching up with them.  None of us could believe an entire year had passed since we arrived, and we talked about our summers and plans for staying in Santiago.  Thanks to our genius planning we didn't bring any plates with us, but we improvised and used plastic bags instead.

This weekend was the pancake breakfast that I went to last October.  They were expecting a big crowd this year and opened an hour early, so I got there right when they opened.  A big crowd came around 10, and I met up with some friends when they arrived around then.  After browsing some books we took a leisurely stroll and got drinks and chorillana.

The big event of the weekend, however was Sensation.  It's basically a huge dance party with electronic and techno music, and in order to get in you have to dress completely in white.  I got my ticket back in December, and it was an amazing event.  The theme was Wicked Wonderland, and so there were things throughout the night related to Alice in Wonderland.  There were videos of her wearing all white and going through various scenes of the story projected on huge screens around the area, white flashes of fire and fireworks, huge butterfly wings opening up after the lyrics of "spread your wings and fly" people dressed up like dolls with white hair, white balloons with lights inside of them, the list goes on and on.  In an outside area there was food and drinks as well as different companies with entertainment booths to promote their products.  I found it ironic that a cigarrette company had a booth which had large signs about the dangers of smoking was giving out lighters which also had a warning on the front of it with the same warning.  El Mercurio (a newspaper here) had a booth set up with Just Dance on the Wii, and after having played it at my brother and sister in law's house when I was home for Christmas I played a round dancing to Walk Like an Egytian.

I would be remiss to not bring up the tragedy in Japan.  I woke up last Friday morning and booted up my laptop while getting breakfast, and I went to cnn.com to see what was happening in the world.  The pictures of the tsunami sweeping over Japan seemed surreal.  The images of houses on fire while being swept along with the tsunami seemed right out of a blockbuster apocolyptic movie, not like something that was happening in real life.  I know a few people that were exchange students from Japan, and luckily they are all ok.  I also have a coworker here in Santiago who lived and taught English in Japan for three years, and he has understandably been deeply affected by it.  As the news gets worse and worse, I find myself torn between wanting to know what is happening but not wanting to since the news is so horrific there.  I also can't help but feel a bit guilty that I am living in a place that experienced an earthquake but did not suffer a fraction of the destruction and mayhem that is currently going on in Japan.  I want to make a donation to the relief efforts, but the cynical side of me fears that scammers use this as the perfect opportunity to make a quick buck.

To end on a positive note, here is the view of the Estadio Nacional from the window of my apartment.

The Language Lab, ANZAC Day, and my first trip to the movies

Late last week Claudia and I decided to check out the Language Lab that was supposed to be such a big deal at our school.  This year they changed the English classes from 5 hours a week to 3 hours a week of class and 2 hours in the Language Lab.

Well, I guess I'll start out by saying that it's not perfect.  There are 32 computers, and most classes have around 35 kids.  When I was in there during a free period there were 6 kids without computers.  Some computers were not connecting to the program, and other kids had problems with their microphones not being able to hear their voices (and were therefore unable to continue with the program).  Other kids were typing in translations of words and phrases, and the program was telling them that it was wrong when I knew it was right.  We even tried it different ways with capitalization and spacing but to no avail.  When they didn't do something right or there was some type of technical issue, the instructions were all in English.

The technician of the lab was busy running around putting out one fire after another, and even though they were 10th graders, they mostly seemed at the level of working on letters and numbers.  A few of them might be at that level, but certainly not all of them.  (They supposedly took a diagnostic test to determine what level they would start at, and would then work individually from there)  I think the best part (or worst depending on your point of view) is that the technician that runs the English Lab doesn't speak English.  Oh yeah, and the kids get a grade in the Language Lab too, so it will be interesting to see what grades the kids get that don't have a computer to work on.  Yup, I'm definitely in Chile.

So my weekend was pretty relaxed.  I will from this point forward refer to my room in my house as my cave, as there are no windows and I have a sole lightbulb that hangs from the ceiling as my lightsource.  I cleaned my cave and sorted through random papers and receipts that I had piling up.  And after that I went to a party that Chris and Tiffany were throwing in honor of ANZAC Day.

Basically ANZAC Day is a day to remember the fallen soldiers of Australia and New Zealand from the 1st World War.  Chris and Tiffany made up signs showing typical Australian slang with translations into American English that the rest of us would be able to understand, and there was good food too.

Here is fairy bread, which is bread with melted butter and sprinkles (and I learned that sprinkles are called hundreds and thousands in Australian):

And here is a dessert called lamingtons.  It is made by taking sponge cake, then covering it in melted chocolate and then putting coconut all over it:

 

And here is Chris showing off his buns:

The meat on the barby:

Me cutting my meat and Julie looking very excited about her Aussie burger:

And here are a few fellow teachers (Erin and Juila) and a guy named Arturo I met at the party:

As you can see, it was a good time.

Then on Sunday I didn't have much planned and was bored at home when I got an invitation to go see Shutter Island later on.  At first I wasn't going to go since it was all the way in Las Condes and didn't know how to get there, but since I didn't have any other plans I decided to go after all.  It turns out that I only had to take 2 busses and it only took about 30 minutes to get there. 

The movie theater was at the same mall that I was at a few weeks ago for lunch with Claudia and her family, and I started to get a bit hungry as I passed by Pasta Basta, the Italian restaurant we ate at together.  I tried calling David but he didn't answer.  I texted him about 10 minutes later and still got no answer.  I walked around to kill some time, and decided to go back to the movie theater one last time. 

As I got there David and Jordan were walking out.  It turns out they decided to catch an earlier showing of Shutter Island.  We talked about going to Pasta Basta for an early dinner instead of the movie, but then they realized that they didn't know if anyone else was going to show up or not.  As we were waiting a girl named Linda showed up.  We talked about all going to Pasta Basta, but Linda really wanted to see Shutter Island.  She also had a discount ticket for 2 people, so her and I went to see it and Jordan and David did their own thing instead.

Popcorn at the movies here is either salty or sweet, and there is no butter flavoring thingie to make it extra fattening.  I was a bit weary of seeing the movie since movies that get scary or violent still affect me a bit, but I was fine.  The movie really messed with your mind, as everything you thought it was completely changed as time went on.  The dream sequences were really strange but made sense in the end.  The one thing I still haven't figured out is the paper that Rachel wrote about "The law of 4".

I've also gotten on the ball with some little things I've been meaning to do: research for traveling to Easter Island, Machu Picchu, and Bolivia, I bought a camera case, and I also filled up some empty bottled waters with sand rather than buying dumbells to work out with.

This coming week will hopefully have at least one of the following: news of moving to a new place (the new roof is worse than the first with letting in wind and dirt and also leaks, I keep getting food stolen from the fridge even though my name is plastered all over it, internet is incredibly slow or broken, and some people just leave the place filthy) going to see How To Train Your Dragon, bike rides in semi warm weather to explore more of Santiago, and a paycheck on Friday.  We shall see what the future holds.

Last day in Brazil

So my time in Rio is coming to a close.

Yesterday I went to a souvenir market and got some good deals on a shirt, decorative towel type thing, and a hat.  Afterwards I was at a costume ball, and it was really amazing to see all of the costumes and people dancing from all over the world.  I got there around 11:30 at night but didn´t leave until 6 AM.  The party was still going strong then.

Today I woke up with the hopes that the 4th time (yes, 4th time) would be the charm with hang gliding.  After waiting an hour past the time they were supposed to show up (again), I spoke with the hostel owner.  They said they would maybe be there in an hour and a half, but I told him I was just too frustrated and not willing to wait around again.  So my next trip to Rio will have to include hang gliding.

Today has been a lazy day of sleeping, packing, and saying goodbye to new friends.  It´s so cool meeting other people that are traveling from all over the world, and it really makes you realize how we are all one people.  Facebook has made it much easier to stay in contact, and hopefully these are people that I will be able to visit and that will be able to visit me.

I can say that I am not going to miss the heat (today I was lying in bed and realized it was a cool day.  It was 92 degrees) nor the disorganization that seems to be a part of Brazil´s culture.  A good example of this is that they used too much water during Carneval yesterday, so the city decided to shut down all water for the Centro region of Rio for the next 48 hours.  This means that I do not get to shower before I leave for my flight tomorrow morning, but I have been through worse.  Despite those downsides, I found people that were willing to help me when I was unsure of where to go and Brazilians that treated me with great hospitality during my stay here.  They have a sense of fun and being happy, even if they have much less that us Americans have.  I will look forward to coming back here when the opportunity arises.