Bureaucracy

So the other day, I got to miss school and go downtown to get my papers processed for mywork visa. This involved visiting two buildings next to each ... the Antofagastan Police office and some other building. It was a lot like going to the MVA in that there was a lot of waiting. Marcela, the regional cordinator for English Opens Doors, was with us to help smooth the process. At the second stop, I ran into some minor problems because the line ticket I had, had already been called while I had been waiting in line at the other place. Marcela went up and talked to the supervisor and managed to get me a line pass. However, the person behind the counter wouldn´t let me copy my papers with their copier even though she had let all the other volunteers copy theirs saying it wasn´t her responsibility. (I think she was upset about the line pass ..... the system is a little silly because one of the papers that needed to be copied was from the building next door but there were no copiers on the way). So both her and Marcela went up to the supervisor and argued their cases. It was interesting watching them argue for two minutes back forth ... not loud but intensely. Marcela won and the lady made me my copies and processed my application.

Afterwards, we went to a decent restaurant where I ordered a vegetarian burrito. It was the worst burrito I´ve had in sometime, basically a black bean salad wrapped in a tortilla. Oddly enough there were some small pieces of chicken in it. Several times while I´ve been here, I´ve realized how mexicanized my view of Latin and South America is. I assume that if they have it in Mexicao then they will have it here. However, tacos, burritos, tequilla, are all very rare here. Avocado however is very popular here. (I had some of my 12th graders create jokes and several created jokes about a phantom avocado.) Luckily, the restaurant had delicious kiwi juice.