Kyle Hepp

September 20, 2007

Today I had to go get some visa permanent residency stuff taken care of. I was expecting it to be dreadful, as usual, but I had on my patient face. When it comes to traffic jams and long lines, I’m a shockingly tolerant person. Both are pretty unavoidable so why stress and put yourself in a bad mood? I just figure, I’ll get there when I get there…

But today, at the visa office in Santiago, my patience ran thin. I was in line for FOUR hours in a tiny little room with probably a couple hundred people. I first stood in line for 45 minutes just to get a number for the other lines. My number was 421 and they were going on 98 when I arrived. It was so hot and stifling up there, there was absolutely no room to even stand. People were packed in like sardines. The conditions were inhumane. All of it started to make me so angry because these situations are avoidable. But, Chile LOVES bureaucracy and paperwork and long lines. A history professor of mine actually told me that the government doesn’t try to make any of the operations more efficient because they employ too many people as it is. So it makes sense that the immigration offices are out of control. We could all mail our visa stuff in, but you can’t, you must present it in person. They could streamline the process so instead of standing in one line to get a piece of paper that approves you to get a stamp on your passport and then having to go stand in another line just to get that stamp, you could do everything in the same place. But no, of course not. The government would rather employ 10 more Chileans and let the immigrants (who are almost all Peruvian and Bolivian) suffer. It’s seriously a ridiculous situation.

I left after waiting in line for four hours and I have to go back and do it again tomorrow. That’s baloney!

When I was riding the metro to go home a lady shoved me so hard that I bumped into the guy next to me and both of us almost fell over. She didn’t say excuse me, or sorry or anything. She came up from behind so I couldn’t see her but all she had to do was ask me to move or just tap me on the shoulder and I would’ve gladly gotten out of the way. Rude bitch. And on top of everything the metro stopped at every single station for a ten minute break. I don’t know if the driver was still celebrating Fiestas Patrias up there with a bottle of pisco or what, but something wasn’t working the way it should have. So what is normally a 20 minute ride, turned into 40. I could’ve walked home quicker, but unfortunately, I can’t do that because my neighborhood is too dangerous. Yes, even during the day! About 8 blocks from where I live there’s a gang of thieves that were even featured on the news a couple weeks ago. And naturally, since I’m the only blond within a 10 mile radius from where I live, if I even go near that area I’ll be the first person they’ll target me to rob. So I took the never ending metro ride.

And now there are two constructions sites on the block that I live on. TWO. I’m never going to make it out of here alive. I need to find an alternative route to get to the metro because even in the U.S. I wouldn’t brave walking by two construction sites in a row.

As they say in Scrubs, “Well, isn’t that just the pickle on the top of the giant crap sandwich that is my day.”

Basically, I just had an I HATE CHILE moment. It happens to anyone living abroad every once in a while(I think). You imagine that if you were somewhere else you wouldn’t have these problems. The grass is always greener in your home country if you no longer live there.

I need a nap, I think then I’ll feel better. Right now I just wish I were anywhere but here.