Rain, Rain, go away, come again another day...

Oh my! What a day! I got up this morning and had eggs for breakfast, since it is Tuesday and on Tuesdays I eat lunch at schools and Ana thinks that because my day is longer, I need something more to eat. She is always taking care of me.

My agenda started out with me walking to the registro civil. When I looked out the window, I saw the dark clouds creeeping in, but for some reason, I decided to ignor them and walk anyway. By the time I got to city center, I was wet, but because the rain had lifted, I decided to just keep walking. By the time I was out of city center and away from any awnings to walk under, it really started coming down, so I arrived at the registro civil looking like a wet rat.

It was 8:30 and the doors weren´t open. There was a short line of men waiting to get in. They all looked at me like funny, probably wondering how I could be so stupid not to take a collectivo this morning. Alas, the man with the key came along and opened the door. The other employees were already inside, so I really thought it was going to go fast. I took a number, jumping ahead of a gentleman who had been waiting outside when I arrived. He had walked to the wrong side of the room to address his problem and that is how I got ahead of him. At first, I felt kind of cheap, jumping ahead of him when he had clearly been their before me...but, I was a wet gringa, and quite frankly, I was still tired and frustrated with dealing with the system...so, I took my spot! First in line!

However, the woman at the desk wasn´t ready. She was making some neat piles of coins as she slowly counted the money in her drawer. Then, she held her cup of tea in her hands to warm them up a bit. Then, she pulled out a dust rag and dusted off her desk. THEN; she held her cup again. All the while, I was thinking...you couldn´t have done this while we were all standing outside waiting for the jefe to come and open the door?? Oh well, this is Chile.

Finally, the woman calls me over. She takes my photocopies that I had made yesterday, then tells me to wait because evidently she was waiting for the computer. She then got up and went to the phone, where she chatted about something for a good ten minutes. Then, she came back and started filling out my information. She took a picture of me for my ID and it looked like I had two balck eyes! It was terrible! Luckily, she realized the flash hadn´t been used and that I didn´t want to look like a strung out gringa on my Chilean ID. So, she took another picture. Then I paid for the picture and thought I was done....oh, no...now fingerprints. Buy the time I was done it had taken a good half hour to deal with me and the line behind me had grown quite long...all of the sudden I was feeling bad for the guy that I had jumped in front of...I really didn´t intend this to take so long...but, I am over feeling bad.

I jumped in a collectivo to go home and change my clothes, since I was literally dripping wet. At the same time, I decided to call the package people about my package in customs. That wasn´t a good idea because it just made me upset and I yelled at them, in english, which resolved nothing. So, in my furry, I decided I couldn´t go to school upset, so I put on my rain geared and hiked to school (I think I made record time) and burned off my anger by the time I got to school. I was late, but it was ok, as everything that was planned for today was canceled minus the Cueca competition, since that has to happen today. So, I am not teaching today and right now, I am sitting around in my rain gear waiting for lunch. I might have to buy a bit of chocolate today to make myself feel better.

The good thing about today though is...I went to the library to check on the sewing project of one of the librarians. She is sewing with ribbons, something I saw in a Martha STewart magazine one day...and I asked her if I could find lessons around here. She said in the summer, yes, but now, no. But, then she said she would teach me. So, I am going to have some sewing lessons starting in a day or two! yea!

I do look forward to seeing the Cueca competition, too, so that is another good thing to look forward to...

And, I found a book to bring back to the house and read. The Spanish seems to be an easy level, so I can understand it...so, that will be my rainy day activity.

Ok...now for lunch.

Ciao!

jami