More Adventures in Paperwork

As nice a place as this is to visit, I must say I wouldn't want to live here. I know, it's cliché, but the reason so many clichés exist in the first place is that, like stereotypes, there is often something to them. The way of getting paperwork and the suchlike done around here is so frustrating and inefficient.

I went to register my visa at Dirección de Extranjeros today, getting my professor's permission to skip class to do so, and they told me that I had to make a deposit in their bank account first. That I had known, but I had to go there to get the account number. Once they found out that I was late to register and had to pay the fine, though, they told me that I had to go to Dirección Nacional de Migración. That office also closes at 12:30, so in the interests of time I took a taxi. It turned out to be on the other end of town, northwest of my house, and all they did was give me a slip of paper with their bank account number on it. Why the hell did I have to go all the way there for that?

I walked back to the Ecovía and made the trip to Banco Pichincha, where I stood in line for half an hour, made my deposit, and went on my way. By then it was lunctime, so I headed home to eat, but I still have to go to Banco Internacional to make the original deposit for Extranjeros. That I can do anytime, but the problem is going to be getting back to Extranjeros itself. They are only open until 12:30, and my classes run until 12:15. My prof isn't going to be happy if I ask to skip another class, but I'm going to have to at least leave early sometime next week, probably on Monday. Then the office will steal my passport for three days (yes, just to put a stamp in it), and when I get it back I can finally go for my Censo card.

On the bright side, literally, we actually saw the sun for a whole five minutes today. Of course, it's pouring again right now, but I'm getting used to that. I'm going out to a dance club tonight with the Keene crew and a couple of other people, which I hope will be fun.