La Chilena

Now that Amanda is baptized, she wants to be just like Jesus (really, she told me!). And she's already doing a great job! Let's do some Christian math. Ready? Let's go!

100% + 100% = 100%

You see, Jesus is one divine person. He is just one person but He has two natures- human and divine. Now He's not just 50/50 but rather both 100% human and 100% divine. Miraculous! Following in His footsteps, Amanda is just one sweet little baby with dual citizenship. But I don't consider her 50/50 of each culture but rather as 100% American and 100% Chilean. It's different from me because if you ask what I am I usually say half German and half Polish (really those numbers should be more like three quarters and one quarter respectively but I like to give them equal billing) instead of 100% each. Probably because being third generation and on I'm really just 100% American.

But Amanda is special. And while we're waiting for her US documents still, this little Chilena has all she needs to prove her chilenidad/chileanness. And surprisingly it was pretty easy to get all this done considering Chile loves it's bureaucracy and red tape. We had to go to Registro Civil once to register her birth and get her birth certificate and then we had to wait about a week before we could go back to apply for her national ID (called a carnet) and passport. Because we had a baby in our arms we got to skip to the front of the line where they took our information and Amanda's picture. Although they had to take a few to get a good picture, it was so nice that they did it instead of me having to worry about it like with her US passport. They even had to take a fingerprint of her tiny thumb which just showed up as a black dot, hehe. All this for less than half of what it cost at the embassy and it was ready for pick-up just a week later.

Here's our little Chilena!

Carnet

Hopefully we'll be picking up her US documents soon as we'll need them to travel to the US in August!!!

I Work Hard for the Money

I know I told you in the last post, but in this one I can fully rejoice with you- I have officially entered the Chilean working world!!! I have now taught four classes at the Navy and two clases particulares (tutoring). I´ll start with the Navy. I was first told that I would have 11 students, then it went down to 10 and yet only 7 show up every class. One of the three who had never come before finally came last class and after missing only three he´s still quite behind the others. The men are all older than me, I would say between 28 and 55 years-old and they are all officers. They´re all very polite and most are very eager to learn- I would say they are an excellent first class to have. I teach them three days a week for two hours at a time and earn about $10/hour of which 10% will be taken out for taxes. The only slight drawback is that it´s quite a commute. With the micro (bus), it takes me about an hour to get there and then an hour and a half to get home (it takes more time on the return due to rush hour traffic). So if you take that $20 for every class to cover the two hours of teaching, the two and a half hour commute and the hour of lesson planning, it´s not $10/hour anymore. But I´m still thanking the Lord and the institute because I´m very greatful for this work and for something to fill my time. And I´m also praying and hoping that the institute will have some openings for more classes come up.


Now about my clases particulares. These are tutoring sessions and very soon I´m going to start posting flyers and such in public to advertise my mad English skills. But I already have two people I´m tutoring. One is a precious little five-year-old girl named J. J is only in kindergarten but she loves what she´s learned so far of English so her parents want to encourage her in that. She really reminds me of my niece P who is just a year older and who I´ve been told has the same desire to learn Spanish. I´ve had one class with J so far which went well, and there´s just two things I need to remember for next time- don´t expect to cover too much and to add in some more fun activities. Little girls cannot sit still at a table for an hour! I also have started tutoring a man (also with the initial J) who is this girl´s uncle and wants to learn for business purposes. I think we made progress in our first class and I think it will be interesting in the future coming up with his class material. It´ll be a challenge, but a good one I think.


And this brings me to my work visa. Now that I´m working, I have to have a visa. And I got it today! I had to go to the Extranjeria (Foreigner´s Office) twice and had to wait about an hour in line, but it wasn´t that bad. Especially since the visa was FREE! I think when I went to Austria I had to pay a pretty penny for my student visa, so this was a nice surprise. It also feels like an accomplishment because I went to the Extranjeria all by myself! Well, Andrés actually dropped me off, but he didn´t come in with me (he had to go take a final) and I was able to communicate my needs without any help. Whoohoo. Now this does mean that I don´t know what all the paperwork I was given is for, but I do know that I have my work visa that is valid for four months and that is what is most important.

My work visa! (All important and personal information hidden of course)

The other paper they gave me- I´m not quite sure what it´s for. It says something about residency...

After receiving my visa, I decided I wanted to celebrate by going to Starbucks for the first time in Chile. I have to say that it was worth it, but that Starbucks will be a once every three of four month treat- it´s so expensive! I got a grande white mocha, which admitedly is one of the most expensive drinks on the menu, but I did it for my mom. Well not for her, but to remember her and reminisce because it´s her favorite drink. When we´re together we usually share one. So I leave you with photos from my first Starbucks adventure here, a little piece of home. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my work situation up until now. I REALLY appreciate it and feel free to keep those prayers coming.

Holy cow! 2750 pesos, that´s about $5.50!

Here´s my nonfat white mocha WITH whip cream :)

Here´s my cup with my name in all it´s glory! Many gringas have trouble with the baristas not understanding their names, but thankfully my name translates easily in Spanish- it´s the same!

A Little Story I Like to Call "Getting My Degree Legalized"

I'd like to start out with a request for your prayers. I still have about two and a half months left at my job (so there is time) but it's hard to remain hopeful all the time about my replacement. We came close with two different people who didn't work out for different reasons. Please pray that we find someone with a servant heart and missionary spirit who will be a good fit for the parish and us for them. Thank you!


Now onto my story about getting my degree legalized. If I want to use my degree in Chile, then there is a process to get Chileans to recognize it as legitimate in their country. Just for the record (Mother and Andres), I DO want to use my degree in Chile, I'm just not sure how possible that will be since my degree is in Theology. To my knowledge there are not a lot of paid positions for my field. My best bet is that once I become fluent in Spanish a Catholic school might want to hire me to teach Religion. Anywho...I called and emailed the consulate here in the U.S. to get the skinny on what I have to do. These are the instructions they gave me:

LEGALIZATION OF SCHOOL DOCUMENTS Step 1:  Document must be signed by a school official (Principal, Counselor, Registrar) before a Notary Public. Step 2: The signature of the Notary must be certified by County Clerk or Secretary of State’ Office.  This certification must be in ORIGINAL issued in one of the following States:  Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin.  After being legalized by the County Clerk or Secretary of  State’ Office the document must be sent to the Consulate General of Chile.   Step 3: US$ 12 per legalization in Money Order (no personal checks) payable to the Consulate of Chile.  Step 4: Include a self addressed and stamped envelope to send you back the document. IMPORTANT: In order to validate this document in Chile, it must be legalized by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Chile, Legalization Department. Agustinas 1320, Santiago, Chile. 

They say Chileans are a bit bureaucratic and that they like their red tape and to make you jump through hoops and wait in many, many lines. Well, today I got an experience of that in our own U-S of A.  I had to send an envelope inside of an envelope inside of an envelope to my college along with a check for $26 so that they can print me off another diploma and have it notarized. Then they must send it in the next envelope inside an envelope with the $12 money order to the Chilean Consulate in Chicago. Note I had to send it to the consulate in the jurisdiction where I went to school and not where I live now- or else I would have sent it to Salt Lake City. The consulate will authenticate/legalize it and then mail it to my parents house in the final envelope provided. It's being sent to their house in case this whole process takes longer than two and a half months. BUT as you may have noticed from the directions, the process doesn't stop there. Once I arrive in Chile I also have to have it legalized there. I'm not quite sure why I have to do this twice. And will they make me pay for it even more in Chile?


So how did it go sending off the envelope inside of an envelope inside of an envelope? Not so good. I got the run around. When I started this morning I knew that I needed to get postage for my three envelopes and the $12 money order- everything else was ready. So I called up the post office and asked: Do you sell money orders? The answer was yes. Perfect! Off to the post office I went on my merry little way during my lunch break. I get there and go up to the counter and request the money order and postage. I get the postage first and start sticking stamps onto my envelopes. Then comes time to pay- but you can only pay for money orders with cash or debit. Usually I carry cash on me but I didn't have enough today of all days. No problem because I have not only one, but two debit cards! Except one I don't know the pin to and the other the post office machine will not accept. I pay for the stamps with cash, cut my losses with time and move on. I drive to my bank, go up to the counter and ask: Do you sell money orders? The answer is yes. Perfect! Except they cost five stinking dollars! It only cost $1.10 at the post office. I say heck no, take a measly $12 out of my account and leave. Then I go across the street to the grocery store. I asked: Do you sell money orders? The answer was yes. Perfect! And how much do they cost? 25 cents a piece! Jackpot! I might have wasted 45 minutes but I saved $4.75. I got my money order, stuck it in the middle envelope, checked the other envelopes to make sure they had the correct addresses and put it in the big blue postal mailbox.


Done and done! Hopefully. Now check out some pictures.

The contents of the first envelope. The forms I had to fill out for my school. Plus 26 buckaroos!

The infamous money order

The final mailing package: an envelope inside an envelop inside an envelope

It should have been picked up at 4:30pm today! It's on its way....