Contenta con la Vida: Degree

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I'm realizing that in this time leading up to the move to MN on July 31st and to Chile on August 19th(!), I might not have as much time to blog as I thought I would. Things have been busy! So I thought I'd give you a little update on what's happening in my life.

I just talked to my mom and she said that my notarized degree finally arrived, and that the Chilean consulate signed off on it! Yippee! It actually took my university about 7 weeks to do their part and the Chilean consulate only a few days to do theirs. Who would have thought?...
We had Totus Tuus/Vacation Bible School at my parish this past week and after spending five straight days with 4-12 year-olds I am pooped! Those kids wore me out! I came home on Friday night, ate dinner and fell asleep at 7:30pm. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am officially a vieja (old lady). It was a great week and the kids had fun and learned lots, but I'm def looking forward to catching up on my rest.
Speaking of work, the man taking over my position should arrive sometime this week! I'm looking forward to meeting him and his family. This also means that I should have a good amount of time to train him in- but not so much time to clean-up my office before he arrives!
Cars hate me. My car broke down a few weeks ago, it got fixed and I drove it for a couple of weeks and now it broke down AGAIN! The first time it happened, a man from the parish kindly patched up the brake line and instead of me paying him cash we traded labor for labor and I fixed up some stuff around their house. This time, there is probably no repairing it (most likely something is seriously wrong with the tranny). So that same man and his wife let me borrow their car for the weekend so I could get to work at the golf course. I came out of work yesterday and the tire on their car was flat! Cars hate me. And it sucks for something to happen in somebody else's car. A spare was put on and all is fine, but I'm glad that I probably won't need a car for the next two weeks since I can walk to my job at the parish and...
Today was my last day working at the golf course! I'm officially a one job woman! And in two weeks I'll be a no job woman. :( I look forward to the 3+ weeks of vacation but please pray that I find a job in Chile quickly.
I visited one of the specialists that I had to see that I mentioned here and it all checked out- everything is fine! :) The only thing is that it turned out to be a waste of time and money. The other specialist I have to see isn't that big of a deal (just a little painful), I'll be going to the dermatologist this week to have a number of moles removed (I'm a very mole-y person).
It's starting to get very hard thinking about having to say goodbye to all the people here at the parish and in Wyoming. I'm going to miss them all so much! This has truly become my home and it feels way different leaving here than it did MN to go to college or college to come here.
With that said, only 33 days, 6 hours, 46 minutes and 19 seconds until I'm with Andres in Chile!!!

Friday, May 20, 2011

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.