Dear Bureaucracy, I Hate You

Well, it's a beautiful Friday in Ecuador. The weather has been lovely today, and the sun setting behind the mountains out my window is mixing with the clouds to create a gentle striping of pink and lavender.

Really, there's only one thing that can ruin an evening like this.

Bureaucracy.

More specifically, the bureaucracy that is holding up my visa extension getting approved. I was supposed to get my completed paperwork and visa back on Wednesday. No word from the lawyer all day. I send an email on Thursday checking in politely - I mean, I don't want to be a nasty nag, right? I just want my ever-loving visa and my passport back in my hot little hands.

Instead, she doesn't call me. She calls my friend who went with me to her office to tell him that I need to provide her with bank statements showing a different amount in my account. Well, that's all well and good, except it's after the close of business in the US by the time I get wind of all of this and what am I supposed to do about it now?

I would probably be less incensed about this (Asi es Ecuador, as they say) had I not already spent a fair portion of my week dealing with the malfunctioning of my portable Internet connection. Apparently the internal workings of the poor thing have up and died, but finding that out definitively involved a trip to the main Porta customer service office on Gran Columbia which is dreadful. Not only did they give me wrong and incomplete information, but the process for repairs was going to day several days for me to get the thing back.

Instead, I ended up going to the sweet little shop where Porta outsources all their repairs rather than having any in-house technicians (because why would a large cell phone service provider want techs? I mean really!). They had a next day answer for me on the confirmed death of the modem. Tears for my Internet, people. Not looking forward to having to replace that!

So all unsettled and fussy, which is not ideal. However, I am blessed in a number of ways, so heading into the weekend I am trying to focus on:

• My wonderful Ecuadorian friends who are hooking me up with Internet as well as a place to stay (because really, until I have that visa approved and know I can stay, I don't want to lease a place)
• The sweethearts who have been suggesting places for me to teach so I can have a more permanent visa and skip all this bureaucracy crap for the next year
• My father, who is awesome and handles it really well when I call all upset from foreign countries with ever-changing visa rules
• The chicken lime soup from California Kitchen waiting for me
• Watching Slokum do the rugby thing tomorrow
• The just-for-fun web projects planned for Sunday
• The reality that all of this will be solved one way or another!

I know I've got to get some new pictures up from things happening here and do updates on everything that's changed in Cuenca . . . but until then, I think this week is about over for me!

A Fiery Morning In Cuenca

Came out of the house and up the road this morning to discover a house in the neighborhood on fire. I was out and about on the way to settle into watch the finals for the World Cup at the Inca Lounge when I noticed the fire.

It looked terrible. A twisting fat finger of flame was rolling up into the sky, framed by billows of black smoke and overlaid with the sounds of people yelling. I was with my friend Ben and we both took off for the fire, he much faster than I given my lifetime commitment to wearing shoes not suited for running anywhere.

By the time I hustled up to the top of the hill near the house, several things were clear:

--It had been raining a lot lately, so the surrounding area was fairly well protected

--Nobody was still in the house and everyone was okay

--The Fire Department was on the way, but the bucket brigade was a pack of all-stars. The back of the house was the center of the fire, and anyone with a clear shot, bucket, or hose was tossing water on it.

--Cement construction keeps things contained.

In just a few minutes the fire was a lot less than it had been, and with the sirens closing in we took off. Still, the memory will stick with me for a while. The fire started with the gas in the kitchen - I guess they were changing the cooking canisters {no central gas here} and something sparked. I'll be tip-toeing around the stove tops for a while!

Deja Vu, Ecuadorian Style

I've arrived in Cuenca, and it's good to be back in Ecuador. Okay, so it's raining right now and I'm supposed to go out in that which is not so good, but overall I'm pleased to be here.

The odd bit is feeling like I didn't really go all that far away. Familiar faces are here, and even in Quito on the way to the visa office (so far, so good) two friends from Cuenca were on the street. Couple it with the cheek kisses and well wishes from my seatmate on the plane and it just feels like stepping back into another home.

My main problem is the luggage . . . or I should say, what my luggage did to me. I really need to make a note that I can't travel with a heavy backpack anymore. I woke up last night with muscle spasm that were excruciatingly painful. My back is not pleased, and my shoulder muscles seriously have it in for me!

Throw in bruises in my elbow-pits due to my duffel bag, blisters from walking too much in the wrong pair of shoes, and a sore place on my hip where I was nudging the purple monster bag through the various lines for customs and the airports and I'm a mess. I'll probably have a very quiet first weekend here, just trying to get my body to be happy with me again. And trying once again to track down a massage parlor that is open and taking appointments - this situation is definitely calling for reinforcements, or at least a new set of luggage!

Ecuadorian Visa Games Begin

A bright start to the morning - a phone call from a visa lawyer in Quito, Ecuador.

And let the visa games begin . . .

Getting visas in Ecuador has been shifting over the last year or so, presenting some challenges for those of us who are looking at somewhat long-term presence in the country without establishing permanent residency. It used to be that you could simply renew your 90 day tourist visa rather indefinitely, a part of the famous (infamous?) visa run culture I was introduced to when I was living in Asia.

Basically, every couple of months you just needed to pop out of the country for a second and you'd get hit with a brand new batch of visa time. In China, people would run to Hong Kong for a weekend of open access Internet and superior English language bookstores. Drop the passport at the office on Friday when you get in, pick it up Monday morning when you head out, shopped, rested, and ready for more China time.

In Ecuador, the pop in and pop out option has been curtailed. No more re-juicing your tourist visa. The 90 day tourist visa now means 90 days in a calendar year, not 90 days whenever you get a new entry. Which means if I want to be in Ecuador the rest of the year, I need another kind of visa.

And so we are in the process. I'm not interested in the $25,000 investor class visa, and I'm not in the mood to pursue a property purchase. There is a work visa prospect out there on the horizon, but these things take time and evidently a collegiate diploma certified by the State Department as authentic which I've no idea how to even begin to pursue since I was under the impression that the State Department did actual things, like protect the country, versus authenticating degrees.

Also, the lawyer helpfully pointed out that you are supposed to only get a work visa in the field to match your degree. Right, because career change never happens and everyone is doing EXACTLY what they planned to do when they left college. Not entirely sure how that will work out for me, with my combination of HR, Psychology, and Spanish degrees and a career as a freelancer. Job title brainstorming seems imminent :-)

In the meantime, we are working on some kind of limited three month visa which can then be converted into any other kind of visa later. Much later, when we've figured this all out. I'll keep you updated!

Alaska . . . With No Camera, Naturally

Well, I have finally come back from Alaska, with nothing photo-wise to show for myself.

And here I thought I was being so clever!

I'd been to my cousin's wedding and showed up with a camera without a battery charger. Thus, I made sure that I had a battery charger when I went to Alaska.

The camera I left in the car. In my parent's garage. Because, you know, it was happy there.

I was not so happy to be without it, although I did have a great time on the trip. If you want to know what Alaska looks like, call me. I'll be happy to tell you what I saw, even if I'll never be able to show you.

In other news . . . 9 days to Ecuador Part II . . . packing nightmare commences in 3 . . 2 . . oh wait, it's already here!

The Texas Ten Conference Logo

I'll confess, I "borrowed" this from my friend AK, who posted it up where I could grab it.

I did have a good laugh at this. Funnier to me is how totally okay I am with Nebraska giving the Big 12 Conference the peace out in favor of the Big 10 . . . which now has 12 teams while the Big 12 only has 10. I try not to focus on that ridiculousness; it makes my head hurt.

Part of the peace with the new arrangement is that I am quite happy to drive to Big 10 game sites. In fact, I think some of the commuting might actually be shorter, ensuring that Nebraska fans will have more opportunities than ever to take our show on the road. Admittedly, there won't be able more 80 degree games in December in Texas, but you know, we're actually pretty used to lousy weather up here. We're going to be fine.

Also a bonus? I know good places to go for game watching in some of our new conference cities. Joe Sensors in Minneapolis has a fond place in my heart, thanks in no small part to the fierce contingent of Nebraska fans that regularly went there. They have a band, pumping out the team songs and generally contributing to the fun Go Big Red atmosphere. Admittedly, you do need to get there at least an hour before game time to get a decent seat, but the food is okay, so no worries there. Like it really kills you to endure extra sports with the Minnesotans on game day, don'tcha know?

Anyway . . . who's excited for the new season ahead? Me, me, me . . . and it's only June ;-)

Two Flavors Of Awesome: Zombie and Chocolate

It has been a very busy, busy couple of weeks of traveling. It's like I've adopted a new theme song based on the number of miles I've tacked on the car:

The worst part about that song? Half the places he names in that song are places I've been or are going just in the last three months. And that includes Alaska.

So it's not exactly a surprise that I'm getting a little travel weary over here. Fortunately, in all this running around, I've discovered several slices of awesome out there in the world. Some of them will get their own listings and just forgive me if they are out of order. Two, however, I feel the need to mention here.

First, the flavor that eats you: Zombie.

I was gifted with an audiobook of World War Z, which is about a zombie plague that threatens world existence. Just stop laughing now, because it's so good it's unbelievable. Told in a series of interviews by different character voices (including Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker and Alan Alda from M*A*S*H) the audiobook describes the near end of the world thanks to an outbreak of zombies.

While not a hysterically funny book, it is subtly amusing and very thought provoking. You can even play "Would I have survived?" with the risk calculator on the official website. I'm only at 43%.

World War Z was written by Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks) and the movie version is supposed to be out in 2012. Fun trivia? The guy who bought the rights to this, thinking it would be a good movie, is Brad Pitt. But whatever about him, right? You need something good to listen to or read this summer, I'm pegging you with World War Z, and if you see me I give you permission to borrow my copy of the audiobook.

Next, the flavor you eat: Pretzel M&Ms

I showed up in North Carolina and was presented with a bit of chocolate salty crunchy deliciousness the likes of which I had never seen before.

I don't even know if you can buy these in Nebraska. But so help me, I will find out. Writers need chocolate to function . . . or at least this one does, and the better the chocolate, the better I work. The bag of these that I sampled is sadly empty, so this post will close with a small plea: Somebody find me more of these!