Bs. As.

para obtener una visa en argentina…

long time no tumblr.

I was totally lazy and I kept getting errors every time I tried to do something tumblring..

So April was a tough month for me! This month I started the whole process in order to get my student visa in Argentina. I was so frustrated and stressed about this! While all the american students got their visa by the beginning of April, I have started…

Because I have a brazilian passport, the whole process was different. And since it’s brazilian, it’s with MERCOSUR, so I couldn’t start my visa until April. They have recently changed the process and something with expiration dates and all, I couldn’t start until April. It’s lame because it takes so much time to get all the things I need… and now I can’t get a visa at all because there are no more dates for migration office in Buenos Aires, and my police record from FBI will take up to 3 months…

here are the things I needed to do:

-get police record from Brazil (online)

-make an appointment at the brazilian consulate and legalize my police record

-pick-up my legalized police record after a week in downtown

-find translator in order to translate my police record from portuguese to spanish (I could have done this… only if my signature had the authority!) which cost $120 pesos per page! and this document had only 5 sentences!! FIVE SENTENCES! I could have done that…

-take my translated document to a place where I can legalize it again (not the brazilian consulate, but language academy…) (45 pesos)

-get police record from Buenos Aires (40 pesos)

-go to a local police station and get a certificate that proves that I live in Buenos Aires (10 pesos)

-wait couple days to get my certificate (they come to my place, and ask if I really live there and they give it to me)

-get a letter of acceptance from my University 

-copy of my whole passport (including blank pages) (7pesos)

-2 pictures 4cm X 4cm with blue background (17pesos)

-plus midterms and projects due!

I went to the migration office, and at the end… I also need a police record from USA, translated and legalized (from FBI). I got a criminal background check from the states before I left USA, but because I got it a UCI police station it didn’t work. I had to legalize it so I was told to go to the U.S. Embassy, and they told me they do not do that because they do not give official stamps for it. So they gave me info about it… And I had to send it to US and they would send it back to me (by this time, my appointment at the migration office was a week away, and sending to US and waiting would take up a month). So at the end, no criminal record from US. Then at the migration office they told me that I need a police record from FBI, that takes up to 3 months. THREE MONTHS! by then I’m back in USA!!!!! So we asked for an urgent appointment at the migration and they said. NO! They told us we had to make a new appointment online, and the earliest they had was July 26th. LAME!!! I got sooooooo frustrated!! At the end, all my paperwork are worthless! =(

I HAVE DECIDED THAT… oh well! while doing all the paper work, I got to see some different places I would have not seen if I didn’t need to do all that. I got to travel using different subway lines, and got to see some new streets and barrios (neighborhoods), and coffee shops… Overall, it wasn’t that bad! LET”S BE OPTIMISTIC!

This week I decided to think positively! (newsong online sermon really helped me) I will not allow negativity take over me! Negativity does not have the authority over me! and it will not stop me from being bold. 

enjoy some fun pics…

First two days in Argentina

So I guess I have decided to start blogging for this adventure…

Before coming to Argentina, I have stopped at Brazil to hang out with some old friends, and to meet with my family!!! It was a quick and yet fun. Now here I am for real in ARGENTINA! Monday and Tuesday I went out with my cousin and grandpa and so far, these places seem just like Brazil. We went to a little place where many koreans live, and it was awkward to see koreans speak in castellano! I guess it’s the same for korean americans to see koreans speaking in portuguese! =)

We had McDonald’s and they were $23 pesos. OMG! these big numbers surprised me soooooo much. But yeah, if we do the calculations, it is about the same with U$5 combo in US. So, what surprised me the most was that I was told that tourist should not wear shorts, because argentineans do not wear shorts as often, and for our safety we should try to look like a native. But my cousin told me that people DO wear shorts, so I did. And guess what? I haven’t seen anyone wearing shorts, and plus I am korean, so people do see me as a tourist. During the first two days I realized that castellano is very hard. They pronounce their “ll” with a sound like “zhh”/”chhh” . AHHH!!! this will be very interesting!

Next week I start school, and I will need to know how to get there by bus.

Argentina!! HERE I AM!!