Apparently, I'm a dumbass. Tamara's family has gone to Tigre, a nearby pretty place, for the weekend, so on Saturday, I had to leave and find somewhere else to go. I chose a hostel downtown. I took a light rail train downtown, then the subway. Once I got out of my first train in the subway, I reached back to my backpack to assure that the outside pocket was closed, as I always do, and it wasn't! I looked inside, and I had put various things there. My passport, credit card, some cash, MP3 player, maybe my camera.... I could not find the passport! Strangely though, everything else was there! I am almost certain I put my passport there, and I have no darn clue why. I think for some reason I've internalized that things are safer in a bag than in my pockets because in a crowd, someone can pick your pockets, but a bag has to be opened. However, an easily accessible pocket on a backpack that is fully on my back, is easy as pie to pick! So I got somber, lost some of the pride I'd had on coming into the city myself, full of glee that here I was in the majestic city of Buenos Aires.
I went to the hostel I'd planned on, told my sob story, and settled in, puttign things in my locker, when the cute guy who showed me my room, Christian, told me that I couldn't stay in that hostel without my original passport. An issue of security, of course. I had a copy though! Turns out that my Pennsylvania State ID would have worked, but I didn't think about that when I was still there, and when I remembered, a few blocks from the hostel, and I called from a pay phone, they told me that a large group of Brazilians had JUST came in and there was no longer any space. So I walked to the V&S hostel, which was in my guide book I'd bought in Salvador, and have been there since.
That evening I went to the police nearby, to make a report, as I would need it when I go to get a new passport. The police told me I needed to go to the special subway police, so I did, 2 trains away. All this time I was accompanied by Adriano, a Brazilian I met in the hostel, and who agreed to come with me. Turns out he's gay, and we eneded up going to a club that night. As cute as he is, we've been friends, which I think is better -- a gay friend is more useful than a hookup - more reliable, trustworthy, and well, friendlier.
At the subway (Subte) police, I filed a denúncia.
Yesterday, I made copies of that denúncia. And today, I bought passport pictures, and went to the American Embassy, and wonderfully managed to get a new passport reissued, and it's in my hands as we speak! So I'm fine for being in Argentina, and getting back into the US, the problem is, I'm going through Brazil! And as you may know, a visa is required for American citizens to go into Brazil - I had a student visa when I came here. Of course, that visa was in my old passport, which is now either in the subte trash, or on its way to being sold to some happy Argentinean. (Mind you, I did call the lost and found of the subte this morning, as the subte police recommended I do, and that hadn't found anything, but they did take down my name, email, and the phone number of the hostel.) For that, I needed to go to the Brazilian Consulate.
I managed to get my passport at 12:30 and get over to the Brazilian Consulate before their schedule closed at 1pm. They told me though, that I should get a tourist visa, as to have my old visa reissued, even though I have a fotocopy, and it's undoubtedly in computer systems somewhere between the US and Brazil, I would need authorization from Brasília, and that could take god-knows-how-long. I didn't have time to do a tourist visa anyway (this was around 1:05, and the woman to whom I´d go for tourist visas had left), nor the desire, as it would cost 331 Argentine pesos, or about $100.
So I decided to call UFMG, and see if they had any advice on contacting whoever in Brasília, and they did! I got 2 phone numbers for some people there, and I just called them, and after emailing my details and the JPEG image of my visa I scanned in January (that was of my own accord), they say I should have a response by the end of the day, and the guy seemed pretty confident I could have a visa emitted in Buenos Aires before leaving on Friday! So for now I'm happy.
I suppose that for my having been in South America for 6 months, and the only thing to happen to me be the robbery of my passport, that's not really so bad. It wasn't a camera, souvenirs, something sentimental (aside from the cute lil stamps in it), and I wasn't assalted or hurt or anything. And, hey, I got to see both the American Embassy and the Brazilian Consulate, from the inside! Living in Brazil has made me quite chill, hasn't it?
04 August 2007
Upperclass
I'm in Buenos Aires right now, in the upperscale neighborhood of La Lucila at my friend Tamara's house. I met Tamara during a metropolitan studies class we had together, while she studied at NYU. She graduated (or basically has, still has to turn in a paper) and has returned to her family's house in Argentina. She has two other brothers, one who will be a junior at RPI in upstate NY, and the other will start Rochester this year. The 3 of them went to American School since pre-K, they tell me, so it was sort of always instilled in them that they would go to college in the US. I find it so odd, to be here with them. I mainly speak English with all of them, including the parents, because the parents, like most people in Argentina, learn English in school, and at this point, their English is better than my Spanish. They occupy a place in life that I certainly don't - even though our paths cross at Americanism, to be an Argentine on the track to go to school in the US, I think you have to be quite well off. Tamara's dad rents properties, and that seems to be his job, including the requisite maintenance, etc. Tamara tells me he deals with his money smartly, hence their comfort. Her mom was a dentist for a few years before the kids were born, but stopped she says, because she didn't have the patience, that special attitude to deal with people. It shows in the way she acts towards me - she seems somewhat cold, but Tamara says her attitude of late is simply related to some concerns about Tamara. By the way, the family is Jewish, with the last name Taub. Tamara's greatgrandparents, like mine, migrated from Europe: Russia, Poland, etc.
All I've done so far is go to UniCenter, one of the biggest malls in Latin America, which is actually only a 15 minute drive away from us. It was dizzying, full of stores of all kinds, and people of all beauties. It's without a doubt one of the most upscale shopping centers as well. Part of our reason to go there was for me to get a sense of the coats out there, so that when I go downtown, to areas such as Once, where you can find cheaper coats (everyone in Brazil spoke wonders of the cheapness of coats in Argentina), I know what I like. I took a small look in a store, but the immensity of the mall really frazzled me. Tamara and I sat and shared a portion of fries and free seltzer water. (4,90 pesos, or about $1.60, a good deal cheaper than in Brazil even).
Coming from the airport last night, I really felt like I was in the US - the street didnt have potholes like it would in Brazil, the signs were crisp and clear, and there were all sorts of advanced-looking buildings on the way. Most residences I've seen so far, though, are still behind gates, though not walls like they are in Brazil, so the city's a bit prettier - i.e. you get to see the houses, even if through gates. I did notice myself marvelling at any house I'd pass without a visible gate.
tomorrow I'm planning to do the tourist rounds downtown - today I basically slept all afternoon, and took advantage of Tamara's mom's breakfast, lunch, and dinner (cereal and stale roll pieces; fried steak - a la milanesa or schnitzel, we might call it - with some egg and a salad; soup of corn, rice, and some kind of green leafy vegetable) with crackers and dulce de leche in between. I also was watching some music videos, getting a sense of Argentine music I might like to download.
I'm probably going to fly to Tucumán Tuesday and return Friday (to fly back to Belo Horizonte on Friday), as 4 girls I studied with at UFMG are from Tucumán and will be there. It doesn't seem like I'll really get to know Buenos Aires incredibly well being here at Tamara's, since she's not really a super social person, and won't be going out so much. She has however agreed to go out with me sometime - I'll see what I feel like doing. I'd probably have more fun if I stayed in a hostel, but I'm kinda sick of hostels, after staying in them in Salvador and Morro de Sao Paulo.
All I've done so far is go to UniCenter, one of the biggest malls in Latin America, which is actually only a 15 minute drive away from us. It was dizzying, full of stores of all kinds, and people of all beauties. It's without a doubt one of the most upscale shopping centers as well. Part of our reason to go there was for me to get a sense of the coats out there, so that when I go downtown, to areas such as Once, where you can find cheaper coats (everyone in Brazil spoke wonders of the cheapness of coats in Argentina), I know what I like. I took a small look in a store, but the immensity of the mall really frazzled me. Tamara and I sat and shared a portion of fries and free seltzer water. (4,90 pesos, or about $1.60, a good deal cheaper than in Brazil even).
Coming from the airport last night, I really felt like I was in the US - the street didnt have potholes like it would in Brazil, the signs were crisp and clear, and there were all sorts of advanced-looking buildings on the way. Most residences I've seen so far, though, are still behind gates, though not walls like they are in Brazil, so the city's a bit prettier - i.e. you get to see the houses, even if through gates. I did notice myself marvelling at any house I'd pass without a visible gate.
tomorrow I'm planning to do the tourist rounds downtown - today I basically slept all afternoon, and took advantage of Tamara's mom's breakfast, lunch, and dinner (cereal and stale roll pieces; fried steak - a la milanesa or schnitzel, we might call it - with some egg and a salad; soup of corn, rice, and some kind of green leafy vegetable) with crackers and dulce de leche in between. I also was watching some music videos, getting a sense of Argentine music I might like to download.
I'm probably going to fly to Tucumán Tuesday and return Friday (to fly back to Belo Horizonte on Friday), as 4 girls I studied with at UFMG are from Tucumán and will be there. It doesn't seem like I'll really get to know Buenos Aires incredibly well being here at Tamara's, since she's not really a super social person, and won't be going out so much. She has however agreed to go out with me sometime - I'll see what I feel like doing. I'd probably have more fun if I stayed in a hostel, but I'm kinda sick of hostels, after staying in them in Salvador and Morro de Sao Paulo.
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