Sunrise & Bureaucratic Evilness
Door: claupaulo
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Claudia
26 Juli 2010 | Brazilië, São Paulo
Heyyyyy!
Thank you all for your nice comments and thinking of me :) to come back to the cliffhanger ;) of the last blog and answer your question Judtih, what I have been up to last days is basically dealing with bureaucratic stuff... because I have to register myself officially as a foreigner in some Police office blablabla and receive an ID card, which first of all needs a lot of papers (I traveled the whole city to find an agency makes authentic copies of your passport, but unfortunately the list was not that updated, so I ended up looking for a "Cartório" that did not exist anymore for an hour.. fortunately some guards of a faculty nearby who I asked for directions were so kind to help me out, looking this up, making phone calls and even drawing a whole map for me and giving me some fresh water… so kind :D)
WARNING!!: Here I start complaining a lot about Brazilian bureaucracy. If you just want to read the nice parts (bah, you ignorant being :() you can skip it and go down until it’s safe.
Oh yeah, so when I finally arrived at the police office there was a really big line and they told me to come back next day, but preferably in the morning. So I did. I got there at 10 oclock (yes, veryyyy early for me as you all know :P) and stood in line for 3 hours. 3 HOURS!!!!! I read about the Latin American chaos and bureaucracy, but I guess I still wasn’t prepared for it mentally. At least, this is something I could never have imagined. One big, big, queue of immigrants, mostly from Bolivia, presumably the poorest country of South-America, immigrants, flying from poverty, hoping to establish a better life elsewhere, tired children sleeping in their mother’s laps, Maya women with traditional clothes, looking very disoriented, immigrants, disrespected by everybody…
Because the way the officers of the Federal Police treat them is really incredible. One floor lower, where Brazilians can get or renew a passport, is almost no queue and organized a lot more efficiently. Why is there a queue anymore for the foreigner registration? All we have to do is hand in some documents, and pick up a ID card in the afternoon. Anyway, after the 3 hours, which I spend practicing my favourite hobby: harassing random strangers! Yay! I met a really cool half Austrian girl who told me about an awesome project in the favelas: build houses for the community, which I am going to check out in the other day. Also I was speaking to the Bolivians around me, trying to understand their motives, positions and perspectives… so after 3 hours… we got send AWAY!!! “Sorry, we have attented 100 people and you can come back next day.” WHAT?!!! I got so annoyed. Everything could be organized so differently, even with a small change it would be already much better, as people could take a number when they enter, so they know when there’s already 100 people inside/attented so people do not have to wait unnecessarily for 3/4/5 hours…!!! It’s really LACK OF RESPECT.
Anyway, I decided to go there reallyyyy early today, as they advised me to go there at Sunday at night, as on Monday morning before the Office opens, everyone that is already standing in queue, is put on a list and attented for sure. So I was there at 6am in the morning. Guess what? I was nr 139 so I can come back tomorrow. ………….. Incredible. Somebody (or me with my improvised camera) should really make a some documentary/report about this. What the hell. How can I ever be legal in this country?
Ok hummmm, sorry to annoy with this long complaint about the bureaucracy here, but I am really frustrated and annoyed about it and found it really in-cre-di-ble. Even my Brazilian friends didn’t believe it at first when I told them. This situation cannot be like this. Immigrants need to stand up for their rights. REVOLUTION!!!
FOR LAZY PEOPLE: It’s safe now.
Oh well, let’s go to the good news then. I ate a really cool fruit today: atemoia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atemola_%28cross_of_Annona_cherimola_and_Annona_squamosa%29.jpg
It’s a crossing between a sugar apple and a orange. It’s soooooo good. Really sweet. This must be heaven!
Ah uni is starting tomorrow by the way!!!....tumtumtum!!!
Cor and Carsten will visit me and arrive here on Wednesday night so then we are going to travel during weekend, going to the Foz do Iguaçu, which consists of 261 waterfalls and is supposed to be really beautiful. It’s in the South of Brazil where it crosses with Paraguay and Argentina. Yayyyyyy, travel adventure! It’s really far, that part of Brazil must be really different, I’m excited! Well, if everything is arranged with the police ofcourse, otherwise I have to stay here :(, so let’s cross our fingers….
Meanwhile to keep you entertained, I make a list about some interesting things about Brazilian habits. So did you know that…..
-Brazilians wash their dishes with cold water?
-cars won’t stop for you at a pedestrian crossing (zebra)? I guess it’s just for street decoration :(
-Brazilians put alcohol in their car instead of gasoline? Or as Cor (my crazy dad) would put it: “a sip for me, a sip for the car, a sip for me…”
-lunch is the biggest meal of the day?
-Brazilians use a looooot of salt in their food? Desserts are generally very sweet as well, one”doce” (sweet/dessert) generally contains around 400 cal… Please pick me up at Schiphol when I come back to roll me out of the plane :D
-Brazil consists of 26 states?
-Half of Brazil is jungle? Yes, you knew that! No? Go back to the previous blog!
-Brazil is bigger than Europe?
-Brazilians do not sit on the grass in parks? Cause there might be some insects or animals around…
-it gets dark every day around 6pm? In the summer it will be around 8pm. So early in comparison to Holland! (11pm in summer).
Talk to you soon! (heheh you can find me on skype on Claudia_deyl)
Kisses!!
Thank you all for your nice comments and thinking of me :) to come back to the cliffhanger ;) of the last blog and answer your question Judtih, what I have been up to last days is basically dealing with bureaucratic stuff... because I have to register myself officially as a foreigner in some Police office blablabla and receive an ID card, which first of all needs a lot of papers (I traveled the whole city to find an agency makes authentic copies of your passport, but unfortunately the list was not that updated, so I ended up looking for a "Cartório" that did not exist anymore for an hour.. fortunately some guards of a faculty nearby who I asked for directions were so kind to help me out, looking this up, making phone calls and even drawing a whole map for me and giving me some fresh water… so kind :D)
WARNING!!: Here I start complaining a lot about Brazilian bureaucracy. If you just want to read the nice parts (bah, you ignorant being :() you can skip it and go down until it’s safe.
Oh yeah, so when I finally arrived at the police office there was a really big line and they told me to come back next day, but preferably in the morning. So I did. I got there at 10 oclock (yes, veryyyy early for me as you all know :P) and stood in line for 3 hours. 3 HOURS!!!!! I read about the Latin American chaos and bureaucracy, but I guess I still wasn’t prepared for it mentally. At least, this is something I could never have imagined. One big, big, queue of immigrants, mostly from Bolivia, presumably the poorest country of South-America, immigrants, flying from poverty, hoping to establish a better life elsewhere, tired children sleeping in their mother’s laps, Maya women with traditional clothes, looking very disoriented, immigrants, disrespected by everybody…
Because the way the officers of the Federal Police treat them is really incredible. One floor lower, where Brazilians can get or renew a passport, is almost no queue and organized a lot more efficiently. Why is there a queue anymore for the foreigner registration? All we have to do is hand in some documents, and pick up a ID card in the afternoon. Anyway, after the 3 hours, which I spend practicing my favourite hobby: harassing random strangers! Yay! I met a really cool half Austrian girl who told me about an awesome project in the favelas: build houses for the community, which I am going to check out in the other day. Also I was speaking to the Bolivians around me, trying to understand their motives, positions and perspectives… so after 3 hours… we got send AWAY!!! “Sorry, we have attented 100 people and you can come back next day.” WHAT?!!! I got so annoyed. Everything could be organized so differently, even with a small change it would be already much better, as people could take a number when they enter, so they know when there’s already 100 people inside/attented so people do not have to wait unnecessarily for 3/4/5 hours…!!! It’s really LACK OF RESPECT.
Anyway, I decided to go there reallyyyy early today, as they advised me to go there at Sunday at night, as on Monday morning before the Office opens, everyone that is already standing in queue, is put on a list and attented for sure. So I was there at 6am in the morning. Guess what? I was nr 139 so I can come back tomorrow. ………….. Incredible. Somebody (or me with my improvised camera) should really make a some documentary/report about this. What the hell. How can I ever be legal in this country?
Ok hummmm, sorry to annoy with this long complaint about the bureaucracy here, but I am really frustrated and annoyed about it and found it really in-cre-di-ble. Even my Brazilian friends didn’t believe it at first when I told them. This situation cannot be like this. Immigrants need to stand up for their rights. REVOLUTION!!!
FOR LAZY PEOPLE: It’s safe now.
Oh well, let’s go to the good news then. I ate a really cool fruit today: atemoia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atemola_%28cross_of_Annona_cherimola_and_Annona_squamosa%29.jpg
It’s a crossing between a sugar apple and a orange. It’s soooooo good. Really sweet. This must be heaven!
Ah uni is starting tomorrow by the way!!!....tumtumtum!!!
Cor and Carsten will visit me and arrive here on Wednesday night so then we are going to travel during weekend, going to the Foz do Iguaçu, which consists of 261 waterfalls and is supposed to be really beautiful. It’s in the South of Brazil where it crosses with Paraguay and Argentina. Yayyyyyy, travel adventure! It’s really far, that part of Brazil must be really different, I’m excited! Well, if everything is arranged with the police ofcourse, otherwise I have to stay here :(, so let’s cross our fingers….
Meanwhile to keep you entertained, I make a list about some interesting things about Brazilian habits. So did you know that…..
-Brazilians wash their dishes with cold water?
-cars won’t stop for you at a pedestrian crossing (zebra)? I guess it’s just for street decoration :(
-Brazilians put alcohol in their car instead of gasoline? Or as Cor (my crazy dad) would put it: “a sip for me, a sip for the car, a sip for me…”
-lunch is the biggest meal of the day?
-Brazilians use a looooot of salt in their food? Desserts are generally very sweet as well, one”doce” (sweet/dessert) generally contains around 400 cal… Please pick me up at Schiphol when I come back to roll me out of the plane :D
-Brazil consists of 26 states?
-Half of Brazil is jungle? Yes, you knew that! No? Go back to the previous blog!
-Brazil is bigger than Europe?
-Brazilians do not sit on the grass in parks? Cause there might be some insects or animals around…
-it gets dark every day around 6pm? In the summer it will be around 8pm. So early in comparison to Holland! (11pm in summer).
Talk to you soon! (heheh you can find me on skype on Claudia_deyl)
Kisses!!
-
27 Juli 2010 - 04:45
Marike:
Hay Clautje
Hopelijk heb je voor morgen je papieren! anders zou dat wel heel jammer zijn! Ook veel succes op de uni :) (je moet wel al vroeg weer beginnen he!)
Maar heel veel plezier & geniet ervan. tot over 162 dagen ;)
liefsxx -
27 Juli 2010 - 08:04
Josée:
Hoi Claudia, Vanmorgen Cor en Carsten uitgezwaaid en ze zijn op weg naar jou. Je dacht dat je leven niet relaxt was, wacht tot zij bij je op bezoek zijn!!!! Heel veel plezier samen!!! -
27 Juli 2010 - 08:37
Robert:
Fingers are crossed ;-) ... Whoooww. It's SOO Different there... really amazing! The pic of the concrete jungle is also really nice to see :-)
I’ll keep reading!
-
27 Juli 2010 - 17:35
Denise:
Leuk, al die funfacts over brazilie!! Succes met je papieren en met je eerste colleges. Have fun! :) x -
28 Juli 2010 - 00:12
Marte Fekkes:
Hey!
Haha, leuk verhaal van die bureaucratie ^^. Ik moet zeggen, dat schijnt hier precies hetzelfde te gaan! Ik moet er nog aan beginnen, maar gelukkig gaan de jongens me helpen :). In ieder geval gewoon op weekend gaan! Haha, zoveel boeit het ook weer niet :P. Een toeristenvisum kun je na 3 maanden namelijk verlengen, voor nog 3 maanden. Dus als je al langer dan een half jaar blijft, hoef je alleen amar even bij Iguacu naar de andere kant te lopen ;)
xxx en veel succes ;) -
30 Juli 2010 - 07:55
Neeti:
Hii!
Oooomg, sorry voor de late reactie! Ben nog op vakantie met klasgenoten.. (ze slapen NOG steeds) gelukkig is er inet en gaat goed (je had gelijk) ^_^
Ben blij dar je veilig bent aangekomen! Jammer van bureaucratie, maar je sleept jezelf er wel doorheen. Veel plezier en stuur je wel eenlanger bericht (iPod is VERVELEND!!!!)
Doe de groeten aan Cor & Carsten en veel plezier op uni. -
31 Juli 2010 - 19:40
Joanna:
Hey, hey, hey
Its ur crazy polish alter-ego here! :D Damn, so i can see u r engoing Brasil. :D Yeah, i believe, they use the same salt and sweet and cream as Portuguese do. :P Just be careful abt tarantulas when u go to Iguacu...i am crossing my fingers for ur best time here! I havent seen u for so long, yaar
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