Bus wreck

Oh yeah, so on my way back from getting bent over by the Oaxacan immigration gang-bang, the bus got into a semi-head-on collision with, uh, a semi. While coming out of a turn in the heights and wilderness of the mountains a sketchy, rusty 1960's bobtail SMASHED into the front left corner of our bus. The dude stumbled out in a drunken haze. All the passengers took note of this in alarm, "Ay guey! Ese guey anda pedo!" (Aw damn! this fuckin' dude is fucked up!). The majority of us filed out of the bus to check out the wreckage. One passenger got in the drunk's face and starting ranting - yelling - about how there are women and children in the bus, etc., etc., until he popped him in the face. The drunk was unfazed. Without cellphone coverage, some passengers began to get nervous and opted to hitch hike their way out of the mountains. The federal police came by and told us that they'd advise the bus company that we were stranded and would send for another car to take away the drunk. Confidant that a new bus would come, I and 5 or so others stayed behind. Night fell and I waited for us to get smashed to bits by a speeding oncoming car under the pitch black new moon. To my dismay, our replacement bus was the departure from Oaxaca City for Tuxtepec that followed ours. It was full so we had to stand for 4 hours or so until we arrived. Also, the cop car meant to take away the drunk never came. At first the other guys asked him to come along with us and we'd take him to the police station ourselves. He wasn't havin' it. In the end they each got an appendage and carried his squirming mountain bus smashin' ass onto the bus. While en route we came upon the cop car meant to take him away. Strangely he was eager to change vehicles. The fat federal cop never even got out of his car and the drunk hopped right in back.

I love Oaxaca immigration

The problem with the immigration office in Oaxaca has always been the same. They change the requirements to process a new or renew the work visa on what seems to be a daily basis. Previously, I had always called in advance to find out what the new and improved requirements are, which has always turned out to be a fool’s errand because one document or another is always required beyond what they mention over the phone. Now, the fool’s errand is not even possible. I have to renew my visa and upon calling I’m told that they can no longer tell us what is required over the phone and that we have to come into their office for them to tell us. I tried explaining to them that I’m a seven hour trip outside of Oaxaca and continued to explain to them how much sense it makes to travel that distance only to find out what I need. After bickering in a language in which I only have limited proficiency with two different people, I was finally told that I could check the website. Now, wasn’t that easy? I found where work visa update requirements are listed, and dutifully prepared the mentioned documents, copies, etc. Naturally, I always bring every scrap of paper I think they may ask for beyond that – just in case.

 

When I arrived in Oaxaca City, the officer asked me for a mountain of documents not mentioned on the website, some of which I was missing of course. I told her that her boss told me that the website is accurate. Following the contradiction match, said boss came to the desk to see what the commotion was about. She, the very same woman who told me that the requirements on the website are correct and up-to-date outright denied ever saying such a thing.

 

An argument ensued about the retarded nature of having no idea what the requirements are for certain visa processes. Thirty minutes or so pass until they finally hand me a sheet of 14 required documents necessary to renew my type of visa. The federal requirement noted on the website consists in 4 documents for a work visa renewal.

 

After reviewing the new and improved requirements which I’m sure will prove to be tentative, I realized that at least one of the documents she asked for this time around weren’t on this list either. Also, I found that the same document is listed twice, but worded differently.

 

The kicker was when she told me that NOBODY HAS EVER HAD THIS PROBLEM BEFORE! Excuse me? EVERYBODY I KNOW HAS THIS PROBLEM! There’s no such thing as just one trip to the Oaxacan immigration office.

 

Why couldn’t they have sent me this document via email?

Why does the Oaxaca office, a branch of a federal department, have requirements that differ from the federal requirements?

Are they intentionally fucking with us?

 

The day rounded off quite nicely when my bus back to Tuxtepec had a head on collision with a drunk driver in Butt Fucked Egypt. More on that later.

Law school

When I first came to Mexico I was dizzy with the experience of it all: Customs, misunderstandings, different perspectives, and the challenge of learning Spanish. After two years I can comfortably say that I’ve done what I’ve accomplished to do. I’ve done it, and I’m done.

 

I applied to 10 tier three law schools and have been accepted to 6, waitlisted by 2, and rejected by 2. I was accepted to two schools in my hometown of San Diego, of which it was hard for me to turn down. San Diego is simply far too expensive and the schools offer as much as the other schools I have been accepted to. In the end, I decided on St. Mary’s in San Antonio TEXAS. That’s right – Texas – the state I’ve spent my whole Californian life making fun of. Despite my life-long bias I made a choice based on reason. The cost of living in San Antonio is very low, the city is big enough, has a large Mexican demographic, and the school is a host to clinics and concentrations that interest me. Not to mention. Further, based on ABA stats, the school has a high bar passage and employment rates for graduates. Bias and reason notwithstanding however, I’ve realized that living in southern Mexico has sufficiently calloused my quality of life standards to the point that almost any American city will seem luxurious, be it San Antonio, San Diego, or Nashville.

 

All in all, I’ll be outta here sometime in July…  Two years have gone by pretty quickly, but now that I have something to look forward to I’m sure that the next five months will crawl.