OMG the Mexican Government is just as screwy as the US Government!!! or how to get your FM2 and go crazy at the same time.

I promised Dad that I would let you guys know what happened with immigration. It is long and if you get bored skip on down to the end.

To start with I will retell (briefly) what happened in 2009. XX and XXX owed me quite a bit in back rent and when XXXX got his SSI back payment they sent me what they owed, about $2000. (this is dollars, all other amounts are in pesos) I talked to Kovy in Tuxtepec and we agreed that I would take a bus down to Tuxtepec and we would go to Veracruz which is the nearest INM (Instituto Nacional de Migraccion.) I left at an unGodly hour with Frank's Aunt More (Carmen) who works in DF. We took the bus from Texcoco to DF and when we got there I managed to leave the bus without my black shoulder bag. I noticed within minutes and ran all the way from one side of the terminal to the other but alas, too late. The driver or the man who cleans them had already managed to steal it. I vote for the driver, but who knows. We spent about an hour looking for it in trash cans and bathrooms, and when the bus arrived in Texcoco they supposedly did a thorough search. I think the driver hid it under his seat and then tossed it out the window on the drive back. I had about 16000 pesos hidden in different parts of it along with my medicine, driver's license, photos, etc. He also stole my cigarettes so two men ran to find the crying guerra cigarettes and coffee. Men are so nice to blondes here. So Frank's aunt lent me the money to come back to Texcoco. A little detour here- after about an hour of checking trash cans etc. the head honcho asked me what else he could do to help me. I explained that I wanted to check the men's room that the drivers, etc. use. As he walked me to the restroom he patted me on the shoulder and said, "No llores, ud. es muy bonita." What???? I don't care. I WANT MY MONEY!!! I didn't reply but when we returned Frank's aunt asked me "Que paso?" Guess my mouth was still hanging open. lol MEN!!!


I still had $6000 that I had left with my consuegra, so a couple days later I left again. Got to Tuxtepec without problems, got to Veracruz with Kovy, no problem. Left really, really early because INM is only open 9-1. Got to the INM (very long way from the bus station) and they were closed for Carneval. The guard outside said they would be open Thursday so we went back to Tuxtepec. Thursday we left really, really early and paid to take the city bus, and they were closed again. So we walked around and went home. So Monday, ditto... and they were open. The woman in the INM said they couldn't do it because we live in Oaxaca (idiot, it's federal and can be done in any INM office, but as you will see no one knows anything.) She said we could go upstairs and talk to some people there who were from Oax. I have no idea who or why, but we went. The guy there seemed to know what he was talking about, more or less, but they wanted my marriage to be registered in Tuxtepec although the paper he gave me had nothing about that. I asked how much it would all be in the end and he said it would be about $5000. By then, with paying for travel, I had about $3000 left.

Fast forward to this year. I have been trying to save for the past 2 years and finally have $5000. I had a friend call INM to find out how much my fine would be. The woman said she didn't know. I had him call and ask how they figure it and what I needed to have and do to get my FM2. Different woman, she didn't know. In all he called about 10 times over a few weeks, no one knows anything. Then his wife tried (different day), the woman told her I needed to fill out a form on the internet site or they wouldn't help me at the office and that it would give me a number when I sent it and with that number I should come to the office. I filled it out but no number. Kovy came to help me with the papers and to go to the office with me. He called and told them it didn't give me a number and the woman said "number? what number? just come in."

So the next day we left early, took the combi to Texcoco, the bus to DF, and three transfers on the Metro, walked about 20-30 blocks (we are talking hours), got there and the woman said "Where is your number? If your don't have your number you have to go do it on your computer again." But I continued to ask questions, and questions, and questions until she finally gave us a list of what we needed to get and she did say to just go ahead and bring it all, not just the things for the "areglazacion" of my status. And she said that we needed to register our marriage with the Registro Civil in Texcoco who would want a notarized copy of the translation but that for immigration the translation I had was fine. So home again, home again, jiggedy, jig.

The next day we went to Texcoco, found a notary and got that set up. I said to Kovy, "Let's check that we really need to get it all notarized ($300) so we went to the Registro Civil (where Jen and Frank got married) and had to talk to the "big man." He said notarized wasn't good enough for him, he wanted someone "reconocido" so I asked who was reconocido, he said he didn't know. (which is funny if you understand spanish) But he wanted a "perito" and he sent us to the procuduria, which I don't know exactly what it is but it is on the other side of town and a looooong walk and has absolutely nothing to do with civil matters or peritos traduceres. They did say that the Registro had the authority to accept whatever he wanted to with or without notarization or translation. I was not happy so I insisted that we walk back and ask the judge (?) exactly what the hell he wanted and where to get it. That is not exactly how we asked him, but only because I let Kovy do most of the talking. We asked him who he considered reconocido enough for him and he finally called a friend, a female judge (I think), who must have yelled at him from his responses. She evidently didn't know either and he finally told me to look on the internet for one in DF.

I spent the weekend, between classes, looking online, finally I found a list of Peritos Traduceres for DF. Since neither of us knows anything about DF we had no idea where any of them were. Kovy called a few and the ones that would give us a price said it would be at least $1000. Monday my friend Carlos came over and told us a couple were close to the Metro. We called one and she said we could send it by email; so Kovy ran to the cyber (internet cafe w/o the cafe part) and scanned the papers onto a flash drive. I emailed it and by that night she sent us the price-$300. Yea. They took until Friday to get it done but had it ready and waiting when Kovy got there Friday morning. She even gave us two cute calendars. Kovy even got back in time to meet me in Texcoco and we went to the Registro again. This time we had everything.

But, no. Mr. Pain-in-the-tush said he needed to keep my original marriage certificate and apostile. I gently explained to him that although I would give him an original marriage certificate and an original "perito package" with the stamped copies of each and stamped translation of each and stamped certificate from the perito all sealed together with the pretty purple ribbon and sealed, signed, etc. I could not let him have the only apostile since he knew the whole purpose was to do it for immigration. (Forgot the part where he told us the first time we were there that the federal laws don't apply in Texcoco since we have our own laws here.) He insisted and I gently refused. Again I explained that since the only way to get another apostile would be to get it in Indianapolis, we could not let him have it for his files. I reminded him that he had sent us all over town and had us spend quite a bit of money and time to get the certified translation, and that Kovy had gone to DF to get it at his request and that I didn't see any reason he would need more than a certified copy since he could see that it matched the original and that we were only registering the marriage not getting married. He had to have the original. At that point I asked him if there was any reason why it would have to be registered in Texcoco or if it could be done in another municipal. He said that it could be done anywhere in Edo. Mex., although I suspect it could actually be done anywhere in Mexico. Then I quit being my usual sweet self and said, "Que bueno, vamonos porque esta es una pinche porqueria."

Back to DF on Monday, again. Before we go I go get my pictures done. Little tiny pictures that are really expensive. $100! But they don't take too long at least. This time I decided to try without registering anything and see what happened. I had the copy of my tramite (the online paperwork) and it had a number. yea! Past the first gatekeeper. Stand in line for the people who "do" the papers. After about an hour we get to the next point. The girl was, like everyone else we have dealt with there, very nice. Why they have about 5 or 6 people and 15 windows I don't know but at least they are nice when you finally get to one. She checked our papers and I was glad I had the list from the first lady because several times she started to ask for other things, but checked the list I had and went back to checking everything else. My passport was issued 12-29-2005 and expires 12-28-2015, it is tiny and I read it as 12-29 & 12-29. Can I change it? No you have to resubmit online. We get to the door and the guard is locking it, it is 12:45. Can we run out and print the paper and come right back? No, the minute you walk out the door is locked.

Next day, same place. We wait in line and finally get to the front. Different girl but still pretty nice. She checks all the papers. Good, good, ah, where is your letter about why you are late? Ok, you mean the letter that was really long explaining everything in detail, that the other girl didn't want and Kovy was really upset about, the one I threw away last night? Can I add it on to the other letter I have about why I want my papers? No, it can be hand-written though. So I try to write what I wrote at the top of this email in Spanish, rapidly, standing at the counter with about 50 waiting people glaring at my back as I hold up the line. Give it to the girl and she puts all the copies in a folder and says thanks. Whoa! "Now what? How much is the fine?"  "I don't know.""How do I pay?" "I don't know." "How do they figure it? Do they do a flat fine? monthly? yearly?" "I don't know." "How can I pay it if I don't know how much it is?" "In 20-30 days they will send you a message online. Then you will be given a date for your interview and then they will tell you." So we left.

 On April 19th I check my online INM link and it says, "Please present yourself to any INM office." So on the 20th Lupe, Carlos' wife, and I go back. This time I have to go to a different line. Wait, wait, wait. I have to show my passport 'cause there are so many other people who look like me (they have a copy of my passport and my photos) and want to pay my fines or be arrested or whatever. She comes back with a bunch of papers and gives me three. Interview? That was it. Hmmmm. One tells me my case # and window "A"; one that says "blah, bl-blah, blah (but in Spanish) you need a letter from your husband saying that he wants you here, why, and that he will support you financially (which we gave them already, but do-able), blah, blah,blah, and you need to pay $2800 within 5 days and return with the receipt, blah, bl-blah, you need to pay $669 within 5 days and return with the receipt, blah, blah; last one says "blah, blah, blah, not a serious crime, blah, blah, blah, you need to pay $5380 within 5 days and return with the receipt." "Just step over to the cashier and he will give you what you need." Ok, I was still trying to read the papers. Lupe explained the gist of it and we stepped toward the cashier who isn't there. I asked Lupe what happens if I can't pay within 5 days. She doesn't know and the cashier isn't there so we step back to the girl and ask her(we waited a few minutes with a really weird guy who reeked of garlic and kept standing really close to Lupe and breathing garlic.) No problem, just write a letter and they will probably give me an extension. Address? No, just wait in the line to give it to the paper people again. So I find a blank sheet of paper, steal a pen from a waiting area and Lupe writes me a letter. Then we get in line. We waited at least an hour and a half. Hahaha, fooled them this time, we are locked in and not leaving, hahaha. Finally we give it to a girl. How will I know if I get an extension? Go back to window "A" in the other area. The girl at window "A" says that she is sure they will give me an extension and it will be for 15 days. :(  Wow, big help, guys. And if I still don't have enough I can come back in person and write another letter and they may give me 15 more days. Ok, and how am I supposed to pay since the man who gives you the payment sheet is not in his booth (which she can see from her counter) because he is on vacation for Holy Week. "You can get it online." Just go to their website and just do like the poster beside her shows.  But it isn't at all like the poster. The first thing the web form wants to know is if I am a moral person or a physical person. I thought I was both and have no clue how to go from there. So here I am with all my papers finally in (and my marriage not registered) with $5000 in the bank and nothing in my pocket and they want $8849. At least I have another 11 or 16 days depending on how you figure it.

If you made it through all that go take a break and drink some tea. Love you.

Back on the Net, and a New Stove!

When a "Mexico" blogger is gone for a while and you hear nothing from them it is a good guess that Telmex got them. Telmex is the phone company in Mexico. Think AT&T before all the little guys broke up the monopoly, and then pretend their service was good, 'cause Telmex makes them look Great! Then realize that if there is a problem with anything you go to Telmex, and wait in line for hours. That is how you pay them also. For real, you can't call, or email. In person is all they do. And you can forget service, they don't do service. If you get connected, fixed, or anything else besides charged for service it was an accident, trust me. Recently while looking into contracts for a phone, I read part of their website. They have the government-issued "monopoly" for another 20 years. Thank God they have already used up 30 years of it. Crimey! You do not want to know how depressing that is. Those of you who are in Mexico already know.

Anyway, we are back online, and I won't say any more since I am sure I am now on Telmex's shit list and we will never get phone service in our own names.

We had a storm and it managed to take out phone service for only two houses on our street. And we were one of the lucky ones. (Actually, my landlady was the lucky one since we just mooch her wireless internet.) It wasn't the same storm that ate my TV. Electricity here is another story for another day. Suffice it to say, when you are hooked up directly to the lines on the poles, with nothing in between you and the power, and the power flexuates and comes and goes, and surges and wanes, your electronics don't last as long. Then zap them a few times and turn the power up and down a few times more. Not good.

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Good news! I got a stove, a real stove. Oven and all. Wow, and on sale. It was the floor model (and the last and discontinued) so was marked down, and guess what, if you ask, but only if you ask, they look on the computer and there is almost always another discount they can give you. Luckily, hubby is a pain in the tush to shop with and is never sure if he wants to buy or what. After running the saleswoman all over and back, then running the really young, like 16 yr. old, guy that she dumped us off on all over and back, then leaving and coming back several times, and going to every other store in the whole city for two days, my stove was only $2500! The others the same size, etc. were about $3500. Unfortunately, hubby went back in this week, can you say obsessed!, and they now have a nicer one marked at the original marked-down price, so he is sure we were robbed. haha

But I don't care, I have a stove and an oven.

It even looks like a stove (like a US stove that is) although it is about as similar in reality as the ones your 3 yr. old has. Ok, the oven window isn't really a window, it is a piece of thin metal painted to look like the dark window on a US oven. It is a great paint job, we didn't even know it wasn't a window for three days. The one above is almost like mine. Although I think it has the real window. And there is no light for said oven. There is no broiler, that panel is fake and screwed on. And the knob has 1-5 not actual temperatures. And there is no insulation around the oven, nothing. I'm figuring for people who have been using an adobe wood oven outside this is a major step-up. I hope to get a thermometer so I can actually use it.

The picture above is how you can buy them. No oven, but a really nice little cabinet, made of really thin metal (tin? aluminum?) All the people I know here in Mexico who have an oven use it only for pot, pans, supplies and plates. It is a status symbol and nothing more. The cabinet makes more sense to me. (And cheaper, soy coda.) Maybe they should paint that window on them and put on false knobs.

Now we're cooking with gas. I just have to wait until next week to have enough money to buy food to cook.

Edit: I just realized I said people use their ovens for pot, that should be pots, but it is too funny so I left it.

Moving

We are moving. Or maybe not. Well, definitely we are moving but may be not far. Who knows? Our landlady wants our apartment for one of her sons. But maybe he isn't coming now. Who knows?

Two months ago she told me we would have to get rid of our dog or move. I told her we would move. Then after we searched for a new place for a few weeks she dropped it. Last month, as I paid the rent she informed me that she wanted the apartment August 26 when our month is up. Again we have been searching frantically for another apartment here in San Diego.

Tuesday she told me we could have it another month, but now I am tired of the game and want to move. Also, my husband left Monday to find a truck in his hometown so we can just move back there. I DO NOT want to go there again (long, whiny story), but we have looked and looked and looked here in San Diego.

We are in the back apartment top left of the picture, you can just see my livingroom window. And above, two of the water tanks.

Answer to the question "What is different in Mexico (from US)?

Note: I realize as I am writing this that there are certain things not normal in the US that all apartments/houses pretty much all have here. In Mexico, there is a concrete sink outside in the patio to wash dishes and clothing. No, there is not another sink in the kitchen.

Side of my brother-in-law's house showing where I launder and wash dishes, etc.

My sink in Tuxtepec

There is space, often on the roof, to hang clothing to dry. There is a big black plastic water tank on the roof for the days when we don't have water; in San Diego, we have water every other day 9AM - 5PM. But it depends on when the little man, sometimes late to turn on, sometimes late to turn off, comes and opens the tap under the street a few blocks from my house. Seriously, I watched him one day, he opens a lid in the street and turns on a tap with a big "key". In Tuxtepec, we have water, usually, every day, but only from 3 PM until 7 PM, and I don't know how they turn it on there.

In our apartment here we have bedroom, kitchen and livingroom, with a tiny water heater for the shower (which I am fighting with at the moment because I want to shower and it doesn't want to give me lukewarm water) and a real shower (never any tubs here).

The apartments we have seen are (no pictures, because some one stole my camera):

1. three unfinished rooms on the first floor of a neighbor's house, with no doors and rough concrete floors, and sharing a bathroom with the owner, his wife and child, who live upstairs and whoever lives in the other rental room upstairs. (Was loaned to a nephew before we even got to see it.) $1000

2. the other rental room upstairs from #1, which is one room but we could use the small patio downstairs for the dog and one side of the kitchen for our "extra" furniture and things. Same floors, walls, and bath as above. Has a door! And I would share the kitchen with them. And- they have a refrigerator! $600

3. a cute little two room apartment, sharing a concrete patio with all the other residents. Kitchen and living room are combined in one long but very narrow room. The floors are tile and the paint is good. The killer here is the bathroom which is so small (less than 1m sq.)that you would literally have your foot in the toilet when you showered. Not sure how you would bathe at all to be honest. I told hubby that you could flush to wash one foot as you did the front, and flush to wash the other as you washed your back. $1500

4. another single room, although I am told it is large, but which costs $1400, $100 less than we pay now. The sink & clothes line etc. are on the roof. My aching knees.

5. another small room with a large bathroom, but no sink or shower and no hot water. We would need a big barrel to pour water for bathing. This one also has a very small room for a kitchen, and they are going to put in a window (there is a large window hole) if we want to do the work. Unfinished floors. It is the 3rd floor and has a tiny circular stairway outside to reach it. We looked at it when it was raining. Wet climb, wet kitchen. The view is great. $1200

6. a room (small) with a bathroom (large) with shower but no hot water. Unfinished walls and floors. There is also a separate room for a kitchen. Separate as in go outside and in other door. This one has a little dirt patio, but neighbors tell me there are a lot of rats in the patio. Big rats. $1000

7. one small 1/2 double that has (someone else's) space in front of it for the dog to run, bathroom finished, with sink, toilet, shower, small kitchen, tiny patio with laundry sink, large livingroom. Unfinished floors. We went to see it as soon as the sign was up, it was occupied, but were told the renters were moving Thursday, could we come back Friday as there were three others coming then to see it. Would it be ok if we came Thursday night when my hubby got home from work, didn't want to lose it since he worked until 7 PM. Sure. So Thursday about 8 PM, my very-tired hubby and I walked to see it. It is a ways down the road. "So sorry, they still haven't left. Maybe tomorrow you can see it." "We are pretty sure we want it, I will come by first thing in the morning." 8 AM Friday morning, there I was. No one home to show it to me. The 7-year old said his mom had gone to Texcoco. I checked out the house and told him I would be back at noon. At noon I talked to a daughter-in-law/sister-in-law/aunt? They rented it out Thursday night. After we left. ??? I was ready to cry as I left. This was when my hubby and I decided we would have to go back to Tuxtepec.

8. the last hurrah: my english student and her parents really don't want me to leave. They took me to see one more. Quiet street, a little far from the "area" here, loooong walks to buy food every day, but do-able. Closed gate like all houses here, private, owner a few doors down. Opened the gate and GRASS! Lots of space! And a room with broken window on one side. Long room with one window on the other side (we are talking about 10 meters away.) Bathroom (big) BUT... No water tank on roof, no shower, no water heater. No nothing, oh and the bathroom is attached to the long room but no connecting door, so you go outside and enter from another door. $1500. I told them that we would take it but at $1000... but she says no because of the space, and I, sob,sob, said no because of the water,
shower, bathroom...

So, hubby is in another state, looking for a truck to rent big enough for our things, and I haven't hear from him in two days and can't reach him. Maybe he forgot that he is not going to drink... The last I heard he had found a truck and they wanted $1000/plus tolls and gas (we hope not more than another $1000.) BUT... it doesn't have a gas tank. ????? They do have a 5 liter jug they use, but how far would that go? 20 kilometers? And how the hell does that work? Anyway, here I sit, waiting, waiting, waiting. Don't know what is going on, and need to leave before Weds. aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgh

Oh, well, enough whining, going to go shower- if there is any water.