system failure

I never thought i would say this, but i miss wolverine access. that horrible computer system that singlehandedly ruins my registration experience each semester at michigan does not hold a candle to the complete and utter wild goose chase that is registering at la PUC. my week of registration (thats right, week) went sort of like this:

i decided which courses i thought i was going to take based on their names only, as there is no courseguide of any kind, anywhere. generally freshmen and foreigners attend the 1st week of class during their registration process, as a kind of taste test of classes, so thankfully i was not already locked into the misguided decisions i had made. for instance, in reading the title poetas latinos, i got fired up to attend a class on latinamerican poetry. WRONG! poetry yes, in latin. that was great. the prof starts talking and im thinking, ´´wow, that really doesnt sound like spanish´´. yep, latin. so, the supposedly simple task of finding classes to take here is considerably more difficult.

then, theres this whole process of actually registering. rather than doing it neatly (comparatively) on a snazzy program like wolverine access, one must physically go to the office of every department for each different course to get a signature of approval. this is no small task. the offices are on different campuses, separated usually by about 45 minutes of commute, and are often not on the same campus as the class you are trying to register for. also, there is no way to know before going to the office if the class you want is closed already, which it probably is. and, when you can register, other than the signature that i have on my paper, the only way that they know im in the class is by writing my name down in a spiral notebook. i dont mean to knock the organizational skills of others, but i feel like they should at least be typing it in somewhere....

so basically, i think im registered in some classes that look pretty cool, although i wouldnt be surprised to realize in july that i was never actually registered in them.

another cultural system that i can just not wrap my mind around? soccer tickets. i mean, this is south america, they love soccer. illana and i went to the national stadium where they hold games to buy tickets. wow. so we said, hey, we want tickets to a soccer game, can we see the schedule so we can pick one to go to? seller guy shakes his head. there are no schedules. interesting, we think. ok, when are the games? guy shrugs. he doesnt know. does anyone know? not really. ok, we say, we want tickets to any game, between any teams, at any point between now and july. anything. the guy shakes his head. no? apparently thats not how it works. eventually guy makes a phone call and writes down on a post-it when there might possibly be games. how are they not sure? because, for instance, on march 12 there is supposed to be a game at 5pm and an oasis concert at 6pm. one of them isnt going to happen. same for almost every weekend, and since i know that people have already bought tickets for oasis, im pretty sure the game is the one getting the boot. guy stars games that are more likely to happen, but still isnt sure. additionally, even if they were, by some fluke of nature, going to happen, we wouldnt be able to buy tickets there. despite the games supposedly being held there, tickets are sold on the other side of the city.

needless to say, we still have no tickets.

and dont even get me started on registering my visa.

loving chile, but lost in red tape.