%#$#@&^!!!!!

Could anyone hear me screaming today?? Okay, it was just in my head but I'm sure you had to hear me. I went back to immigration today at 11:30 just as I was told to do. Oh, and if you're imagining a DMV type office with parking out front and chairs and numbers being called....stop it. It's nothing like that. Just getting there was half the battle today. There were protests and people blocking off streets so there was no transportation moving during the morning...we had to walk at a brisk pace for about 20 minutes to get there...and think San Fransisco hills, but ten times worse. So we got there to be told my passport was still in processing. So we talked to a helpful young man who disappeared for awhile and came back to tell us to wait for someone...I didn't exactly catch everything, but I was with Juan Pablo's father. So we must have waited 45 minutes (standing) and a group of men came in and the helpful guy whispered to JP's father to catch the guy in the blue shirt and talk to him. So Julio went up to him, and the man immediately told him "not right now" buy Julio persisted and got him to listen. We were asked to bring proof of my paid plane tickets and to come back at 2:30pm. Well, I don't have tickets because I bought them over the Internet (what year are we in?) so we went by American Airlines on our long walk home and they gave me a print out with my information with their company stamp (still no real ticket though) and made the long walk back to the hotels, complaining the whole way about how they don't care about anyone's time...blah, blah, blah.
We came back at 2:30 to wait for almost an hour (yes, standing...although I did find a step to sit on for the last 15 minutes). I was ushered in to speak to the Director of Immigration...Julio couldn't go back because he had forgotten his ID card. The Director said "We are going to give you your passport, but why are you in such a hurry to get back?" My thought: What do you care? Just give me my passport. You said it'd be ready on the 10th! My lie: My grandfather is sick and I was supposed to have my passport back on the 10th!
So he asks why I don't have the tickets for the plane....I don't know, aren't we living in the new millenium? Or maybe it's just me. Apparently, it's just me. So I explain how it works whey you buy your ticket on line and he ends with, "Come back tomorrow at 11:00am. So I say, "Are you sure?" And he says, "Well, to be really sure, come back at 3:00pm." Then the numerous attendees around him say, "Well, they do start giving the passports back at 5pm" So he then tells me 5pm. Why doesn't he know this if he is the Director? I ask what time they close (6:30pm) and what if they don't give it to me? And he says to come find him, but that it will definitely be ready.
So we leave again, after having spent the whole day there with nothing in our hands. Not just the whole day, the whole week! We are hopeful that tomorrow will be the end of it...and I guess we do have Friday to call the National Guard if not!