always read something before you sign it. i am a firm believer in this idea, in fact i have even told my classes something to this effect when i taught in arizona. this does not always work in another country.

yesterday, i forgot my passport when i went to immigration only to realize this fact when i got off the bus an hour and a half after i left. there would not be enough time to go home, return to salina cruz and get to work by 4pm (really ample time in general considering i left late, finished early and still made it back home 1:30pm). what to do? i decided to put together the best excuse in my best spanish about how i was robbed the day before in oaxaca and my passport had been stolen. sure, there are lots of questions that need answering with this kind of story, but as long as i faltered with my pronunciation enough, i assumed it would work.

not only did they never ask for my passport, they barely spoke to me as they handed me my 225 dollar, ¨even though you have lived and worked here for three weeks, now, you are legal¨ passport looking set of papers. i am an official non-immigrant allowed to work for profit in the united states of mexico. yeehaw.

i returned and decided to cash my check because the banks are really only open about 5 hours a day around here (this insures that they never actually have to give you money) five days a week. i received my paycheck in, essentially, 5 dollar bills. yes, 100 50peso bills, plus some other change.

then i went home, met some new teachers who were actually impressed (probably lying) with my spanish, took a nap and went to school.

first i had to sign in and fill out a form explaining the time i returned from screwing around all morning. then, because i am legal, an office lady (she is probably only 23 or so) explained to me how i can get a bank account so that it does not take 20 minutes to actually cash a check. also, i think i get direct deposit (key word: think). so she explains to me the form. right. then she has me start filling it out. my spanish is improving, my knowledge of banking jargon and other terms is not. one mistake on the form, even a stray line, and you must start all over.

on my third form, she filled it in for me and told me to copy what she had done. sweet. my kind of paperwork. after explaining to her that william jurdan davis jr. is, in fact, not my son, we both realized that i had just named my father the recipient of funds in case i die. morbid, yes. vague, of course. i mean, i wrote only his name. how would he even know i had a bank account?

anywho, i think i might be getting a bank account. the form read banomex, but most of the other info escaped me. so i signed something and hopefully in aweek or two i will get a check card. then, i won´t have to walk back to my house with my pocket bulging with 100 bills in it (picture: gringo, bank, alone, lots of people around, cash practically falling out the pocket). thank you banomex and the lady who helped me whose name i still don´t know after almost four weeks.

i wonder what i will be signing next?