My excuse for not writing last week is food poisoning. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, because I ate some pretty strange stuff that week, but the most likely things are the two hotdogs I had on Sunday evening. By the way, those were my first Venezuelan hotdogs. I thought that after a 11 month long training my stomache would finally be ready to deal with a classic (in a Venezuelan novel I've been reading, the main character eats hot dogs all the time) but no. As Nivy (the new Austrailan trainee) put it (as I was throwing up): "Elina, look with your hair color, you'll never be able to eat like a Venezuelan". I know she was trying to be supportive, but that was not exactly what I needed to hear at that particular moment. Obviously I'm never going to eat another hotdog as long as I live.

The foodpoisoning incident started on Tuesday. Jose took me to a hospital where they gave me an IV and made sure I stopped throwing up. I did not go to work the next day (a Venezuelan probably would have). On Thursday I felt a lot better and started eating three meals a day. On Friday was Kasia's farewellparty and even if I did not drink a drop (doctor's orders) I felt badly hangover the next day and did not go to work. This week I've been working normally, although I tried to cancel my morning class in Thursday, because of a bloody visa extension I've been trying to do since March.

So...the visa extension operation - or mission impossible as I like to call it - sarted the same week as my food poisoning. On Monday Jose and I went to Onidex (the visa place) and asked what I have to do in order to extend my visa, which expires in less than two weeks. The Onidex guy said I can extend it by one year, which costs 300 000, or not extend it at all (and work illegally the last three weeks). He also gave us a list of things I need in order to extend the visa: a paper saying that I am a student, a paper saying where I live, stamps worth 300 000 bolivares and...2 passport pictures. Bueno, the passport pictures I had since March, so that was no problem. Mayra at Ruge wrote me a piece of paper saying that I am doing an iternship at Ruge, which does not exactly mean that I am a student but kind of implies that. The problematic part was the piece of paper stating where I live. Without getting into too much detail I'll just say that it was a hassle and that the woman who was supposed to sign it refused cause she is crazy and doesn't like foreigners (this was what I was told). Well. On Thursday morning, the day my visa expired, Jose and I went to Onidex, presented the papers, stamps and pictures, and said that I'd like to extend my visa. Alright, said the Onidex guy (not the original but another), that'll take three months. WHAT!!!! Jose burst out in laughter. I was not very amused. Or...continued the guy, you can pay me 200 000 and I'll get it for you in 15 days. What choise did we have. I had to get back to work while Jose went to get money. My first experience with blatant corruption. I never want to experience that again.