In the first weeks here, IFSA gave us a document stating our status as Argentine students so that we could get discounts around the city, mostly for bus tickets. I think it's funny that after all these trips I've been going on, it has failed to work for me every single time, and I've never been able to use the discount. When I went to Cordoba, I didn't know the document existed, so clearly I didn't use it. I got the document right before spring break, but when I went to buy tickets I was so excited about spring break I forgot to use it. I've been kicking myself in the butt about that because it could have saved me 40 dollars. During spring break we tried to use it to get a discount into the Iguazu national park, but they said it wasn't official enough since it was only from our program and not from the government. When I went to Malargue, I bought tickets with two different companies for each way, so one company told me I can only have the discount if I buy a round trip and the other told me they would need a copy of it, which I didn't have, and they didn't have a copier. When I went to Chile, they also used the excuse that it wasn't official enough. And when I just bought tickets today to go to Buenos Aires in a week, they said that I can't use it because it doesn't say when my status as a student ends, so she didn't think it was legit. So I've come to the conclusion that I shouldn't be mad I lost that 40 dollars because it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.
It's too bad, because our student visas probably would have been sufficient enough to get a discount, but we didn't get our visas right away, so we couldn't use them. None of the visa process was under our control; IFSA managed all of it for us while all we had to do was supply the money and finger prints. Some people in our program still don't have their visas and are now technically living in this country illegally because it's been more than 90 days. I can't say who's fault that is, whether it's IFSA not getting forms in on time, or the Argentine government just being slow, but there were numerous problems for ten or so students where their finger prints were lost and forms were expired, resulting in multiple trips to the immigration office at 6 am, and still no visas. I was lucky; I think I was the first one to get my visa done, just by chance, so I already received my official visa. And its too bad I'm only thinking about this now, but I probably could've brought my visa today to get a discount on my tickets to Buenos.
But what is more unfortunate is that some people who didn't have their visas yet wanted to go to Chile this weekend, because if they leave the country in their illegal status, they have to pay a fine to get back into the country. So they are being punished for something that was out of their control. It shouldn't have taken three months to get our visas. So two of my friends had to pay a 300 peso fine to go to Chile this weekend. I think IFSA is going to make up for it by not making them pay for their visa. But they better hurry up and get those done soon because we need our student visas to transfer our grades, and finals start this week!
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