Love and hate it

Some girls at the internet cafe just asked me to write something down. I was confused, so I asked them what I should write. "Anything," they said. So I wrote my name. "Does that work for you?" asked one girl to the other. "No", she said, "it's too straight." The first one asked me if I could write sloppier. Again I was confused, so they explained that they were trying to make a "certificado médico" -- a doctor's note to justify absences. As in, what my students submit in order to take tests they've missed. "No, I don't think so," I said. (As if!) They sighed, thanked me, and decided to write the sloppy forgery themselves.

This is one of those times when I feel simultaneously what I'll miss and not miss about Chile. I hate the culture of dodging responsibility, looking for the easy way out, and proving that the bureaucracy is so annoying and yet pointless. However, I love that I can be reading my e-mail and have two girls who know I'm a teacher brazenly ask me to help them forge a doctor's note. Plus, it's funny that the whole time I thought I was confused by the strange request for a writing sample because of the language. Random, ironic things seem to happen more often here. That, I'll miss. The responsibility dodgers, not so much.