Taller

Humor: Cansada
Música: Juanes - Fotografía

He estado escuchando a muchas canciones por Juanes ultimamente. El mae es mi nueva obsesión, ja.

No podía hacer un post ayer porque estuvimos haciendo todas las preparaciones para el taller de ciudadanía que tenemos hoy. Básicamente tenemos cuatro horas hoy en la tarde en que la gente puede venir a llenar su N-400. Una persona trae todos sus papeles (en serio, todos - partidas de nacimiento, matrimonio, divorcio, sus impuestos de los últimos tres años, todos sus pasaportes desde que recibió residencia - y eso es tal vez solo la mitad) y nosotros extraemos la información que va a necesitar para la aplicación. Pues entonces ayer yo tenía que revisar todas las carpetas de la gente que ya nos dijo que iba a llegar, para ver que documentos hicieron falta y toda la vara, y entonces tenía que llamar a cada persona a recordarle que viniera. Y con unos veinte personas ya registradas a venir, eso fue bastante trabajo. Ni hubiera almorzado si Anita no me había traído un bocadillo.

Hoy ha sido bastante tranquilo, sorprendentemente. Es que yo soy la unica aqui en CARECEN, y solamente estoy para que la gente de las clases me pueda hacer cualquier pregunta. Yo pensaba que Anita me iba a estar llamando cada rato para buscar información de cliente, pero no ha llamado ni una sola vez.

Pues ya por ahora, me tengo que ir ahora al trabajo. Hasta pronto.

Pura Vida,
Sarah



Mood: Tires
Music: Juanes - Fotografía

I've been listening to a lot of songs by Juanes recently. He's my new obsession, ha.

I couldn't post yesterday because we were doing all of the preparations for the citizenship workshop that we're having today. Basically we have four hours this afternoon in which people can come to fill out the N-400. They bring all of their paperwork (seriously, all of it - certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, stheir taxes from the last three years, all the passports they've had since becoming permanent residents - and sometimes that's not even half) and we extract all the information that they're going to need for the application. Well so yesterday I had to look over the folders for all of the people who already told us they were going to come to see which documents were missing and stuff like that, and then I had to call each person to remind them to come. And with some twenty people who had already signed up to come, it was plenty of work. I wouldn't even have eaten if Anita hadn't brought me a sandwich.

Today has been pretty calm, surprisingly. I'm the only one here in CARECEN, and I'm only here in case the students have any questions. I thought Anita would be calling every few minutes to have me look up client information, but she hasn't called once.

Well, enough for now, I have to go to work. Back soon.

Pura Vida,
Sarah

Pensando en tí

Humor: Maravillosa
Música: Juanes - La Paga

Por si acaso no sabían, yo soy fabulosa. Acabo de sacar en 95.5% en mi exámen de la semana pasada en psicofarmacología.

Lo único que me está molestando hoy es que tan lento va el proceso de inmigración que Daniel y yo ahora enfrentamos. Ya entregue ambos grupos de papeleo que tenía que entregar, pero todavía no me han mandado la fecha de la cita para tomar las huellas. Y solo deben de ser treinta días... Pues ya han sido 27... ¿Por qué la demorra?

Me pone a pensar en nuestros clientes en CARECEN. A veces entregan su solicitud de la ciudadanía (la N-400) y tienen que esperar AÑOS... Eso es demasiado. Todavía no he tenido la oportunidad de revisar el proyecto de ley que introdujo el representante Gutierrez, pero espero que hable de una forma de arreglar el proceso a que no se vaya tan lento.

Pues, no iba a hacer un post hoy, por eso que voy a hablar más del proceso y todo eso mañana cuando estoy en mi almuerzo en CARECEN. Hoy solo fue un pensamiento errante. Hasta pronto.

Pura Vida,
Sarah


Mood: Awesome
Music: Juanes - La Paga

In case you didn't know, I am fabulous. I just got a 95.5% in my psychopharmacology exam from last week.

The only thing that's bugging me today is the slowness of the immigration process that Daniel and I are facing. I already turned in both rounds of paperwork that I needed to submit, but they still haven't sent me the date for getting my fingerprints taken. And it's only supposed to be 30 days... Well, it's already been 27... What's the hold up?

It makes me think about our clients at CARECEN. Sometimes they turn in their citizenship application (the N-400) and have to wait YEARS... It's too much. TI still haven't had a chance to look over the bill introduced by Rep. Gutierrez, but I hope it discusses a way to make the process faster.

Well, I wasn't going to post today, so I'll talk more about the process and that tomorrow during lunch at CARECEN. Today was just an errant thought. Back soon.

Pura Vida,
Sarah

CARECEN

Humor: Productiva
Música: Juanes - La Camisa Negra

Pues la verdad no sé dónde empezar - ya he estado haciendo esta pasantía por casi dos meses...

Bueno, paso mucho de mi tiempo haciendo traducciones. Por ejemplo, hoy en la mañana hice una traducción del español al inglés de un certificado de difunción. También he hecho traducciones de certificados de nacimiento, matrimonio, y divorcio. Hasta la fecha, la traducción más difícil ha sido la de unos documentos médicos para el hijo de un señor que tiene cáncer terminal - no solamente porque eran documentos médicos sino también porque me sentaba mal para el hijo, que está al punto de perder su padre.

Las traducciones son lo que más me gusta hacer aquí en CARECEN, porque siento que me ayudan a mejorar mi vocabulario, especialmente el léxico legal. Ya casi no tengo ninguna dificultad con traducciones legales, especialmente con certificados de nacimiento. Los de divorcio pueden ser un poquito más difícil porque usualmente incluyen las condiciones del divorcio, que pueden tener unos términos que yo no reconozca.

Es especialmente interesante para mi hacer las traducciones porque me dan la oportunidad de ver el léxico usado en varias regiones del mundo. Aunque la mayoría de las traducciones son para gente de El Salvador, también he trabajado con documentos de Colombia, la República Dominicana, y Nicaragua. Yo creo que los colombianos escojan las palabras más técnicas a propósito para confundir a los y las traductores, jaja.

Supongo que eso basta por ahora. La próxima vez quiero escribir un poco sobre el proceso de inmigración que nuestros clientes enfrentan, y qué hacemos en CARECEN para apoyarles. Hasta pronto.

Pura Vida,
Sarah





Mood: Productive
Music: Juanes - La Camisa Negra

Um, the truth is, I don't really know where to start. I've already been doing this internship for almost two months...

Well, I spend a lot of my time doing translations. For example, this morning I did a translation of a death certificate from Spanish to English. I've also done birth and marriage certificates and divorce decrees. Up to this point, the most difficult translation has been one of three different medical documents for the son of a man with terminal cancer - not just because they were medical documents but also because I felt bad for the son, who is about to lose his father.

The translations are what I most like to do here in CARECEN, because I feel that they help me improve my vocabulary, especially with legal terms. I pretty much don't have trouble with legal translations any more, especially with birth certificates. Divorce papers can be a little more difficult because they usually include the conditions of the divorce, which can have terms that I don't recognize.

I find it especially interesting to do translations because they give me a chance to see the terms used in various parts of the world. Although the majority of the translations are for people from El Salvador, I have also translated documents from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. I think the Colombians choose the most technical words just to confuse translators, ha.

I suppose that's enough for now. Next time I want to write about the immigration process that our clients face, and what we do in CARECEN to support them. Back soon.

Pura Vida,
Sarah

Pasantía

Mood: Overwhelmed
Music: Alejandro Fernández - Sin Tantita Pena

So I just got the syllabus for the academic internship I'm doing this semester. Apparently, we're supposed to be keeping a journal/blog. Well, guess I found my motivation to keep this going, ha. Thing is, posts have to be in Spanish, but I'll do an English translation after each Spanish post for my non hispanohablante readers (all two of you). So yup, you're gonna be hearing a lot about my internship for a while, it seems. But I'll have side posts to talk about my immigration process with Danny and spring break in CR, too.

Just start looking for tags; CR = posts from Costa Rica, DC = stuff that happens back here in Washington, Danny = posts about Danny (duh), Immigration = where Danny and I are on the immigration process, Internship = posts in Spanish/English that I need for credit, Work = work (duh again), USCIS = Immigration stuff that's not mine, School = school. If I come up with new tags, I'll let you know, and I'm going to work my way through my posts and do some back-tagging. All right kids, you'll be hearing from me soon.

Pura Vida,
Sarah

Triumphant Return

Mood: Cold
Music: Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
[Note - this song is not in my head by choice, my housemates are obsessed with it and sing it CONSTANTLY]

So shoot me, I never actually "finished" this blog. Basically, my last three days in Costa Rica went like this:

Saturday: Hiked through Manuel Antonio, saw all kinds of monkeys and sloths and lizards, and probably the most beautiful beach I had seen the entire time I was there. After the hike, we went back up to the hotel to get changed, then caught the bus down to First Beach. I fulfilled the last of my goals for Costa Rica - learn how to surf. Okay, so I can't really say I -learned-, more like I tried it, managed to stand up once, but otherwise it was kind of a disaster. I cut my nose on the surfboard, for heaven's sake.

Sunday: Our last day in Manuel Antonio. We ate a late breakfast, and then caught the bus back to San Jose and a cab back to Heredia. I left the fam to fend for themselves and went and spent my last night with Danny for a while. Maybe I shouldn't have left them alone, but hey, I needed time with my fiance.

And Monday we left to come back... Sigh.

Anyway, you're probably wondering why I picked back up on this blog now, of all the random times to do so. Well, I have wonderful news: I'm going back to Costa Rica over spring break!!! And this prospect could not come at a better time, as DC is currently expecting Snowpocalypse 2.0.

But I think I'd also like to keep this blog going anyway, even if I'm not in Costa Rica. It'll be nice to have an outlet for things that happen at work/school/internship and to whine about how USCIS is so slow when it comes to our paperwork (yes, I submitted the request for an immigrant visa for Danny).

So I guess that's it for now, and while my posts may not be too regular, I'm gonna try to make them keep happening.

Here's to the thought of summer in Monteverde in a month.

Pura Vida,
Sarah