Sore teeth!!!

Cusco. Local date 17 April, 4.26pm

That's right, I have sore teeth.

This last week has been interesting to say the least & I think I've been a tad stressed & clenching my jaw shut as I slept on Tuesday night has resulted in sore teeth :o)

Last week, I discovered that my purse that I had about $50us dollars & my key card in had gone missing... Anyway to cut a really long boring story short I had to arrange for mum to have power of attorney over my accounts so I can get a new key card etc... There in, is where I encountered a few problems - which seem quite comical, now.

Problem no. 1 - it was Easter & everything was pretty much shut down here form Thursday & at home in oz it was shut down Friday to Monday. Not that big a deal, just have to wait - this I could handle.

Problem no. 2 - Not speaking Spanish very well & using your Spanish English dictionary to explain to your Spanish teacher that you need a public notary to sign the forms that your lawyer sent from Australia - not easy but doable.

Problem no. 3 - explaining to the public notary who speaks no English what needs to be done but them not understanding & only doing half of what needed to be done - umm, a tad frustrating but still ok.

Problem no. 4 - Asking your homestay parents if they know a lawyer that speaks English so they can complete the last part of the paper work. Homestay mum translating doc then spending close to a hour at the public notarys office asking for them to sign knowing what the doc now says cause of the translation. This was touch & go they still didn't want to sign & homestay mum had to sign her life away too - I felt bad for taking up so much of homestay mums time (most of afternoon) brought her a box of chocolates. I felt really frustrated cause I couldn't explain myself & very isolated. Still ok at this point though.

Problem no. 5 - Tried to fax document & stupid technology not working - very very frustrating!!! Felt bad for putting mum (my real mum) out cause she had to stand around & wait for fax & it didn't end up coming... By this stage finding it hard to hold it together.

Problem no. 6 - Tried to call the bank (reverse charge) to ask if a faxed copy of doc would actually do any good. Stupid international operator in Oz was engaged. Tried to get through for over a hour (this is at midnight by the way & I`d already had a pretty shit day).

End result - I cried, went to sleep & must have clenched my teeth so hard in my sleep that they've been sore for the last 4 days! Almost back to normal now though.

Problem no. 7 - Called the bank when I woke up, I got through thank god, & they then informed me that even though my mum had power of attorney she still couldn't put a new pin on my replacement card... Umm my response, "Why in the hell did the person I spoke to last Thrusday tell me that this was the only way to get my new card with in the 3 remaining weeks I had left here!". Lets just say I was a little pissed off & gave him attidue. End result he's sending a new key card to my mums place & she's going to take the card & every single piece of documentation in with her to hopefully get my new card issued so she can courier it to me before I move on to Bolivia at the end of the month...

I sent the power of attorney docs by courier on Wednesday which will take 4 working days, costing $25us. Not to bad. Forgot to include a request for the bank to let mum enter my new pin number... Tried to send that yesterday express post - would have cost me $30au. So over it all now , sent it by normal mail will take 10days....

Feels good to have had a rant. I've been up to heaps of cool stuff too. Need to write about that but think I have to go....