Spencer Cloud and the Case of the Missing Backpack

2014 May 24

I see no better way to do this post than to jump right into it.

One time, in Mendoza, Argentina, we were having a jolly good time eating lunch. While waiting for the bus to take us back in Buenos Aires, the capital, I reached for my backpack to find it missing. I lacked a backpack packed with all my knickknacks.

Of course the first thing I did was search for it, calling “Backpack! Backpack! Come here, boy! Wanna treat?” but that proved useless and dangerous as I was about to miss the bus. I, of course, never found it and had to move past the denial stage of grief pretty quickly.

The first thing to do was mitigate the situation. Without internet access, I called those who did and asked them to change my passwords (thank you all very much). This was difficult on the bus (especially with the phone I had), but it was accomplished.

The next important thing to do was report and replace my stolen passport, and to do this I paid a visit to the US embassy. For those wondering, the US embassy in Buenos Aires is a nice building. But to my dismay, I didn’t get any special ambassador treatment. If you are a normal US citizen like me and are visiting for mundane peasant problems like stolen passports, then you get to wait in a DMV building lookalike.

In all honesty, the embassy wasn’t that bad. The people inside were very accommodating, especially since I was estadounidense, and it was nice to hear American accents at service windows for the first time in forever (there’ll be magic, there’ll be fun). And, delightfully surprisingly, my replacement passport came earlier than planned by about a week. It arrived by mail too, so I didn’t have to go retrieve it myself. Further, since I needed a new photo for my passport I was actually able to look better (tan from 2013’s summer vs pale from 2011’s winter) and smile. They haven’t implemented “no smiling” laws for identifications in Argentina so my US passport sticks out like a happy thumb in a sea of soreness.

The most frustrating part came next, though: dealing with Argentine police. All I needed was an official report stating that my shit got swiped yo, if you know what I mean. First stop, the police station in my neighborhood. They tell me, “You should go to the police station downtown. They will help you since they have a tourism department that deals with these sorts of things.” That makes sense. Let’s go downtown. “Sorry, if your things were stolen in Mendoza you need to fill out a police report there. We can’t help you (or anyone, ever).” My reaction: “(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Oh that’s fine. Thanks for trying 🙂 (internal rage).” Okay so I’ll just make a quick stop at the other side of the country. Brb.

It was time for Bárbara to get involved. You may remember Bárbara, our amazing study abroad advisor.

With her experience being Argentine, she accompanied me to a police station and spoke to an intimidated-looking officer. It might have been more of an interrogation. The solution ended up being pretty simple —> kill the Batm- no jk -fill out the report at the bus station. That way I don’t have to travel for two days to get a piece of paper.

In the end, I got the denuncio and, using it, insurance came through for me. The details of this would probably bore you, so I’ll keep it to a minimum. But it may amuse you to know that the guard spelled iPhone charger “Ipfone charsher”.

I was able to go without a lot of stuff for three months. However, being a college student and living in 2013, there were necessities that I needed to replace. This isn’t Walden. First, a backpack. I bought the first one I saw, a “Chenkids” brand bag that resembled that of an over-sized child’s.

It turns out it actually was a large child’s backpack.

Next was a computer. If you’ve read my previous entries, you know how well that went.

But when I arrived home this glorious thing arrived in the mail.

In fact I’m typing on it right now and, for the record, I think Windows 8 is underrated. I like the new features and it doesn’t take a horrible amount of time to get used to it.

Back to Argentina, I mostly stuck with my phone since it was a better machine than the black plate that lit up when you opened it.

Speaking of, I have a Netbook Jellybean for sale. It’s awesome! No better deal around! Contact me if you’re interested!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my iPad. Of course I didn’t need it replaced in Argentina so I waited, but when I got my replacement it came engraved.

One thing I probably should have been more nervous about was the situation with my student visa. In Argentina, the norm for study abroad students is to arrive with a tourist visa and go through the student visa process after classes have already begun. It’s strange but it works. In my particular situation, lacking a passport and all, I was delayed about a month behind the others. In fact, I received it exactly one week before the week of final exams. Talk about cutting it close. But I live on the edge so I’m pretty used to it.

That’s the end of that story. When I returned to the states, I was able to easily replace my missing items. I learned things from this experience. I learned that having these important items missing for a while wasn’t nearly as debilitating as I thought it would be. I learned that if I’m in a crunch, I can get by with fewer resources than I’m used to. And I learned that friends are the most valuable thing to have in a situation like this. Whether it was my friends who paid for lunch in Mendoza on that day, Bárbara who helped me get the essential document, my mom who researched computers and helped determine the best course of action, or even the Office of International Programs at Creighton who emailed me to see if everything was okay, I wouldn’t have done as well without them. As a disclaimer, I’m not going to be cliché and say, “Oh I wouldn’t have it any other way because if all the twists and topsy turns brought me here today and bla bla,” because it would have been a lot more convenient to keep the stuff and spend the little time I had in South America enjoying it rather than waiting in lines everywhere, but it wasn’t all bad. And to whomever stole my stuff, I hope life treats them well. Usually people don’t resort to robbery if their life is good, but I also hope that person finds a different way to make a living because stealing is still generally immoral, whether you’re Robin Hood or Bonnie and Clyde.

An Update of Recent Events

I just finished my junior year at Creighton. During this, I took a full 18 hours of classes, did an internship with the Douglas County Election Commission, and took a trip to Des Moines for the swing dancing club and Chicago for Alpha Kappa Psi, the business fraternity. I haven’t traveled far since last November, but this summer I might, just might, have the opportunity to travel (probably either to Canada or Puerto Rico, but for now I’m going with the flow). I am looking forward mostly to my upcoming internship with the Yahoo! offices in Omaha and the annual family Niobrara River kayaking/canoeing trip that I missed last year. I am living in a house in Omaha that I’m still moving into and I know it will be a fun summer.

I said before that once the events of Argentina were fully resolved I would finally post about them. While the backpack conundrum is finished and over with, I don’t think the experiences will ever truly leave me, and that’s a good thing. So from now on, no more “I’ll post when it’s all over” statements, because if I truly did that I wouldn’t blog again until I was on my deathbed. I’m not saying that these will be frequent in nature like they were from the start, but I’ll avoid waiting five months between posts.

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