Bienvenidos! (It´s soooo hot!)
There are two, maybe three main motivations for me creating this blog. First, my family has asked me to do so which basically means they want easier access to creeping on my life in a foreign country. Plus they can verify that I am still alive. Second, it´s much easier than writing a bazillion e-mails to keep people updated. Third, Kate has created her blog for Italy (please see Kate love Italia) and in the spirit of Kate, Allie, Barcelona (of last summer´s trip through Italy and Spain), I figured I would keep the tradition alive.
I have been here in Sevilla (or rather Mairena del Alcor, the town where Jose´s parents live) since August 2nd. (We are still waiting for our apartment to be ready). Since then I have not accomplished a whole lot because honestly it´s too damn hot to do anything in my opinion. We spent our first few days in Malaga with Jose´s aunt, uncle and cousins. Then we made our way here, wrestling our four suitcases (three of which may or may not have been mine) plus various hand luggage. If anyone was lucky enough to be on the streets of Chicago or in the subway on August 1 you probably had a laugh at our expense as we schlepped up and down steps, hauling basically my whole life to the airport because we were too cheap to get a taxi. Lesson learned.
My next task on arrival was applying for my residency card. If the process in the U.S. is as complicated and frustrating as it is here, I can certainly understand the large amount of illegal aliens, undocumented folks (whatever you want to call them). Allow me to explain if you have never had the pleasure of working with Spanish bureacracy. First, Jose and I made the trip to the Plaza de España where the office of foreign people is located on a Friday afternoon. We waited for two hours in the sweltering heat only to arrive at the desk to be told that a) there were no more numbers (as in take a number at the deli number) for that day and b) we didn´t have the correct information anyway because the website does not include what you actually need. Haha, I thought, we are on hidden camera right?? Especially when the lovely and very patient man explained to us that the numbers had run out seven minutes after the office opened. SEVEN MINUTES!?! He then let us know that we would want to arrive early in the morning because the doors open at 750 and there is usually a long line by then. Needless to say, we showed up on Monday at 500am just to be safe and to my surprise, there were already 14 people waiting. Had these people camped out? Was there some kind of a giveaway or sale of concert tickets that we didn´t know about? Nope, they were all waiting for the same thing, including a woman who had already been there four times and had yet to get a number. Let the stress-fest begin. We waited outside, only to be let inside to wait some more for the office to open. When we finally got a number (THANK THE LORD) we had to wait even more until it was finally our turn. (During which time every number called was accompanied by my ´come on number 11, come on number 11´ like some gambling addict). Anyway, the time it has taken you to read this story is probably less time than we were actually in our meeting. Oh, and I have to go back 2 more times before I will actually have my ID card, in October. Good one Spain, you got me. You got me good.
Anywho, we also took a trip to London and we had a good time. We did all your normal touristy type things including visiting Westminster, the Tower of London, the British museum and just to make Dad proud, the Imperial War Museum. Got to see the the Crown Jewels which did not include any hot young princes, just the 2 biggest diamonds in the world! We minded (mound?) the gap on the subway and tried some English beer. All in all, a good vacation besides not being able to understand what the hell anyone was saying. For example: Hulloh (that´s British and as you can tell by the spelling it is a lot uglier than Hello because basically all things English are fugs, okay maybe not ALL things but especially the teeth and the food). Plus as one other Spanish tourist put it, there were more Spaniards than in Madrid (though there were also a TON of Italians too).
I´m sweating just from typing so more later. We need to get to the pool...
I have been here in Sevilla (or rather Mairena del Alcor, the town where Jose´s parents live) since August 2nd. (We are still waiting for our apartment to be ready). Since then I have not accomplished a whole lot because honestly it´s too damn hot to do anything in my opinion. We spent our first few days in Malaga with Jose´s aunt, uncle and cousins. Then we made our way here, wrestling our four suitcases (three of which may or may not have been mine) plus various hand luggage. If anyone was lucky enough to be on the streets of Chicago or in the subway on August 1 you probably had a laugh at our expense as we schlepped up and down steps, hauling basically my whole life to the airport because we were too cheap to get a taxi. Lesson learned.
My next task on arrival was applying for my residency card. If the process in the U.S. is as complicated and frustrating as it is here, I can certainly understand the large amount of illegal aliens, undocumented folks (whatever you want to call them). Allow me to explain if you have never had the pleasure of working with Spanish bureacracy. First, Jose and I made the trip to the Plaza de España where the office of foreign people is located on a Friday afternoon. We waited for two hours in the sweltering heat only to arrive at the desk to be told that a) there were no more numbers (as in take a number at the deli number) for that day and b) we didn´t have the correct information anyway because the website does not include what you actually need. Haha, I thought, we are on hidden camera right?? Especially when the lovely and very patient man explained to us that the numbers had run out seven minutes after the office opened. SEVEN MINUTES!?! He then let us know that we would want to arrive early in the morning because the doors open at 750 and there is usually a long line by then. Needless to say, we showed up on Monday at 500am just to be safe and to my surprise, there were already 14 people waiting. Had these people camped out? Was there some kind of a giveaway or sale of concert tickets that we didn´t know about? Nope, they were all waiting for the same thing, including a woman who had already been there four times and had yet to get a number. Let the stress-fest begin. We waited outside, only to be let inside to wait some more for the office to open. When we finally got a number (THANK THE LORD) we had to wait even more until it was finally our turn. (During which time every number called was accompanied by my ´come on number 11, come on number 11´ like some gambling addict). Anyway, the time it has taken you to read this story is probably less time than we were actually in our meeting. Oh, and I have to go back 2 more times before I will actually have my ID card, in October. Good one Spain, you got me. You got me good.
Anywho, we also took a trip to London and we had a good time. We did all your normal touristy type things including visiting Westminster, the Tower of London, the British museum and just to make Dad proud, the Imperial War Museum. Got to see the the Crown Jewels which did not include any hot young princes, just the 2 biggest diamonds in the world! We minded (mound?) the gap on the subway and tried some English beer. All in all, a good vacation besides not being able to understand what the hell anyone was saying. For example: Hulloh (that´s British and as you can tell by the spelling it is a lot uglier than Hello because basically all things English are fugs, okay maybe not ALL things but especially the teeth and the food). Plus as one other Spanish tourist put it, there were more Spaniards than in Madrid (though there were also a TON of Italians too).
I´m sweating just from typing so more later. We need to get to the pool...
Yay for you starting a blog!
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