A week of friends!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my amigita Hayley in Puerto, and the visit came just in time, because that morning I had to deal with probably the single worst thing about Spain.... spanish bureaucracy! I spent about three hours total trying to pick up an ID card, and ultimately FAILED. To give you a peek at what this all entails, it went a little something like this:
9:45 - arrive at Register's office, where in May, the man at the register's office had told us to come pick up our residency cards.
10:15 - arrive at "foreigner's" office. Turns out, man in May was either misinformed or a liar. I go to the dreaded window, to get a number, at which time, woman at window says to me that I do not need to take a number and wait forever, I can simply proceed to office 1 and talk to man A and get what I need. EXCELLENT!(I was a FOOL if I believed that even for a second) Man A of course sent me to Man B and both of these men looked at me as though I was asking for a life-sized gold plated elephant rather than the standard residency card that I assume over half of the people waiting in that office are looking for. So then, incredulous man B says I can just go to office 2, I go to office 2, am stopped by door man and repeat that I just need to pick up this card. It should be ready. I just need someone to give it to me, that's all. He is equally confused and tells me that I should go to office 1, NO I say, I was just at office 1! He sends me back to office 1. I go back, Man A and B are irritated to see me again and take me back to office 2, where man A asks who I talked to and I respond, the doorman, because I didn't get past him to talk to anyone of consequence because he didn't let me. WHAT? You just talked to the doorman?! GO take a number and WAIT like everyone else! What are you trying to do, cheat the system?!?!
11:30 - sitting in waiting room with my number. I have B-80. They are currently on 36.
11:55 - The number is now 39. They office closes at 2... Let's do the math...
12:00 - FUCK. THIS.

Luckily afterward I had the opportunity to flee Sevilla to Puerto and Hayley and I had a great weekend and I was able to put Spain on a brief time-out, which it sorely deserved. We spoke English, relaxed, it was great! By Saturday I had let Spain out of it's time-out and we went out for tapas :)

Then by Tuesday, my roommate from last year, Jennifer, was here!!! She brought her brother Johny to show him what was the "big deal" about Spain. I had work and uni, but every evening this past week I was able to go to dinner with them and visit which was splendid.


My weekend so far has been very quiet, a little too quiet. I basically live alone on the weekends... and well, I am just not used to it. The good part about being a little bored and lonely is that I go running when I have nothing better to do. I should be in marathon shape soon! Later today though, I am supposed to give a tour to the Swedish girl that has come to work at our school. I told her I would make her some typical fare, a tortilla Espanola! We'll see how that turns out...

Besos,
MC