So great to be surrounded by your own things.

We moved the things around a bit and have a real cozy place now!

The company that delivered the stuff was not aware that they were expected to unpack too, so it was good that by now I can speak enough español to explain that.

Some advice for people who are planning on using the services of an international moving company to move their household goods and personal effects around the globe (from China) and have to pay for it themselves:
- do NOT use Asian Express (or for that matter any other company that does not have offices in the destination country);
- if you do ignore the above, then make sure that you receive a full profile of the destination agent (including website, testimonials, clients, etc.)
- make sure that you know the route of the vessel that ships your container;
- make sure that you do not end up paying for unnecessary bonded transports of your goods in the destination country.

A little explanation of the above:
In our case Asian Express seemed to be very helpful in the beginning, but as soon as our goods were packed we hardly received any communication from them unless it was on our own initiative. They have a special tracking page available on their website, but after repeatedly asking for the login information, we still did not receive anything. It’s probably completely bogus!
We were told that the vessel would have Valencia as POE (Port of Entry); however as it turned out the actual POE was Barcelona and our shipment was transported overland to Valencia. Because Valencia was the point were the Customs Clearance was to take place, we were charged an obnoxiously high amount of money for the bonded transport. Both Asian Express and the Spanish company have been aware of that from the beginning, but have refused (or conveniently forgotten) to disclose any of that information to us.

Planning an international move you are entering stressful times and you want it to go as easy as possible. I think it will help a great deal to try to know as much details upfront as possible.
We thought that with Asian Express we had a trustworthy company that is part of an international network. Well the company that eventually delivered our things was merely a company that the destination agent hired, so in no way directly associated with the “network” and therefore there is no way to be able to guarantee any of the services!

We took a taxi back home and went to the supermercado to buy some things for in the evening. I always find it good to visit a local shop as one of the first things as that gives a good first impression of the new environment.

We made it a very nice evening and had a nice breakfast together on Sunday. In the afternoon we took a tram to the beach and after a nice stroll we had a fantastic brunch with cochinas (Valencian mussels), calamares, seafood paella with lobster and a nice bottle of wine. We strolled some more through the harbor area, took a tram to the center and walked home via the Turia.

In the evening we were still so stuffed from our brunch that we didn’t need any dinner and Mia’s jetlag was kicking in again so we went to bed early.

This morning Mia made breakfast and then I walked her to school. She first had to do a test to assess her current level and she made it to the advanced beginners class. I left to run some errands and at 11 went back to the school to have a coffee with Mia and introduce her to some of my friends. We decided that tomorrow we will cook dinner for a bunch of people, so she will immediately get to know my friends and co-students a bit better.

At 4 Mia’s classes ended and mine were starting and when I came back home in the evening Mia just finished up her home work. We had a small dinner and made plans for tomorrow’s one.

Slowly but surely we are becoming the happily in love couple again that we were before I left China!

Two weeks ago I did the application for this much needed number and since it took not that long then, I expected that this time it would be similar.

How wrong I was!

I arrived there at 7:30am with Gianni, my new friend from Uruguay, who also was scheduled for pick up. We were number 141 and 142 in line! Crazy! Then at around 8:30am a police officer came out to assign official numbers to everyone and send people away that were standing in the wrong line. We ended up with number 94 and 95. Luckily within the first 100, otherwise we could have waited until after the siesta break which starts at 2pm and ends at 5pm.

Then at 9am the office opened up and the first people were dealt with. It would be so much easier if they would make different lines for different services and perhaps even different people, but they haven’t figured that out yet. This means that all people are together for all kinds of applications, such as residence card applications, residence card renewals, residence card pick ups, NIE applications, NIE pick ups, lost/stolen ID’s, etc. etc.

From 10-11am there was the much needed desayunar (breakfast) break! Yup, these officials come to work on an empty stomach and use the taxpayers money and time to have breakfast.

Finally after 5.5 hours of waiting it was our turn to enter the office. My application first could not be found which made me a bit nervous, but finally it was found and I walked out with my green paper with the NIE!

When I got back home I saw that I had 42 missed calls from Mia (forgot my phone at home in the morning). I tried to call back but her phone was off. I finally reached a friend of hers and he told me that Mia’s plane had left with a 5 hour delay. I found that very strange, because I thought Mia would arrive on Saturday…
Anyways, since she had only 50 minutes to make the transfer on Munich, for sure she would not be able to make that connection, so that would mean that she would arrive on Saturday after all…

Later, when her plane finally had arrived in Munich, she called me and explained that the plane had all sorts of problems before being able to leave Beijing. Lufthansa put her up in the Kempinski airport hotel for the night and that she would arrive the following afternoon!

Another reason to write today is because I have an hour extra. Wintertime, not used to anymore, but a nice enough concept to make the shorter days seem longer…

On Monday I heard from the moving company that my shipment is due to arrive on November 29. This means I have to get my papers in order a week orso before, that is if I don’t want to pay import tax. On Tuesday I went with my lawyer to the town hall where she arranged the first step in the long “papeleo” process (red tape): the permiso residencia y trabajo, something like a temporary residence permit that allows for working too.
Next week we will go to the police office for foreigners to arrange for my NIE (without this paper you can hardly do anything here), step two and after that more steps have to follow to come to full legal status.

In the meantime Mia has arranged all her paperwork at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing and school has even called them to make sure everything is in order; hopefully that helped to push her file onto the right pile!

On Wednesday it was “Happy Miercoles” again and we went with a bunch of people to the Irish Pub. The CEO of Babylon Idiomas was also there, a fellow Dutchman and it was very nice meeting and talking with him! Afterwards we went for dinner and a couple of bars and discos. Ideal to have classes in the afternoon!

Talking of which, we are booking great progress. Next week we will move on to the past tense which brings us to the end of the first book and on to level A2! Basically that means that by the end of my 12 week course I should be at the start of level B2, enabling me to speak pretty good Spanish on a light conversational level, great!

Yesterday I went to Sala Parpall‚àö‚â•, a museum in my street where they have an exposition of a Chinese photographer He Chong Yue. He has taken pictures of the large tiled family planning propaganda signs you will find in the countryside of China. On each of the signs he has hung a mirror, so you can also see him taking the pictures. Nice enough to have a look around.

With the Volvo Ocean Race Game I was stuck in the Doldrums most of the week, but it seems that I finally have left them behind and I can make myself ready for the southern trade winds on my way to Cape Town. I managed to climb to a position around 8,500 but lost that again due to the lack of wind. Now on 12,539 of more than 41,000 competitors.

And today I had a nice stroll in the park enjoying the warmth of the sun.

I have been cooking a lot lately, all kinds of delicious stuff and tonight it will be ensalada de espinaca.

Mia mailed me a box with bedding and pillows a couple of weeks ago and thus it had finally arrived!

It was all perfectly fine (nothing much can happen to it, right?), although the box hardly looked like a box anymore, more like a roll of carton kept together with plastic binding straps. It might seem a bit overdone when they strap a package at the post office, but let me assure you that there is a good reason for that!

So tonight I will be able to sleep under fine bedding!

Also I received an email today from the Spanish moving company that my shipment in on its way. Well that is about time! Still have to wait patiently for 40-50 days for it to arrive and the mover asked for a lot of paperwork I actually don’t have… that story certainly will continue!

Later on Amparo also came and we went to the bank to open an account. Normally that is only possible after you have received the NIE number, a kind of social security number, but Spain also seems to work with guanxi, so with the promise that I would go back to the bank as soon as I have this number I left with a brand new bank account.

Of course we had a cup of coffee and then she left me, because she had a busy day.

Some things I found out about coffee. Un solo is an espresso and caf‚àö¬© con leche is an espresso with milk (half-half) served in a small glass. Then there is caf‚àö¬© Americano, which is ‘normal’ cup of coffee, still pretty strong though. There is also caf‚àö¬© Cortado, which is a solo with a little bit of milk and caf‚àö¬© del Tiempo is a solo which is served with a separate glass with icecubes and a slice of lemon. You pour this in the glass and have your own ice-coffee for the hot summer days.

I went to the supermercado, which is literally next door, and bought all kinds of groceries for the first night cooking in my new home

It was a nice trip although most of the sights I already had come across on my walking trips. Nice though that this time I also received some info about those places as I didn’t take any guidebook with me on my walks.

At L’Oceanografic, the massive aquarium, I hopped out of the bus to walk to the beach. Four British ladies had the same plan so I joined them.

This part of town is quite different from the city center and distances are quite a bit longer. Also there is not yet easy access for pedestrians from the aquarium to the beach, so we ended up walking for 45 mins orso.

We walked over the Formula 1 street circuit and finally arrived at the port where all the buildings of the teams of the America’s Cup are still standing.

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There I left the ladies and went for lunch at one of the restaurants on the esplanade, just west of the beach. All restaurants were packed and I had hoped to eat some paella, but unfortunately they serve that only for a 2 person minimum. So instead I opted for grilled swordfish, which I never had before and was very nice!

After un solo (a very strong espresso) I decided that I would take the subway back to the center. What I didn’t know ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ and what made my walking trip a lot longer than needed ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ is that the subway is not sub at all in that part of town! Instead it’s like a tram and after 45 mins of walking I arrived at the station where it becomes a subway…

The microphone and camera for Skype work great so I could do some talking with Mia.

On weekends many people go here for a picnic; there are paths for bicycles and pedestrians, there are soccer fields, tennis fields, a children playground as well as a skateboard/bmx park.
Fortunately there are also some cafes, so before heading back I had a cup of coffee in the sun.

[singlepic=4,160,120,,left]I headed towards Rusafa, an upcoming ‚Äö√Ñ√∫bohemian‚Äö√Ñ√π area just southeast of the centre. There I saw a real estate agent and the pictures looked promising. The lady inside could only speak un poco English, but she was very helpful (perhaps because it was her own company). She showed me one apartment closeby and it looked ok. Lots of space you cannot use, such as a long, narrow hallway of about 60cm with all the doors to the different rooms. It was unfurnished, but she promised me that the landlord would take care of that. I would need to think about that one, because I was quite in a hurry, Monday I would need a new home…

In the afternoon I met with Amparo who I know from Beijing. She is from Valencia and it was very nice to see her again. We drank a coffee at the backside of Plaza de la Virgen, behind Miguelete, “the church of little Michael”, and I just read in a guidebook that the view from the top of this belltower is very well worth the visit. Of course the cathedral itself is too!

Amparo offered me to stay at her home from Monday onwards, to give me a bit more time to find an apartment, so i walked with her to pick up the keys.

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Once at her apartment it looked a lot different than the pictures of it that she sent me when I was still in China. I asked if she already had a tenant and whether I could reconsider my earlier decision. The deal was made very quickly: on Monday I can move in my new home! WOW, a mere two days and I have found myself an apartment, yeah with quite a bit of luck!!!

Rod called me if I wanted to join him and some of his friends for tapas and drinks. Amparo already had dinner arrangements, so off I went, my first Friday night out.

After a bit of searching I found Rod’s place on the Avenida del Baron de Carcer. He lives there with 4 roommates and the apartment has a cozy terrace where the food, the drinks and his friends were already present.

Later on they took me to the student area where we visited some bars until everyone got separated from each other and it was time for me to head home.

Discovered that bloody Movistar (from Telefonica), where I bought my prepaid phone card from yesterday, doesn’t have an agreement with China Mobile and therefore sms is not possible between Spain and China on their network. Luckily Skype works well to contact Mia and there is always email and phone…

Did some work and more walking around through this beautiful city and tried my luck at some real estate agents. Unfortunately hardly anyone speaks English (where did I experience that too?) and if you cannot speak Spanish many of them are not even interested to assist…

Back online I had more luck. Rod, an Italian guy who has been here for four months called me back immediately. I had already had contact with him in China, so it was nice to finally meet him. He showed me a home which was not that good, but promised me to keep looking.

One thing I noted today is that elevators here (probably like everywhere else in the world, but China) have the actual 0 or B for the ground floor. Many times I have made the mistake already to press 1 when going down, which means that I arrive on the first floor and not the ground floor. Strange how after 10 years these – seemingly normal – things actually change in your mind…