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.

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