Today I lounged around for a lot of the day. This morning I spent in the DisneyLand of bureaucratic bs...but it was necesary. I got my NIE and can start a bank account this Monday. This is great because I need to open an account to get paid this week. I get paid 1000 Euro and start work at the Idiomas On Time school this week for 10 euro / hr. I just received a call from Marisol, a potential client in the Hortaleza area.
This month has been, is, something. Unlike the last three I mostly had great feelings about its passing. The last three were mottled with excitement and moments of sheer joy with my family . . . amidst a multitude of hours in the factories and at the restaurant trying to please rich people. Those months by contrast to this taught me something though: I'm not built for leisure...
The question is not whether or not I should be working a lot...the question is now "what do I allocate my time working toward?"
Bills are beckoning from back home. For some reason my Chase account won't perform an auto-withdrawal and has me holding my breath for some account numbers before Feb 12th.
I would like to be working 40 or 50 hours per week in schools. Luckily, this academy has bent to working around me: I will work from 3 p.m. onward for at least 2 hours a day mon-thu. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. . . are all mine.
Anyways, right now I'm not biting my nails for those things. Instead I'm sipping coffee without regard to the fact that it's past 5 p.m. I have no responsibility tomorrow or the day after. Accompanying this coffee is a blossoming story based around an encounter I had with a squirrel in my kitchen my junior year in college. I might trek down the 3 flights of stairs for some nicotine.
Unfortunately, I didn't make it out to buy yarn today. I spent 4 hours getting my NIE (number to stay here legally) and waiting for Banco Santander to be nice to me. Santander said the first time: are you a student or working? I said working. The advisory for foreigners advised me to say I'm a nonresident technically a student. The man at Santander asked me "didn't I see you before?" I said "Yes but I didn't have everything together back then. Now I have my NIE and an apt. for my card of nonresidency" he said "the same goes."
Then I told him that I was opening a student account. He said I needed 300 euros before he'd start something with me.
I have 150 euros.
So I calmly stated that I was technically a student and not working. He said "it's the same"
That blows my mind. I went to Banco Popular because Caja Madrid asked for some weird "letter of nonresident" from the police. I went to Banco Popular on the advice of Gilberto, my jolly Colombian roommate, and had success. I need 50 euro, a passport, and proof of employment. I slapped down my papers and she happily said "I'll see you Monday to set up your account."
My Spanish is getting better...if I only practiced in offices like this I would be fluent by the end of my quest to have all this sorted out. My roommates speak just as rapidly as these people but they're not talking about things that could get me kicked out of the country (most of the time).
With that settled I went shopping. The stores here still give me some pause. The vegetables here are extremely fresh all the time. This fact is probably owing to the fact that they travel less distance...I need to verify that claim though.
The coffee is making me jittery.
Alright....
Trolling on Facebook I see that another fraternity brother is stationed in Germany and ready to meet up. This sounds like a great idea. There isn't a lot of great beer in Spain.
About the lessons: children are great to work with. Children are also terrible to work with. They're different all the time. Most of the time, however, they reflect the amount of energy you put toward them. You have to maintain their focus and communicate a point as well.
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