Being an Au Pair in Spain.

18 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by Yari in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

I cannot even tell you how many emails and comments I’ve gotten asking me about this topic. So I figured a post would be an easy way for people to find the information they want quickly and in one place. So here goes:

1. How did you find your family?

My family actually found me. I had made a profile on aupairworld.net and they messaged me through there.

2. How did you decide which family to live with?

This was actually a much harder decision than I thought it would be. Originally, my school was in Alcalá  de Henares so I was looking for families there. I had found a great one and was whatsapping constantly with the mom when I got the news that I had been switched to a school in Majadahonda (the complete opposite side of Madrid). I obviously had to inform the family that due to the circumstances, I could no longer commit to them. So my search began all over again. Some families didn’t pan out because they wanted someone who could take the kids to school and pick them up in the evenings, and that just wasn’t a possibility with my work schedule. I ended up being torn between two families, one of which had been the one to initiate contact with me. I decided to skype with both families in order to help me make a better informed decision. This was definitely the best thing I could have done because the decision became very clear to me after speaking with the families. I chose the one that had contacted me first and it was the greatest decision I’ve ever made.

3. How should I decide which family is best for me?

The biggest thing I could tell you regarding choosing your family is to make sure that you are all clear about what your responsibilities with them entail. If you don’t want to work on Friday evenings and the weekends, make that clear from the beginning. If you want to be able to travel during holiday breaks and long weekends, make it known. Ask if they would be okay with you having friends from back home visit and stay with you. Ask what they expect you to do with the children. Do they just want you to speak and play with them in English or do they want you to give them formal lessons? Also, make sure you inform them about our BEDA classes. Mine were in the afternoons on Fridays so I always made sure to give my Spain mom a heads up that I would be arriving later those days.

The next thing is asking about accommodation. Is your room next to everyone else’s or in another part of the house? Do you have your own bathroom or do you share? Are you expected to buy your own groceries or eat with the family? I loved that my room was in the basement so I felt like I really had my own space. I also had my own bathroom, which was a definite bonus. I always ate dinner with the family, and I loved it because I truly felt like I was another member of the family.

I’m also not big on going out or meeting friends for dinner or drinks during the week, so that was never an issue with me. My Spain family never said that I was expected to go home directly after work, but I always did. If once in awhile you’d like to take an evening to have dinner with your friends, make sure to tell your family that. I really don’t see too many people have an issue with that request.

To reiterate, the MAIN thing when choosing your family is that you both have clear ideas of what your responsibilities will be.

4. Is being an au pair really worth it?

The greatest decision I made regarding my Spain life was living with my Spain family. So yes, for me it was most definitely worth it. First, I became a part of a family. I gained 3 little brothers and 1 little sister. I gained two awesome parents. And I know that I will consider these people my family forever. I’m also the type of person that seriously loves kids, so I really liked being with and playing with the kids. Second, I was able to travel so much more and the way I wanted (i.e. staying in hotels rather than hostels) because I was able to save more money because I didn’t have to pay for rent or groceries.

5. Did you truly, really, honestly enjoy your au pair experience?

YES. People always seem to think that I’m not being truthful. But being an au pair was one of the greatest things I have ever done. No doubts. No regrets. I love my Spain family and it’s nice to know that I’ve made a bond with these people that will last the rest of my life.

 

If you have any other questions, please leave it below in a comment 🙂

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BEDA 2014-2015 APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!

02 Dec 2013 23 Comments

by Yari in auxiliares de conversación Tags: , , ,

Just wanted to leave the link here on my blog for those interested in applying to the BEDA program:

http://www.ecmadrid.org/en/programs/beda-program/144-auxiliares-de-coversacion/475-solicitudes

I believe that it will be open until January 31st. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE APPLYING! If you’re accepted, you’re in for the experience of a lifetime 🙂

Also, on the application there are spaces where it asks for a cell phone number and NIE number from Spain, if you’re applying from anywhere OUTSIDE of Spain, you don’t need to worry about this. But there are some people who apply from other programs in Spain who do have this information available, which is why there is that section in the application.

Beauty Travel Essentials.

18 Aug 2013 4 Comments

by Yari in Travel Tags: ,

This post, I think, is geared a bit more towards the ladies, but I’m sure some dudes could find some of these things helpful as well (maybe not the make-up part, but other stuff).

During my year abroad, I discovered a few holy grail products when it comes to traveling with all your beauty essentials (especially when trying to pack everything into one small carry-on sized bag). Here are some items and things that I found helpful, and hopefully  you will too. A lot of these products are going to be from LUSH, which is a brand that I love. And LUSH has several locations around the world, making it super convenient for travelers.

Before I get into the list of items, I would like to say that when I have a suitcase that I’ll be checking in, I prefer to stuff all my liquids/cosmetics into it mainly because I hate the hassle of having to take them out of my carry-on at security (especially if I already have to run my laptop through too). Also, if I’m checking the bag in, that doesn’t limit the amount of beauty products I can bring as much as a carry-on does 🙂

Alright, so here’s my list:

1. Solid Shampoo

LUSH sells a great variety of solid shampoos. My favorite is Jumping Juniper. What’s great about solid shampoos is that they’re super tiny and weigh nothing. And the best part? You never have to worry about having that dreaded moment when you open your suitcase and feel gooey liquid all over your favorite clothes and shoes. Worst feeling ever and we all know we’ve been there once before. And don’t be worried that they don’t work as well as liquid shampoos, I find that I even prefer the solid shampoos to the liquid ones. And they last for about 80 washes, so no worries about them not lasting that long either.

2. Dry Shampoo

Sometimes, when you’re traveling, there just isn’t enough time to give your hair a good shampoo rinse…that is where dry shampoo saves the day. I recommend getting this at Sephora since they tend to sell travel size versions of various dry shampoos. Two of my favorites are Oscar Blandi and Batiste. Batiste isn’t available at Sephora, or at least, it wasn’t the last few times I went, so I recommend stocking up on that one before your trip (you can find it online and at Ulta).  I tend to prefer the Oscar Blandi one for traveling, however, since it’s a powder instead of a spray.

3. Solid Scrubs

Once again, LUSH has some great solid scrubs. I prefer scrubs to soap, mainly because I like to exfoliate every time I shower. My favorite from LUSH is the sugar scrub. It smells great and does the job of exfoliating gently wonderfully.

4. Shower Gel

You can always try and stock up on travel sizes of your favorite shower gel or buying travel sized containers and decanting your shower gel into one of them. I, however, prefer to use LUSH bars. Can you tell that I’m a LUSH fiend? My FAVORITE one ever is King of Skin. It’s ridiculously moisturizing…to the point of not even really needing lotion when you get out of the shower. It’s that amazing. And, once again, they are super easy to travel with. Just make sure you pack it in something like a tin container, or wrap it in tissue-like paper because they melt at high heat. I’ve never had an issue with it, but, better to be pre-cautious just in case.

5. Face Wash

When it comes to face wash, I’m super particular because I have sensitive skin and many face washes are prone to breaking me out (which is something one does NOT want while traveling). I have two face washes that I LOVE, so I’ll usually pick one and pour it into one of my travel sized containers and bring it with me. In case you’re wondering what my two favorite face washes are: Michael Todd True Organics Charcoal Detox and Clean and Clear Continuous Control. I use these with my Clarisonic Mia 2, which goes with me everywhere because I love it. Michael Todd also sells a lot of travel kits. They’re super convenient and I really can’t recommend them enough. I like things that are  natural and organic (pretty obvious with my LUSH obsession) mainly because I find that they work best for my skin and Michael Todd’s products are AMAZING. Oh and Michael Todd ships worldwide. SUPER convenient.

6. Make-Up

I’m not even ashamed to admit that there is no way in hell that I will travel anywhere without bringing my make-up along. Now, that being said, I don’t bring my entire make-up bag with me. I have a smaller cosmetics bag, where I pack my essentials. This includes: foundation (I use Dior’s Forever), ONE blush (I usually bring my MAC mineralize skinfinish in Cheeky Bronze because I find that I don’t really need bronzer with it. They don’t sell it anymore, but the current Soft and Gentle is pretty similar), ONE eyeshadow palette (My FAV is Classic Nude by Physician’s Formula), lip color (I prefer to use lip butters rather than lipstick so I’ll usually bring 2 of my Revlon lip butters), mascara, and last, but certainly not least, mattifying powder (I have an oily face, yo. Gotta keep that ish under control. My fav is by Makeup Forever). Now, along with all this, I bring 3 make-up brushes. My foundation brush, blush brush, and powder brush. I don’t bring an eyeshadow brush because I’m content using the one that comes with the palette. I know this all seems like a lot, but seriously, I fit it all in a small cosmetics bag.

I’ll usually also bring along make-up remover wipes because I like to use those before I use my clarisonic. As far as other things, like lotion and perfume, I usually dispense those into travel size containers.  LUSH does sell solid perfume, though, just sayin’.

I think that’s all for my travel beauty product essentials. Leave me a comment below with a product you absolutely can’t travel without! And ladies, please tell me I’m not the only one who brings make-up with her on her travels. Please.

I’ll be posting that Puerto Rico post I mentioned soon.

¡Hablamos Pronto!

Update.

04 Aug 2013 1 Comment

by Yari in Uncategorized

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to write a really quick update on here to let you all know that I’ve been super behind in replying to emails and comments. I’ll be getting to the emails tomorrow so if you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded, you should be getting a reply at some point this week.

It’s been so nice being home. I was only in Maryland for 6 days before I left for Puerto Rico, so I’ve been enjoying the old line state a lot more now that I’m back from PR. I’ll be writing a post about my vacation there later this week. And the day after I got back from Puerto Rico I went into DC to celebrate my friend’s bachelor(ette) party. It was SO much fun and it was the first time I was seeing my closest friends in a year!

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That’s pretty much it for now. I just wanted to write this to let you all know that I’ll be writing an actual post soon 🙂

¡Hablamos pronto!

Italia Part 4 – Siena

25 Jun 2013 5 Comments

by Yari in Travel Tags: , , ,

I wasn’t sure if I was even going to make a post regarding Siena because we were only there for a few hours…and it sucked. I had, by far, the worst meal I have ever been served in my life there. I’m not exaggerating. But I’ll get to that part later.

This adventure starts with the journey of finding the damn bus station that we needed. True to form, Diana and I had done little research regarding where we needed to go to take the bus to Siena. We figured we’d follow the signs…ahahaha how stupid. I forgot that Europe doesn’t really believe in street signs and labels. After wandering aimlessly for awhile and asking for directions to the bus station twice, I finally spotted the thing as Diana and I were crossing another street. We made it 10 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. We bought our tickets (after dealing with some attitude from the ticket vendor) and were finally on the bus to Siena. The ride from Florence to Siena was pretty short. Diana and I passed the time listening to music on our ipods.

Once we arrived in Siena, we realized we had no idea what we wanted to do there. We figured we’d start by going to find the famous Piazza del Campo. Again, it took us a little longer than it should have to find it…and I wasn’t all that impressed by it once we did. I think I had built it up too much in my head and it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Once we were done there, we went off to find food. We decided on a little place since the menu seemed decent enough. Oh man, we really should have just waited until we got back to Florence. We ordered our food (we each ordered pasta) and started to chat while we waited to be served. It should be noted that Diana’s back was facing the kitchen area, so I was the one with the view when the woman came out with our food. I tried to keep my facial reaction to a minimum, though I think Diana could tell that something was wrong. You see, I saw the woman walking towards us with what appeared to be lean cuisine. I shit you not. This was our food: More

Flight Woes.

24 Jun 2013 2 Comments

by Yari in Travel Tags: ,

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Source

I was so hoping so have a nice, relaxing travel back home…alas, it was not meant to be. My day got off to a rough start with the fact that the service that was taking me to airport got me there at 8:00, roughly an hour and a half before my flight. I usually like to be at the airport 2-3 hours before my flight. So I was speeding to the check-in desk and then later through security. By the time I got to my gate they had already started the boarding process.

However, our flight was scheduled to take off at 9:30, at we were still sitting on the plane at 10:00. At 10:15 the captain announced that the plane had mechanical issues and that the repair was estimated to take at least 2 hours. So we all had to be taken off the plane again along with our luggage. Now, in Spain, a lot of times you have to take a shuttle that takes you to your plane. This meant that I had to carry my carry-on up and down several flights of steps. It was no cake walk.

Since we were now 2 hours delayed, this meant I was going to miss my connecting flight in Charlotte. Unfortunately, the employees were of no help because they said they couldn’t do anything about connecting flights until they had a new estimated time of arrival. Suffice it say that there were some very pissed of flyers (myself included). They were nice enough to give us vouchers to buy snacks at the cafeteria so once I did that, I sat down on the floor and waited. Ultimately, our flight was delayed 5 hours. They announced that those of us that missed our connecting flights would be helped once we arrived to Charlotte. This meant that I had no idea whether I would be on a flight home when I arrived to Charlotte or if I would have to wait until the next day.

Now, let’s talk about the plane we were on. It was old. It was no wonder that there were mechanical issues. Also, this was the first time I’ve flown a 9 hour flight that didn’t have screens in each seat for people to pick their own in-flight entertainment. There was just one regular sized screen towards the front section of the plane. Then the movies they played were old. My face must have been one of sheer denial when I saw the beginning credits for SPEED began to play. I mean, I love Sandra Bullock, but maybe something recent like The Blind Side would have been a better choice. I wasn’t really interested in any of the films they played and I couldn’t really sleep because I was so anxious about getting a connecting flight which meant that the flight felt like an eternity to me.

Finally, after 9.5 hours of flying, we made it to Charlotte. However, we weren’t allowed off of the plane because the line at customs was completely full. So we waited another 20-30 minutes to be left on the plane and were greeted by a customs like that took about 30 minutes to get through. Once we all had our luggage, we were all running to the counters to see about our connecting flights. There were so many of us and we were causing such a commotion that a Charlotte employee asked, “Where are you all coming from?” To which we all screamed, “MADRID!” Finally, they had to make a separate area for us at the check-in counter. When it was my turn, the guy informed me that they had rebooked me for an 8:00 flight…it was currently 7:30. He proceeded to tell me to hurry because they were probably already boarding. I proceeded to run like a mad woman to security. I made it to my gate at 7:50, sweating and panting, only to be informed that my flight was delayed an hour.

Thanks to the delay, I was able to call my parents and inform them that I would finally be arriving in Maryland around 10:20…6 hours after my original arrival time. Thankfully, the flight from Charlotte to Baltimore was only an hour. Granted, by the time we landed, I had been awake for 22 hours, so even 5 minutes felt like an hour.

This whole experience may have put me off US Airways for life. I had never had an experience like this and I’d really prefer not to have a repeat. I must say, though, that after all of that mess, I have never been so insanely happy to finally be home.

Looking Back.

19 Jun 2013 7 Comments

by Yari in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’m sitting here on my bed, looking around at what has been my room for the past 9.5 months and I can’t believe that I’ll be heading home for the summer come tomorrow (by the time this publishes, I’ll be on a plane making my way to Charlotte, NC, where I catch my flight home to MD). This past year has been such an amazing learning and growing experience for me. I needed something that would push me out of my shell and this did exactly that. I think it’s so funny that when I tell the people I’ve met here in Spain that I’m shy, they all disagree with me and say that I’m not shy at all. That is, by far, my greatest accomplishment this past year.

Then there’s the fact that I always thought that I worked best with primary school aged children and I’ve learned here that I really enjoy and prefer working with secondary aged students. I’ve had such an amazing year with my students and will truly miss them over the summer. It was great to see their English improve over the year and feel like I was truly making a difference in their English education. I know that I’ll be really excited to be reunited with them come September. I have also been incredibly lucky in that I have bonded a great deal with the faculty at my school. I love that we are much more like a family than coworkers. It’s so nice to have that homey environment at work and it’s something that I value greatly. The teachers have me laughing constantly in the teacher’s lounge and during our merienda break and have been the best part of my experience at my school. I was sad when I said goodbye to them for the summer yesterday.

ProtagsAnd what would this year have been like without my amazing new friends? I can’t thank Diana, Sean, and Dan enough for the great memories and laughs they’ve given me this past year. It’s imperative to have quality friends anywhere, but especially when you’re living abroad and are away from your family and friends from home. So to have been lucky enough to find 3 people who I think the world of is pretty damn awesome.

Of course, travelling has also been a major theme this past year. Besides the obvious travel to Spain, I have also been able to visit a few other European countries that were on my bucket list. I never thought I would actually get to see the Eiffel Tower in person or visit King’s Cross station and see Platform 9 3/4. I never thought I would spend nearly 2 weeks visting Italy during Holy Week. Travelling has been an amazing advantage of living in Europe and I look forward to travelling some more when I return. That being said, I do want to travel a lot within Spain next year because I want to get to know that country I’m living in more. And Spain has so many beautiful places to see, it’d be a shame to live here and not visit them.

I must say, though, that the greatest thing that has happened to me this past year has been gaining another family here in Spain. My Spain family completely took me in and treated me like one of their own. The move here would have been a thousand times more difficult without them. I have loved every single second of being a big sister to the kids! My summer will feel too quiet without them. I’ll constantly be expecting to hear a knock at my door and a kid saying, “Yarelis, can I play with your phone?” or “Yarelis, juega conmigo.” And my Spain parents are the best! Anyone who watches telenovelas knows that when you find another person who watches them and loves the same ones you do, it’s like finding a kindred spirit…and I’ve found just that in my Spain mom 🙂 We also share a profound love of cheesecake. And I think I’ve mentioned on here before that my Spain mom is one of the best cooks ever…and if I haven’t mentioned it before, well, I’m saying it now: She is one of the best cooks ever! I never had a meal that she made that I did not enjoy. And my Spain dad is awesome. Super funny and he always has interesting stories and topics to tell/discuss with me. It’s been so great to live with a family that I not only love, but really admire and look up to.

While I am excited to see my family/friends and spend my summer with them, it feels great to know that when I return to Spain in September I’ll be welcomed by great friends and my other family. It’s always nice to know that you have a “home away from home.”

¡Nos vemos en dos meses y medio, Madrid!

Bureaucracy.

18 Jun 2013 2 Comments

by Yari in auxiliares de conversación Tags: , , ,

There is a lot of paperwork involved when you decide to stay in Spain for another year. The bulk of this paperwork is in the NIE renewal process. It’s actually not that horribly bad…except for all the copies you have to make. Also, I would have been entirely lost in regards to what in the heck I needed to provide for this if it weren’t for BEDA and the auxiliares facebook group. The BEDA coordinator sent out a greatly detailed email explaining to us, step by step, what we needed to do in order to renew our NIEs.

The main things you need to make copies of are: your entire passport, your current NIE (front and back), the certificate that shows you’ve completed your work as an auxiliar for the current year, and the letter of your placement for next year. Then you fill out 2 copies of the EX-oo form, which is available online. You also need to pay the tasa for the renewal, which is also available online to fill out. Once you have all of that, you just need to go to the consejeria to turn it all in. You do have to triple check that you’re turning everything in, because the people at the office will not be able to help you in that regard. They just take all your papers and then put a sticker on one of the EX-00 copies to show that you’ve submitted the application.

The only thing is, you will more than likely have to take a day off of work in order to turn everything in because the hours are from 9-2, which is usually when most of us are at work. I was lucky in that my students had a field trip to the amusement park, so I took that day to get it done. I would have felt more comfortable taking the day off work if I hadn’t missed 4 days a few weeks prior when I had tonsillitis. If you do end up taking the day off of work, they will provide you with a justificante at the extranjería upon your request.

The next step is getting your autorización de regreso, which you need if you have an expired NIE and are planning to travel outside of Spain. Getting this is a pretty simple process that’s done at Aluche. You need a copy of your passport (when I went, the guy only took the page with my picture and information…but I had brought a copy of the entire thing JIC), a copy of your NIE (front and back), your paid tasa (which you need to pick up at a police station because it’s not available online), a copy of the EX-00 with the sticker showing you’ve submitted your NIE renewal paperwork, a copy of your flight plans, a printout of your appointment for the authorization (you do that online), and 2 filled out copies of the EX-13 (available online). You need to bring the original of each document to show the government worker, so make sure you bring all of those with you too. Again, the Aluche office is open from 9-2, so you’ll probably need to ask for a justificante.

My biggest piece of advice is to get to the offices a few minutes before they open. I can assure you that there will already be a line, so it’s best to get an early start. For my authorization, I got there about 15 minutes before they opened and was out the door again just 20 minutes after they let us all in. I got to the renewal place about 10 minutes after they opened, and was in and out in less than 5 minutes. I heard of one person who went later in the day to get his authorization and waited in line for 5 hours. Better to sacrifice some sleep and be able to get it done early and quickly, rather than lose an entire day at one of these offices.

All that being said, doing all this isn’t as bad as it seems. Once you start getting all the documents together, you realize it’s not that bad of a process. It’s just really time consuming. It’s also entirely worth it in order to be able to stay in Spain for one more year 🙂

Italia Part 3 – ROMA

17 Jun 2013 2 Comments

by Yari in Travel Tags: , , , , ,

The final part of our Italy trip led us to Rome. Getting the train from Florence to Rome was so easy and nice, especially when compared to the Pisa-Florence train debacle. The hotel we were staying at wasn’t too far from the train station so it only took us about 10 minutes to walk to our hotel. The only sucky part was that it was raining and holding your umbrella while lugging around your suitcase in the tiny Roma streets is no cake walk. We made it to our hotel without getting lost! Shocking for me and Diana.

When we went to check-in, the receptionist informed us that our room wasn’t ready, which wasn’t all that surprising since we were early so we decided to wait in the lobby. While we were in the lobby, we asked about the wifi. The receptionist proceeded to tell us that since our room was upstairs, we wouldn’t have wifi since wifi was only available on the first floor. She said that since we wrote that we preferred 3 single beds when we booked, they gave us the room upstairs. My friend from Maryland still hadn’t arrived in Rome yet, but Diana and I made the executive decision that we would be willing to forgo the 3 single beds in exchange for wifi. You have to understand that Diana and I pretty much didn’t have wifi while in Florence because our hostel’s wifi was complete and utter crap. There was no way we were dealing with no wifi. So instead of each of us having our own single bed, our room consisted of 1 single bed and a double bed. However, the single and the double were smack dab next to each other…so, essentially, it was just one giant bed:

MegaBedEmily had the “single” bed while Diana and I shared the double. It actually wasn’t so bad…and totally worth having wifi over.

Once we got our things settled in the room, Diana and I took off to explore Roma a bit. We quickly realized that crossing the street is a very scary affair in Rome. In Spain, I don’t mind crossing the street even if there’s no crosswalk because most Spaniards stop to let you pass. In Italy, however, there was no way Diana and I would cross a street without a crosswalk. They drive like maniacs! Exploring had to wait a little, though, because our hunger was our main priority. We ended up eating at a small little restaurant near our place (I can’t remember the name for the life of me) and it was pretty good. We were also able to satisfy our coffee fix there, which is always a good thing. We ended up wandering around and just seeing where we ended up. We walked to the Trevi Fountain, the pantheon, and while we said we weren’t going to walk very far…we somehow ended up at the Vatican. I didn’t even believe Diana when she said that I was looking at St.Peter’s Basilica. I was in actual denial that we walked all that way. We took some pictures and then proceeded to the metro because we decided there was no way in hell we were making the walk back to our hotel.

Once we arrived back to our hotel, we were pretty exhausted and just wanted to go eat. Diana had done some research on TripAdvisor and read about a restaurant near us called Mamma Angela’s. We walked over and it ended up being an excellent choice. Our food was delicious! The service is pretty great, too. It’s obvious that the waiters know a lot of the clientele are toursits and really want them to leave with a great impression of the restaurant. There was a slight (hilarious) misunderstanding between Diana and our waiter, which I won’t write on here but it made my evening. Don’t worry, though, karma came back to bite me for making fun of Diana’s embarrassment. But that happens later on in our travel. But, if you’re ever in Rome, I highly recommend Mamma Angela’s. The food is AMAZING (best pasta and tiramisu) and the waiters are incredibly nice and friendly.

Day 2 had been established as our “picture day” because it was suppose to be the day with the nicest weather. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain: More

Winding Down.

30 May 2013 1 Comment

by Yari in auxiliares de conversación Tags: , , , , , ,

The end of my first year in Spain is quickly approaching. I can’t believe how quickly these months have gone by! I only have 2 weeks left and then I head back to Maryland for the summer. I have so much to do before I leave and I feel like I don’t have enough time. I’m currently attempting to get all of my paperwork for my NIE renewal together. It’s a pain. So many copies need to be made and tasas need to be paid. I really truly did not mean for that to rhyme. I’m getting all the copies and such done this week because I want to head over to turn in all my paperwork next Wednesday since my students are going on a field trip to the amusement park so that way I’m not missing any actual class. Seeing as how I was out a few days last week because I had the illness of death, I’m trying to get this done without missing too much work.

I never knew tonsillitis could suck so hardcore, but having a fever of 102.7 was no party. And the fact that it took me filling a ziplock bag with ice and placing it on my head, neck, and back to get it to finally go down was ridiculous. Oh and apparently the infection was so bad that it caused me to have blisters on my hands and feet as well. Thankfully I’ve finished the antibiotics and am feeling as good as new now. And once again I am eternally grateful to the fact that my insurance here covers house calls from the doctor. There was no way I could make the bus and metro ride to see my doctor in the city.

I wish the fun ended with the NIE renewal…but no. I also have to get an autorización de regreso since I leave to go back to the states soon and my NIE will be expired and I need that to be able to return to Spain in September. Oh and did I mention that both of these things require me to pay a tasa at the bank? And banks here close for the day at 2 in the afternoon…when I’m still at work. It’s super convenient. I think the best part has been making 2 copies of every single page in my passport because they sometimes require a copy of the entire thing for both the NIE renewal and the authorization. I say sometimes because it’s a luck of the draw whether the person says you need the entire thing or just the first page and visa page. I’m basically expecting some version of this to go down:

I also had some confusion filling out the EX-00 form for the renewal. I think I’ve got it correct, but there were 2 sections that threw me off. I’m pretty sure they’re right, but I’m  paranoid that I’m going to do something wrong and screw up my entire renewal process. I’ll be sure to write another post once I actually go file it.

And on an entirely and completely random note: if you’ve read my About the Expat section, you will see that The Book Thief is listed as one of my all-time favorite books. Well, one of my sisters mentioned to me that she’s reading it for the first time and it made me want to reread it (I’ve already read it twice), but I legitimately had to stop reading because I started to cry every single time Rudy Steiner appeared/was mentioned. I tweeted this to the author, Markus Zusak, yesterday on twitter and he REPLIED to me. I just about screamed. Here’s the screenshot of it:

markuszusak

This is the 2nd time that someone I hugely love/admire has either replied or favorited my tweet. A few months ago, I tweeted that all I wanted in my life was to marry Ronan Farrow and he favorited the tweet:

RonanFarrow

So basically, I’m going to marry Ronan Farrow and I’m also BFF with Markus Zusak.

That’s all for now. I’ll be finishing up my Italy posts soon. I’m still writing up the Rome post and the small Siena post.

¡Hablamos Pronto!

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