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:

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:

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!