Internet fiasco

Not a fiasco, really, just that everything in Spain takes longer to get. They delivered our wifi router a few days ago, which got my hopes up for having internet in the house, but evidently the delivery people aren't the same as the technicians who will actually set up the internet. Meh. So, I keep promising everyone that we will be on Skype soon, but who knows how long it will actually take.

I've also figgered out that Spaniards don't like to do business over the phone or the internet and that you basically have to go everywhere in person. Which is actually what I prefer, but it makes people with little patience (like Greg) very frustrated. The pace of life is just a lot slower here, and you actually have time to do the things that you always have in the back of your head that you want to do but are always interrupted by doing something else.

And I really like buying fresh bread every day.

I talked to Caitlin for a while on the phone last night (she and her husband are doing the same program but in France) and she says it's been rainy there every day and that all the French people run around with their baguettes under their coats and it's really cute. It was good to hear from her. Evidently the French are even worse than the Spaniards about paperwork. For example, we went to rent a movie the other day and they wanted a copy of our NIE (foreigner ID number) and a piece of mail that had our name and address on it. Like we were going to run off to Morrocco with their movies. But in France to get paid, Kade and Caitlin had to have every document officially translated into French (which runs like 39 euros per page). Stuff like their marriage license, birth certificates, etc. But the strange thing is that even though they're really anal about handing in all the appropriate forms, they don't care if you leave most of the spaces blank. Meh, Europeans.

We went down the street the other night to hang out at a local bar and we ended up (unintentionally) at the only English bar in Aguadulce. We started talking to the British guy that ran the place and it was really weird because he is racist against all the "foreigners" that are "robbing and drug dealing and ruining England." I was like, dude, you're a foreigner. It seems like no matter what culture a person comes from it's always the same excuses and irrational fears about what's different.

Love you all.