There's Always A Story- Spring Break 2014

Spring break is here... 3 major Spanish cities and a mini tour around Northern Morocco, pinch me it's perfect... except when I remember I am me and nothing is ever perfect. So here is the story of this vacation and the string of bad luck events that seem to follow me every once in while. (This be may a bit long but hopefully entertaining... lol)

Spring Break kicked off with a bang, a long nap and no urge to pack left me thinking I was going waste Saturday away, but in the end I made it on time and was off to Madrid. My lovely friend who I was staying with had made some plans with a potential boo so I was left to make some quick impromptu plans, but luckily that worked out for the best, and I got to hang out with 8 awesome Madrid Players who happened to be free. Random nights of laughs started everything right...

Sunday was also awesome because I got to go have Indian food with my friend, take a walk around Madrid, FINALLY after being in Spain almost 3 years I went inside the Prado Museum, and got to enjoy a great Diego concert with my friend Parisa who has converted me into a total groupie, but that's okay because we had lots of fun watching the concert and I left some girls with their jaws dropped when I could sing along to pretty much EVERY song :P

Monday came and I got up early to catch my 11am bus to Córdoba, waiting at the metro station it said 2 minutes til the next train when I arrived (perfect!). After 2 minutes had passed the screen went blank, and no train had come (Insert Panic). After a bit the next train shows up and I´m off, after making a transfer and arriving at the bus station I ran up the stairs and made it by just a hair. 

On the bus ride over in between listening to music and playing Candy Crush I got an email from a company I was hoping to hear from about a job, and it wasn't a congratulatory email, it was a we may have space later so hopefully we can send you a happier email soon (Gee, thanks!)

Bummed out about trying to reorganize some of my future plans we stopped at the rest stop between Madrid and Córdoba I ate my cookies and got on the bus when it was time to go. We were on our way for about 10 minutes before I realized I had forgotten my jacket at the bus station. I was super bummed out because

I use this to try to feel better when I do something dumb

my mom had given me that jacket because it looked like one my sister had, and I tend to get overly sad when I do stupid things like that because as a kid I was always kinda careless about things, so now as an adult when it happens I just feel like my life is so not together. I texted my mom and she told me not to worry she got it for $8 and she'd find me a new one. Now I just had to go on the rest of the trip with no jacket....

Córdoba was nice, I had booked a massage and session at the Arabic Baths (awesome!) On the way back it took me 20 minutes to get to my hostel because of the Holy Week processions. I get to my room get all freshened up and I notice there aren't any sheet on my bed... actually there none of the beds have sheets. I figure this is what I get for paying into a cheap hostel and kind of just call asleep on top of the comforter. Later around one in the morning a group of girls came into the room and were laughing about having to go in and ask for sheets. Only this hostel would put a sign in the corner of the reception where no one would see it saying "Please ask for sheets"... later I got my sheets too.

Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos

The next day I wanted to go to the Mosque/Cathedral but the opening ours for visitors due to Holy Week activities was from 8-9am so I missed it and the next day it opened at 11 and my bus was leaving at 12 and it was too close to try to risk it. So I went to Córdoba and didn´t get to see one of the most important sites... no big deal -_- I just headed on over to the main castle and spent the afternoon in the gardens. It was very beautiful but it also made me realize that traveling alone isn´t something I really like. It's great to see things but then you´re left with this urge to comment on it and when you turn to say it to someone no one is there, it was a bit sad, and of course Selfies just aren't the same in beautiful places, and since I'm such a shy person I couldn't muster up the courage to ask a stranger to take a picture of me to get the right one.... oh well!

I left Córdoba and made my way to Sevilla. It was a major coincidence that I found one of my coworkers who was going from Jaén to Sevilla on the SAME bus. It was a nice ride, despite some people arguing over seats because their's was stolen. Once in Sevilla I parted ways with my coworker and I set off to my hostel where my friend was waiting for me. Granted I pretty much NEVER really look up where my hotel (my bad) unless I know I have to take a bus or something but when I know I'm going to take a taxi, my urge is not to bother. Well when I got to Sevilla I gave the driver the address got in the taxi and we were on our way. Being Semana Santa there were a billion and one processions going on, and so many streets were cut off, and there tons of people. After driving around for a while, the driver stopped and told me it was impossible for him to make it up to the front door due to the processions so he'd stop me there and all I had to do was walk down to the end of the street. I paid him the 15 euro fair that was there I got my suit case from the trunk and I pulled out my phone to see down the end of which street he was talking about in the busy intersection he left me at. I plug in the address into Google Maps... loading walking directions... 32 MINUTE WALK!

Pretty much me this whole trip....
Source: Google

After I already paid this fool 15 euros, with my suitcase I had to go though all of the processions with people dressed in black KKK robes, parents pround of their kid walking barefoot through the street holding a candle, people as desperate as me to get through the crowds, finding other routes, getting re routed on my GPS trying to understand it was sending me because I haven't really used it before, getting weird looks because I had a large bright pink suitcase in the middle of this religious tradition, get stressed because it was hot and I was getting tired of draggin my my heavy suitcase, and trying to get over my anger over the whole situation. Close to an hour later I made it to my hostel, made my bed with the sheets they gave me (yay I got sheets this time), and went to have lunch with my friend since really all I'd eaten was a few cookies on the bus. We took the after noon easy and had dinner that pretty much gave me a flat fanta from a two liter bottle, tomorrow surely had to be a better day. 

Thursday came and we got up and were ready to take over the city, but unfortunately Holy Week already did that for us so when we went to the famous Catedral and Giralda of Sevilla, visitors allowed due to Semana Santa activities, so that's great after almost 3 years in Spain and not visiting two important cities, when I finally do make it over to see them, I can´t see what everyone says you HAVE to see there... just my luck. So instead of going into the Cathedral we went to 100Montaditos and had a tinto de verano and planned out the rest of the time we had in Sevilla. It was super hot so we went for a bit of a rest back at the hostel, and set out for Plaza de España that evening. It was beautiful! On the way back we got caught in yet another procession for a good half an hour of weaving through people, waiting, taking pictures, and all that jazz. At least it lead us to a pretty good chinese place, who forgot to bring us drinks but no big deal.

The next day was the day we were off to Morocco! I was really excited for this trip because it meant checking off another continent from my travel list, and it was a planned excursion so the pressure of what are we doing, how are we getting there and everything was taken care of. It was nice to just show up and enjoy. Our first hotel was on the beach so after dinner my friend and

some other girls we met at our table decided to go down to see the water. We were collecting shells when a pair of what seemed like teenagers tried cat calling us shouting out "Sevilla sevilla Sevilla" and "omg... hello USA".

Day 2 in Morocco was nice we went to the Blue city of Chefchaouene walked through the mountain town got a talk about how they made the fabrics and saw the actual loom. Our moroccan old man tour guide said i didn't look American I looked like him (ok?) We bartered for some things, I got some scarves and we were back to our hotel in Tangier. We were going to go out dancing, but dinner didn't sit well with me so it was just a quiet evening in the hotel for me, oh well... Our last day came and we got to ride camels (one of the scariest moments of my life!), walk around Tetouan and do a bit more haggling, and end the trip having lunch in an Arabic Palace. Now it was time for the long trek back home!

The two girls we had met on the trip didn't have a place to stay for the night, so I gave them the name of our hostel and she called to see if there was availability. A while later she came back and said they had availability the problem was that they didn't check people in after 11, and since our ferry was later we weren't going to get back to Sevilla until almost 1am. So in a panic i called the hostel and tried to reason with them that we'd be quiet entering our shared dorm, that we needed a place to stay and that I had already

made the reservation, and it's not my fault our ferry was late. The man wouldn't budge and only offered me a much higher price private room, which wasn't worth it because my friend was leaving at 6am. So in the end we cancelled the reservation (thankfully he didn't charge me for it since it was a short notice cancellation) and we slept (or didn't sleep) in the bus station, in the cold (with no jacket remember), just laughing with my friend because our Winter Break vacation ended the exact same way in the Barcelona bus station.

I waited for my bus which I thought was at 9am but it was at 9:45, got the the bus and started on my journey to Caceres then finally back to Navalmoral. When I got to the bus station around 3:30pm it started pouring rain, and since I had no jacket or umbrella I waited another half hour til I was able to get home. Finally arrived to my humble abode where I tossed my purse onto my bed and my Aquafina water bottle exploded soaking the bed and reaching my precious laptop! (Oh no!!) I rushed to save it dried it wit a towel and tried to see what happened. No response. My world was coming to an end, so I just left my laptop on my desk to dry and went into an exhausted emotional coma for the next few hours. Around 11pm I woke up and gave it another go and MIRACLE it turned on and it's been pretty okay ever since *fingers crossed*

Well it's not the first time I say my bad luck is impressive, but this really is up there on the list. It was a good vacation overall and I'm ready to keep movin' on up! 

Thanks for reading !! 

~Cathy

2014 (1) Nike Attitude

Here I am again in front a blank screen for a blank blog post that should soon be filled with witty and charming tales of my daily meandering around. The last time I hit "publish" on this blog was back in August, and even then several posts begin with a sincere apology for my absence since I know (hope) that the tiny little things I write inspire something (laughter, thoughtfulness...etc.) in those who read. This isn't the first time I've sat in front of this screen between my last post and now, it's just the time that I've decided to suck it up and write, the longer you prolong it the guiltier you'll feel. So here I am. I know it's not totally rational that I feel guilty when not writing things in my blog, and of course seeing things like this makes it even more sad.

2014 (0)

This blog started slow because I was crazy in my senior year of college, and I didn't really have time to fit in blogging in the mere 24 hours that we have in a day. Jump to my first year in Spain lots of posts leading up to my departure and the several (mis)adventures that popped up along the way. I was also churning out a lot of posts because I involved myself heavily in the blogging community, and wanted to give my readers something worth coming back to my page for. When I found my niche in Spain, it left less time for me to be blogging about the things I was doing, and instead I was just doing them. Comments and readers dwindled and so did the posting. Now we are in 2014, and I'm not really sure what the fate of this blog is. I don't think I have the heart to close it down completely, because it does give me a space to share my thoughts in a different way than I can on facebook and/or twitter, but I am not quite sure I have the same aspiration I did 3 years ago with having a super popular famous blog where everyone reads it, and not only my family. Even though there is a high number of page views on my blog I'm sure 80% of them are spambots from Russia. I also want to keep writing because I am a bit of a nostalgic person and having something to go back to is important.

It's funny though, I really thought that by living in rural Spain I'd write so much more! There weren't going to be lots of distractions like activities and lots of friends that I had in Madrid, and even a fellow writer friend of mine told me that what a lot of writers want is the time and space to write. That's what I got lots of time and plenty of quiet moments to just sit with a pen and a pad (or a blank blog screen) and just let the words flow from my brain to the page. It hasn't happened quite as I'd planned. I haven't been completely dry on the writing block. My poetry blog has had a few entries, and I'm excited that my Spanish skills are evolving to a place where I can write poems that aren't half bad.

I think part of my lack of motivation/ inspiration is partly due to this "fish out of water" feeling I sometimes have in my current place of living. I hadn't anticipated missing Madrid as much as I do, now that I am so close yet so far, and that in turn has occasionally not really allowed me to connect with the place that I live. It doesn't help that I commute to work so the friends I make at work are far away, and the friends I have where I live I can count on one hand (yeah, it could be much worse--- I've been much worse, but it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to :P ). It doesn't help that I have several moments like this in Navalmoral de la Mata, but I'm growing and learning to not shut down because of it.

But I guess with all things you want to accomplish you kinda have to put yourself in the Nike attitude (Just do it!) So that's what I'm doing--- Just do it (write!) Just do it (be happy!) Just do it (clean your room!... well) lol. I think it has also really helped me to take part in the #100HappyDays challenge. If you're curious to see what it is take a look at my fb album and check out www.100happydays.com.

That's all for now, let's hope you'll be reading me again soon! <3

Ciao Ciao

@CathyArely

Extraordinary Extrajeria Extravaganza

For those of you who have not been graced with the opportunity to have to deal with foreigners' offices around the globe, you are really missing out {/end sarcasm}

The ever dreadful mustard yellow building from your nightmares
(Source)

Jumping through hoops, getting papers stamped, paying fees, waiting in line, filling out more forms, signature here, date there, copy of this, staple that... it's endless. Coming into any country for a prolonged period of time comes at the cost of this bureaucratic madness. And of course, I've had my fair share since the beginning.

This year things were particularly messed up. In order to renew your student card you had to turn in the application, papers proving your finished the program this year and got renewed, accompanying fees, a document called empadronamiento (for census purposes and keeping track of where people live).

Well the empadron was the first hurdle in this heap of....manure. I went to the local office with everything signed and ready to go. The contract my roommate had for our apartment, copy of his ID and signature on the application, SHOULD be easy as pie. Unfortunately for me, my previous roommate who had left on not such a good note with the boys was previously registered with this contract. So.... it was HER signature and ID that I needed. And of course, to my incredible bad luck she was in California (of all places) at the time. I told them all this and they said there was nothing they could do. I went again, and explained the situation to another person. He told me to fill out a new application and check some different boxes and it should work. So I went home got the signature that I needed and went back for a third time. The girl was not really having it since of course I didn't have the signature fromk the person they say they need (even though she doesn't live in the country let alone our apartment anymore). After some begging and pleading and stating that this was my third time there they finally gave me the stamp that I needed.

(Source)

So all I needed to do was turn in my papers, wait for the letter of appointment for fingerprints, get fingerprinted and wait 40 days for my ID card in order to travel freely in the EU. No Problem! Turn in papers (check!) Wait, wait, wait for my letter (...in December Check!) Wait... my appointment to be fingerprinted is... May 9th! Add the 40 days to pick up the card and that puts me at June  18th for a card that is only going to be valid until the end of my contract which is June 30th. So... I have to live most of my second year in Madrid undocumented because there was a huge backup and apparently common sense isn't so common anymore.

Months passed and I accepted my fate for having to get an Authorización de Regreso (authorization to return) whenever I needed to travel this term.

As my appointment drew near I soon realized that my appointment May 9th from 4-6pm was not going to cut it because that was the opening night of the spring show I was in Steel Magnolias. I had made a plan to go the day before (as other auxiliares had mentioned they went in even without a letter and had been helped) and get it out of the way and everyone's happy (or so I thought).

I arrive bright and early Wednesday morning, and there is a line around the corner just to go through the metal detector. 20 minutes in I look for the line where they do the fingerprints when I overhear a police officer saying "let's cut off the fingerprint line" I quickly go up to him and with big eyes ask which line is for finger prints, and luckily he takes me in and makes me the cut off.

¿La fila para huellas?

In the twisting, turning, baby crying, sun scorching line, I waited for 5 HOURS. There is a person at the front of the building doing crowd control, taking as many people fit inside, and when there is room calling more in. I was finally about to get inside, when the crowd control person (a big angry man with a hat) asks to see the back of my appointment paper (with the date on it.... what the heck at least 50 people passed ahead of me and he didn't ask them to show!) So I showed him my paper, and he turned me away. Even after begging and pleading trying to state my case and being cut off. He insisted if my paper didn't have that date on it I wasn't getting inside. So I went to work, late and for nothing, and decided if I made an early enough attempt the next day I would still make it in time to save the show, and get what I need done.

Thursday rolls around I'm there at the beloved Aluche this time even earlier, that there isn't a line for the metal detector but there is still a curve to the line of people a million times worse than the DMV inside. I wait in that line again, for 5 HOURS and this time I make it into the building (GLORY!) I make it to the desk, the young man flips over my paper and says, you're scheduled to come in at 4, and it's only 1 o'clock I can't help you. I again I plead, and say there is no way I can get through that line in time, and with an apathetic face he just shrugs and calls the next person in line. 

My last option is to go upstairs and see if I could get my appointment changed. According to the other people in line, my chances of that happening were grim since they knew people were getting appointments for September... which would have done me no good. I trekked upstairs anyway in hope that I could not go home again empty handed. 

I arrive upstairs to wait in the information line, and see the two people helping are a woman and the older man with a hat that threw me out the day before--cue feeling in the pit of my stomach. Waiting in line in front of me is an older woman who asked my situation and when I told her I'd waited 5 hours 2 days in a row she asks me if I'm pregnant -_- And when I reply no, she told me to tell them I was pregnant so that I could be helped. She gets up to the front of the line and she has to go with hat man, but she steps aside, and says I want to wait for the woman. I politely decline and no you go ahead. She still insists with her pushy older woman ways and I head over to hat man. So when he asks me how can I help you, in as sweet of a voice as I can muster I start to ramble on about how he may have recognized me from the day before and I needed to change my appointment, because I really couldn't be there that after noon. And he says.... "Can you come in tomorrow?" *sigh of relief* I say I can but if there is a way for him to make it on Monday it would be best. He looks at me confused and tells me Monday is the day with the most people, but then I told him it was my day off so he took his pen wrote the new date, stamped it, and I came in on Monday to wait another 5 HOURS (which really you can't avoid unless you get there at the break of dawn and I like sleep too much).

So I've survived!! For now... We'll see  how the Cáceres version of Aluche treats me come September.

Much Love!

@CathyArely

The Money Runaround

So I wasn't planning on having another post so soon but given the events that have happened in the last few hours. I think I need a little venting. 

Background- While in Spain I was planning on using something that's called a cash passport. This is a debit card that has the currency you need on it. So in theory it was like me purchasing euros on a card that I could use in Spain and at their ATMs without having to deal with the redonkulous fees Chase would hit me with. This was only the temporary situation for my money until I got my spanish bank account.

 

 So today I went to buy it $1000 (which was only 666.50 euros-- MAN UP USD!) + 29.99 for it to get here by Saturday (didn't want to risk having it get here monday since i am leaving on tuesday). I get to the confirmation page and it says my order didn't go through because it was rejected. This wasn't that big of a deal because I figured that it probably had something to do with the billing address issues I was having, and I'd just have to find a new way to have money.

Next, I check my bank acct. and the 1029.99 is pending/on hold...leaving only $11 in my checking! I go back to the website, and it says it can take up to 30 business days for the hold to be released! *** FREAK OUT MOMENT*** I leave in 4 days  13 hours and 55 minutes and I'm down a grand, not happening! 

So I call my bank and explain to them the situation, and they tell me that there are two options. The first was to wait, that the charge should fall off on it's own in 3-4 business days and everything will be back to normal. I wouldn't be too opposed to this plan if i wasn't flying ACROSS THE WORLD in those 3-4 business days. The next option is to get the merchant to fax them a statement with their manager's signature, and my information. Once the bank receives my money is back within 6 hours.

I call the merchant, and explain to them the situation, and what the bank said I needed from them. The guy was very nice and said that he could totally help me, and asked if they gave me the authorization code (which i later found out was the transaction number for the purchase) I said no, and he told me to call the bank to ask for it, because the bank was not going to give it to them, and then call back so that they can finish the action. Ok...

I called Chase back, and explained the situation AGAIN, and after trying to get the girl to figure out what the authorization code, I was on my merry way to getting my money back.

Called the merchant, and explained the situation to the new person handling my call, who told me that the people who could help me with my transaction left for the day, and that I need to call back tomorrow morning to complete every...That's what I get for being on Pacific Time instead of Eastern or Central...

So that is what I am going to do... call tomorrow and hope that everything works as smoothly as the merchant operator led me to believe it would be, given the circumstances. The only thing is that now, there is an extra worry over my head, and I have to figure out a new way to try to get out of the million fees that are bound to be attached to any spending I do in the motherland. Luckily I have friends and family to reassure me "If anyone can do it, you can Cathy...." 

Thanks for reading my lovely rant, I'll keep you all posted on outcome. 

<3 Cat