My need to write has completely overridden my trip to the gym this afternoon, even though yesterday I was bound and determined to hit the gym hard today. It seems that my body is playing tricks on me, because yesterday I looked in the mirror and all I saw was FAT! I suppose it doesn't help that I'm PMS-ing. How does a woman know she's PMS-ing? Please choose from the answers below:
A. when, seemingly overnight, she looks and feels fat (and actually IS due to water-retention!), causing her to seriously consider Liposuction
B. she gets teary eyed and emotional when hearing Christmas music being played over the department store loudspeakers
C. someone walks or steps too close to her and she takes an almost sadistic pleasure in imagining that she's biting off their heads and spitting them out on the sidewalk, especially if they are men
D. everything in life looks bleak and negative, and causes her to be unreceptive and impatient with anything and anyone
E. her boobs hurt
F. no amount of chocolate seems sufficient, even though she stuffs her face full of the delicious stuff, which causes her to look and feel fat, starting the Liposuction cycle all over again (see A above)
G. all of the above
If you chose "G", then you get a gold star for being so darn smart. You should be proud of yourself for knowing only too well that you need to stay out of the way of a woman who is PMS-ing!!
Don't worry. I still plan on hitting the 7:00 pm spinning class! :)
Despite my obvious crankiness, I've had a couple of really productive days here in Valencia. I stopped into another language school to see about their needs for an English teacher, and their response was positive. I continue to get various answers depending on who I talk with. There apparently are rules which everyone knows about, but no one really listens to. If a school has the need for an English teacher and feels like hiring you, then you're in (without a contract, of course). Then there are other schools who definitely wouldn't hire you unless you have a valid work permit.
I also am the proud new owner of a Spanish bank account with Caixa Catlunya! That's right, I am a valid banker in this country now. My debit card arrives in two days. Apparently there are no firm rules with this either, and it just depends on who you talk to, which bank you go to, and what mood they're in when you step up to their counter. And I really need to unabashedly admit that Canadians are generally very warmly welcomed and appreciated all over Spain. (Just a tip: It helps to leave your ego at the door when you walk into a place. The more humble you can be the better.) To open a bank account in Spain one needs an N.I.E number (National Foreigner Identification Number). This number can supposedly be granted to residents only - meaning native Spanish and European citizens only. The rest of us have to try and get one through a valid work permit, which apparently they aren't giving to Canadians. At least that's what the Spanish Consulate in Canada told me before I left for Spain. However, the fact that I just opened a bank account without an N.I.E. number has caused me to wonder about the systems they have in place here. I've read plenty of internet articles, have purchased a book on moving to Spain, and have talked with various people regarding their experiences. Everyone has something different to say. So I'm going to go with my intuition here... I'm going to find the N.I.E. office and personally ask about obtaining a number. What's the worst that can happen? They can say "no"? Well gee, that doesn't seem too bad. I'm also going to look around for a Gestor in Valencia. A Gestor is a person who acts as an intermediary between you and the various bureaucratic agencies in Spain, and is said to be almost a necessity due to the lengthy and confusing processes they have here. They are not actually lawyers, but they know how to obtain and work with official documents far more quickly than one could do on their own. So that's my executive decision. Consider it a done deal.
I have an interview with Campbell College tomorrow, the school that offers the TESL course here in Valencia in February, and actually is the only school in Valencia that offers such a course. I guess I passed the pre-interview application process, which basically was like writing a exam on English verb forms, tenses, parts of speech, and phonetic spelling. I pretty much guessed my way through it - who knew there was a past-perfect tense in English? Who knew that we actually have names for things, such as "auxilary" or "adverb of degree"? Unless you're an English major in university, speaking and undertanding English is simply intuitive. We don't know why we switch to using a conditional tense from using a simple past tense. The same goes for the majority of Spaniards. Whenever I point my finger at Manu and dramatically exclaim "HEY! Did you just use the Subjunctive tense with me???", his response is "I have no idea what tense I just used with you". In any case, I must've done something right because they've asked me to come in tomorrow. The two hesitations I have with taking a TESL course in Valencia is that it's a lot more expensive (I'd be paying in Euros), and the course doesn't start until the middle of February. That's another two months of feeling like I'm not accomplishing very much, which has been a mounting sentiment the last little while. So we'll see. If it is written...
Of course handling the warm Spanish sunshine won't be an issue, and is actually THE biggest reason why it would be hard to leave here. It's 18 degrees today people! Of course this isn't tropical weather by any means, but isn't it something like -2 in Vancouver right now?? And if it's "only" -2 degrees in Vancouver, then what the heck is the temperature in the other parts of Canada?
Do you know that I can actually lie on my bed infront of my south facing window here in my room at my home in Valencia and work on my tan?? I kid you not. It's true.
At the supermarket picking up water today, I couldn't help but again notice how warm and friendly the Spaniards are. One lady a couple places ahead of me in the lineup started talking with the cashier, and she continued on through the next customer, through my checkout, and was still talking when I left the supermarket. She was just standing there blabbing personably to the cashier about her life, her family, a son of hers was in the hospital, yadda yadda yadda. And this is very normal - people just pick up and start talking with anyone, be it on the street, in the checkout line, on the metro, at the cafe, wherever. In Vancouver this would never happen. In my hometown it might happen a little more but isn't overdone by any means, and talking about your personal life would definitely not be the norm. That would be considered "Too Much Information!", as we say. But I just love how open and friendly people are here, they don't have any walls. Living in Spain has definitely helped me to break down some of my own barriers. I am happier this way, and it shows.
I can't help but roll my eyes at the gypsies who sit on the pavement outside the supermarkets, speaking in agonized tones "pooorrrrr favoooooorrrrr...." when really you know that their lines are completely rehearsed, and that begging for change is what they do for a living. I really clued into this while living in Barcelona and walking to Spanish class one day via Avenida Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia. I watched as three gypsies (one with a baby) got off the metro and chatted with one another in regular tones, laughing, seemingly healthy, vibrant and positive. Then they waved good bye to one another, and one went in one direction and assumed her post on a corner across the street from the Sagrada Familia. The other two (and baby) energetically strode up the street to take their positions at another nearby corner. This is where they sit all day, haunched over, groaning on, trying to make people believe that they are desperate and suffering. Too funny!
Tonight I'm going to the Meetup Group. As the organizer of the group is Irish, we are meeting at an Irish Pub. Meeting at an Irish Pub in Spain. ummmm?? wha?
I am getting excited for my trip to Amsterdam this weekend to see Armin Van Buuren and Markus Schulz at The Best of Both Worlds at the Heinecken Music Hall. To see AVB at the Heinecken Music Hall is something I've always wanted to do, so I am super excited! Check it out at: http://www.aldaevents.nl/bestofbothworlds/ It's sold out, but I managed to buy one of the last "gold" tickets directly through the promotor. Hey, if you never ask, you never know, right? What's the worst they can say? No?
Charleen xo
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