mi trabajo

What is it I do exactly? I teach English at a private school in a suburb of Madrid. I teach from 3 year olds to 17 year olds (and I prefer working with teens, as I am still very much a teen at heart). The teens also are more likely to entertain me with their English, and they are less trying on my patience. To primary children, I teach Science, which I really know nothing about. Since Science in English only gives the general outlook and it's their Science in Spanish classes that give them the details, I'm okay with that. I just don't feel as motivated or driven to work with this age as I do with the teens.

How is my day? I wake up at 6.15 to check email, eat my Muesli that I'm addicted to, do some pushups and situps if I'm awake enough to do it, shower, leave at 7.15, have coffee, catch a metro and then bus to begin work at 9.

My school goes from 9-5, with a half hour "recreo" at 11, and a 2-hour lunch break/siesta from 13.15-15.15. While I am considered to only be working 28 hours a week, it is a full 40 hour week, trust me.

Monday is Body Combat day at the gym. If I can make it home before 6 to make it to Body Combat on Friday, I'm happy, but it's a rare day that happens. Wednesday and Friday I go to the gym to lift weights, as to find a boyfriend in Madrid, you must have the body of Cristiano Ronaldo (who to me is one of the fugliest men on the planet due to his damn personality) to even make friends if you're gay.

My body remains far from that.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go to catalán, trying to build my CV for a future one day in Barcelona.

I am pretty much burnt out.

I have accepted the renewal to return next year, but in a few weeks, I'm going to receive a job offer to work in Catalunya, possibly Barcelona, which is my dream. However, this job, while it will be working with only secondary school, will come with a paycut down to 700€. Which is not that liveable for even pueblo Catalunya, as it is second to only País vasco in terms of richest parts of Spain. (Funny how it's the two richest parts of Spain that want to be independent. They will never be independent as without them, as Spain needs them economically.)

There are pros and cons to each. I wouldn't be as stressed, and I could possibly work on my master. However, I don't see me having money for my master this year. I also wouldn't be able to travel, which we all know is something that I love to do.

I also think honestly, I'm not going to find a boyfriend in Madrid. My personality meshes well with valencianos and Spanish from the north of Spain...but these personality types do not work well in Madrid. And yet madrileños say that it's the people in the north who are cold and people of the south that are falso when the vast majority of madrileños are BOTH :) I digress.

I have a huge decision on my shoulders, and I'm not sure what to do.

mi visado...otra vez.

The joys of living abroad (in a place that feels more like home than the US ever did, for the record).

In October 2010, I rushed off to present my papers to renew my NIE (the visa in Spain) in Valencia the second I obtained the papers necessary that granted me a job and insurance to stay in Spain. They were accepted, was told there was no problem, that I had everything.

Due to some jackholes I was living with at the time, I changed flats as soon as possible. Since I had instructed the letter saying everything was fine to be sent to my school, this was okay.

Apparently they sent me a letter in March 2011 saying that I needed a paper that they already had. They don't deliver to schools.

In May 2011, I finally found out that it was "no favorable", so I had to go down, find out that I was missing this paper that they already had, gave them a second copy, and VIOLA! Two days later I was favorable.

I went down and waited two hours to have my new ID card for the NIE. They told me that since it expired the 31st of May that they weren't going to make me a new one as it was the 15th of May. I rushed off to Barcelona, as I had plans to do my master there and was already admitted, and they told me I was still legal as long as I presented my papers for renewal within 3 months of the expiration date due to a new change in Spanish law.

Things change, I receive a job offer in Madrid and was unable to do the máster due to finances. I accept the job, make the appointment to have my NIE renewed within the 3 months even though it wasn't until November. and on 4 November, present the papers.

Back to en tramite, but I am 100 legal. En tramite every day for four months.

Last week, I see that it had been changed to "favorable". I am still waiting to receive the letter. Because I want to go to Italia during Semana Santa, I need to get a "autorización de regreso". Thursday, I go in to get it. I didn't pay the right tax, even though I paid the right amount (10 Euro), so I have to go down to the bank and pay it, and go back, and wait in line all over again.

I get the permiso de regreso just to be told "by the way, since your NIE expires 30 May, we're not going to make you a new ID card. We don't give a damn that your job is until 26th June. By all means, continue using your card that expired 1 November 2010!"

So...now I have to make another appointment, after 30th March, to go in to have it renewed. Which means I will most likely be stuck in Madrid as I cannot turn down the job renewal I received this week that is going to allow me to be in Spain another year, even though other options will probably come up.

Seriously. I have tried to explain it like everyone is 2, but...this stuff just doesn't make any sense no matter how many times you explain it.