Monday, November 5, 2007

Catching up (despite the huge time difference)

This one has to be brief, as I am completely swamped at work and have no business writing this. Just wanted to make a quick mention of how GOD AWFUL it was just to add the GD international calling function to my GD cell phone plan. It's like they seriously want to make it more DIFFICULT for me to give them MORE money! God I hate cell phone companies.

Anyway, at least that's dealt with and now all I have to do is pay the $4 monthly fee (to be cancelled at any time, by me) plus $.26/minute charges to Granada and the rest of Spain. Not too bad, really. I just have to be speedy about my calls to ViaLingua. Also of note, Granada is SEVEN hours ahead of New Orleans time, so in the future you'll know you have to call between 01:00 and 13:00 to be considered polite. I will have to wake up extra early one day this week to call so I won't be overheard by anyone at work.

In other Spain-related news, I just picked up Living Abroad in Spain by the lovely Nikki Weinstein, a former New Yorker who moved to Spain and wrote this book about the experience for other Americans considering the big move. I heard about the book from my LSMSA school junior, Ann, who's over in Granada now and will be there when I get there in March. I'm on page 13 right now, going through a 4-page synopsis of the history of Spain (can you imagine how someone could cram such a long history into 4 pages?!?), with which I'm already largely familar by now. I will let you know if I find any good tidbits of interest. Between reading an hour or so at night, after my daily bike rides, and reading to and from work on the bus (and on lunch breaks), I should be finished with this baby in a few weeks.

I really hope there's info in there on visa regulations...my mind is completely wrapped up in Spanish red tape at this point.

Oh and also about the book - I was eating lunch and had it lying next to me, ready for me to take outside with me once I was done eating. Another paralegal came into the lunch room and (of course) noticed the book and asked if I was going to Spain. I turned pale (I felt like I did) and sputtered out a random lie about just being interested in travel books and how I got this one at the library because I was bored. I feel so totally sneaky, lying to everyone at work. It sucks, but when it's tough, I repeat my daily mantra: CYA, baby. CYA.

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