Settling in

My second day at school was pretty much the same. I started at 9.25am and had another lesson at 12.30pm which I later discovered was cancelled.
I asked the school secretary to write me a letter stating that I worked in the school so that I can go to the town hall and claim resident discounts (50% off flights back to the peninsula).

In between my lessons I met with Annalisa and we tried to get our NIEs (a social security number that we need in order to get paid). When we got to the office where we needed to be there was a mass of about 40 people sat down waiting in the hot sunshine. We took a ticket (as if we were at a Tesco delicatessen) and waited our turns. We were 89 and 90. 23 was on the digital display on the wall and we spoke to a lady that was 45. She'd been waiting since 9.30am and it was 11am. We left and decided we're going to have to either camp out overnight or just get there very early!
When I went back to my lesson Annalisa went to the town hall and found out that we need proof of address and an NIE to get our residency discount and that we also need proof of address to get our NIE. Good job we didn't wait! So it may take a little longer than expected to get the ball rolling with the Spanish bureaucratic system proving itself to be a barrier.

We jumped on a bus yesterday and tried to ride it in one big circle, just to see if that was the bus that I need to get  from my flat. It took us all the way to the border where the landscape completely changed. It was amazing to see how different it was just a 5 minute bus journey away. A lot of Muslims amongst a market of fresh fruit, cigarettes, toilet roll in bulk, crockery, bedding, you name it! Annalisa is quite keen to go back there and have a mooch around - she's going to have to convince me, and it's confirmed, I'm not crossing that border unless I'm with a man!

We've both put announcements in the local paper for private lessons and when I head into school today I'll put one up there. Some of the last assistants gave me numbers for some private lessons but none of them are responding so I'll just have to keep searching.

I received a text from my landlord this morning to say that I can move in tonight at 5pm. Annalisa also moves out of the hostel this afternoon so no more expensive sleeps and hopefully a better internet connection coming soon.

See you next time.