We are quickly learning the ways of Spain. Nothing is open after 2 pm, and no one is in a hurry. It is a great philosophy really, if you are not trying to accomplish anything in a hurry. It is forcing us to get out of the house early, run our errands, and then chill out and/or play for the rest of the day. We have also adopted Spanish meal times, as it is just too hot to cook or eat until 8 or 9 pm. We experienced our first pallella On the beach Monday to celebrate getting the kids registered in school. We walked the 1 block from the school to the beach, and Shane and I ordered the food and drank cervesas in the shade while the kids swam. When the food arrived, they joined us, and then ran back for more ocean time. Today, we were in no rush...or so we thought. We needed to go to the police station in Motril to apply for residency cards. Since we already have our visas and NIE numbers, we thought it was just a simple check in at the office...not the case. After waiting our turn, having multiple people go ahead of us who arrived after us, finally asking and getting to talk to someone, then waiting while she took a 20 minute phone call as we waited, we found out that we needed to go get more passport photos taken, get multiple photocopies of our passports and visas, go to a bank to pay another fee for the forms she filled out for us, then come back to be fingerprinted at the station. After standing in line for 30 minutes at a bank we were told that we can only pay for these forms on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and not on Wednesdays, so we went to another bank, and stood in line for another 30 minutes. This bank was great and gave us lots of great advise regarding banking in Spain. Unfortunately, we did not get back to the police station until 2:10...and everything closes at 2. So, tomorrow we start again! We did however discover a cool little town with a great castle and beach on the way home, so Vida es bueno!
Kris