#37 See all of Madrid from the Tetas de Vallecas park

I should preface this post by telling you two things:

     1. This park is actually called Parque Cerro del Tío Pío.
     2. I have attempted twice to get to this park during the day (i.e. before the sun set). I have failed twice.

Okay, so explanation of point one. This tiny park is located in Vallecas, a neighborhood in the southeast of Madrid. It's a nice little park formed of several little hills. Thanks to the shape of the hills, someone - and I'd venture to guess someone of the male gender - nicknamed the park "las Tetas de Vallecas." The response that I received to my comment on how I thought the nickname is a bit funny, since the hills are not of equal size: "Well, the human body isn't always symmetrical!"

Point two. The tetas - err, hills - give you great views of Madrid, both during the day and while the sun sets. Naturally, because I'm lazy, I've tried to go a little bit before sunset to kill two birds with one stone. And, naturally, I've underestimated the time it takes to get there from my apartment. The second attempt was more successful, in that there was still a bit of light and I was able to take some mediocre photos. Maybe one day I'll manage to get there during the day?

Huelga General 14N

Today is the third general strike in Spain since I started living here. Three general strikes in a matter of only a little over two years. And that doesn't include all of the other protests, public transportation strikes, airline strikes, air traffic controller strikes, multi-month camp-outs in Madrid and Barcelona's main squares, etc.

One of the various ads for today's strike.

Seeing as I'm obviously not a Spanish citizen and my future isn't dependent on this country's economic or societal well-being, I don't really feel right in expressing my feelings in detail on the topic of the general strike. Don't get me wrong - I have a very strong opinion on the issue, but I only feel justified in saying this: based on the past strikes and the current one, the 24-hour general strike doesn't seem to be a very efficient way of going about finding or working towards a solution for Spain's current problems. (Spain, by the way, is not the only country responding to the current crises by means of strike - Greece, Portugal, and Italy have also been going on strike, although I couldn't tell you to what extent.) In my personal opinion, attempting to halt the economy for 24 hours really doesn't seem like an effective or responsible way to respond to what the Spanish government has been doing lately (or, perhaps better said, what it's failed to do lately). I get the irony - but it's irresponsibly counterproductive.

It's definitely an interesting time to be in Spain. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty certain that things are going to plummet further before they start to look up.

Stupid Time Difference

The time difference between western Europe and the east coast of the US (i.e. home) can sometimes be a pain in the butt. The six hour difference means that typically when people are leaving work around 5 pm, it's already 11 for me here. By the time they get home, its midnight for me at the earliest, and while I don't exactly tend to go to bed early, that is my time for unwinding and preparing for the next day of screaming little monsters. In other words, if I want to chat with a friend, it's a little too late. If I need to call Mommy (who, lucky for me, is a teacher and leaves work a bit earlier...usually), it's still sort of late.

But you know, you get used to the time difference. Not a huge issue, or even inconvenience really.

Until tonight. November 6th. Well, by now it's November 7th here in Spain and I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHO'S WON THE FLIPPIN' ELECTION!!

I can't stay up all night, but I'm too nervous to sleep. Conundrum.

It's Kaki Season!!!

I seriously do not know how I went twenty-four years of my life without this fruit. I discovered it last fall - they're called kakis here, persimmons in English - and I think I practically lived off it for three or four months. Then I spent about nine months eagerly awaiting the start of 2012 persimmon season.

Why so special, you ask? They're sweet, crunchy, have a fantastic, thick, pretty orange skin (I know, I'm weird, I always eat my fruit with the skin on, no matter how tough it is...unless it's like, an orange). Perfect for autumn. And, if you cut them horizontally there's a star in the middle, a bit like when you cut an apply horizontally.

Word of advice, though: there are two main varieties of persimmons, the gross variety (in my opinion), which is shorter and rounder and you have to let ripen until it's really soft and then you scoop it out; and the good version, which is slightly more elongated and eaten while it's firm. Mmm, I love crunchy fruit!


Edit: After some disconcerting research, I discovered that you shouldn't eat persimmons too often, and you shouldn't eat them on an empty stomach, especially with the skin on (i.e. basically the only way I eat them). Apparently they contain "a compound called shibuol" that doesn't react well with stomach acid and could eventually lead to digestive issues. I have no idea how much of a risk this is or if it applies to all different types of persimmons but...maybe just to be safe I'm going to stop eating them for breakfast every single day.

Made in the USA...Sold in España

Remember I wrote this post about American things (or things found in the US) that I miss because you can't find them in Spain? (Part Two is coming, hopefully soon, by the way.)

Well, here's a brief update on American products of a different category: things that you actually can find here in Spain and that I miss enough to pay ridiculously exorbitant prices for every once in a while.

1. Canned pumpkin.  Maybe fresh pumpkin is better (I don't know, I'm too lazy to have ever tried cooking with it), but even fresh pumpkins aren't very popular here. But to me, autumn = pumpkins. Among other things. But especially pumpkins. Not to mention Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie. So finding canned pumpkin is a once or twice a year necessity. I'm not sure if there are any Spanish grocery stores that sell canned pumpkin, but I've never seen it. If anyone ever has, please let me know! But anyway, I've always gone to Taste of America, where it costs €3 a can. Not terrible, but more expensive than I've ever seen at home. I recently bought a couple of cans to make pumpkin bread with, and it was totally worth it.

The cake mixes are perhaps the most overpriced - €6 or €7 a box!

2. Brown sugar.  The concept of brown sugar just doesn't exist here. They've got "azúcar moreno," which sort of is brown sugar (and is what that translates to), but in reality, it's only what we call raw sugar. Not the same as our probably extra-diabetes-enducing molasses-sugar mixture. Obviously this isn't something I use all that frequently, but I do like it on oatmeal and making certain baked goods, such as the good old chocolate chip cookie, is impossible without it. I also buy this at Taste of America - where it's generally about €1,50 - because I've never seen it in regular grocery stores either.

3. Peanut butter.  The funny thing is, I'm not really even much of a peanut butter fan. I love love love peanut butter cups or any other form of chocolate and peanut butter together, and I love it with apples, but I never eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, for example. I think it's the texture - it's just way too much between the stickiness/thickness of the PB and the bread. Anyway, I remember when I studied abroad here I brought a jar of PB, knowing that it was hard to find, and I went through that thing with lightning speed. I don't buy it often now, but I've found it in a couple of grocery stores and I therefore don't bother bringing it from the US. The latest regular-sized jar I bought cost me €4,50...which I do think is a lot for peanut butter...

Baking soda is also sort of a weird situation here - they sell what I think is the chemical equivalent here in grocery stores, but I think it's used more for cleaning than for baking. Normally it's only baking powder here. I've never tried this supermarket equivalent because I bought a box of way overpriced Arm & Hammer at Taste of America a couple of years ago and obviously I haven't even gone through a quarter of the box. I'm more likely to have to get new baking soda because this box is going to expire, rather than actually run out.

Sesame, onion, and plain bagels!

One last thing that is hard to find here in Spain, and when you do find it, it's usually not that great, is bagels. They actually sell them at Taste of America and also some specialty bakeries, but I've found it's much more cost effective (and let's face it, much more FUN) to make my own bagels. Mmmm.

So there you have it: these are the products that I occasionally like to pick up, mostly at Taste of America. (Notice how it's all food?) It's a cool little store (right by the NYU campus here), and they carry both food products and even American-style cookware, such as cupcake pans, cake decorating items, etc. They even have some weird products that I've never seen before (mostly brands, not actual foods), which is a funny, but seeing as America is pretty big, I guess I'm bound to not know ever brand ever in existence. Also, several times that I've bought stuff at Taste of America, they've given me random things free with my purchases - like this bag of Goldfish in the picture above. I don't even buy Goldfish often in the US, so I really can't remember the last time I've had them, but it was a nice little culinary reminder of home.

Polska

I've gotten the question several times, "why Poland?" The honest answer was a combination of: I wanted to go somewhere I knew little about, somewhere different from western Europe, somewhere not too touristy, and somewhere that I wasn't sure would be a safe place to travel on my own (it is completely safe, by the way, I've just read to avoid night trains).

Panorama of Krakow.

Poland was the first surprisingly excellent choice I made for travel this summer (the other being my first-ever solo trip to Sweden, Estonia, and Cataluña in northern Spain, but more on that in another post). I had relatively high expectations for Poland, and they were more than exceeded, in Krakow in particular. The whole country, from the Tatra mountains at the southern border with Slovakia to Warsaw (I really still can't believe that this city was more than 85% destroyed during WWII and managed to rebuild and bounce back in a matter of only about 20 years - incredible) to the Baltic coast, is all really beautiful. And, like Hungary, everything is really cheap and the cuisine is awesome (provided that you like potatoes, cabbage, sausage, and dumplings, to all of which I say, keep it comin').

Morskie Oko, the largest glacial lake in the Tatra mountains.

Sunset in Torun.

PIEROGIS!

So anyway, this blog is really more supposed to be about Spain and the joys of living here, so I'll keep the non-Spanish stuff to as much of a minimum as I'm capable. I'll leave you with two things:

1. in Poland we went to the cities/towns of Krakow, Zakopane (in the Tatras mountains), Warsaw, Torun, Malbork, Gdansk, and Poznan,

2. and a piece of advice - if you have the chance to travel to Poland, do it. It's so underrated and so worth the visit.

Hiking in the Community of Madrid

If you've ever been to Madrid and done day trips in its alrededores, such as Toledo, Segovia, Alcala de Henares, etc., you probably leave the city via Barajas airport surprised at the fact that, well, you can see mountains in the distance. Believe it or not, Madrid actually has quite a large area of mountains (mostly to the north) with a great deal of hiking and even some skiing in the winter. Madrid itself is actually the highest European capital at some 2100+ ft (650 meters). (Apparently Andorra's capital is actually higher but Andorra only sort of counts as a country so I'm just going to give this one to Spain because aside from football, they don't have a lot going for them at the moment.) We have a weird climate here - pretty cold in the winter (because of the altitude), though not nearly as cold as the New England winters I grew up with (in the city of Madrid it rarely snows), and pretty hot in the summer, with mid June to the end of August in the 90s(F) and often days that get above 100F. The air is very dry and therefore it mostly only rains for a couple weeks in the fall and the spring and rarely ever in the summer. Not going to lie - the weather here is pretty fantastic.

See? Told ya there are mountains. This is by Puerto de Navacerrada.

Mountains overlooking the town of El Escorial (see the monastery?)

View from "la Maliciosa" (literally, the "malicious" mountain - it's a toughie).

But anyway, back to the mountains. I really never knew much about Madrid's surroundings for too long of a time. I vaguely knew somewhere in the back of my mind that there are mountains in the north (maybe from my mild obsession with maps, the Google variety in particular), but I never took that thought seriously. Like I said, if you go outside Madrid - of even if you're in Madrid - you'll notice that because it's so dry, vegetation is scarce. Highways leading out of Madrid literally pass through flat, dusty, bare fields. Even the mountains themselves aren't very green from a distance (and in actuality, some aren't).

Green. (Patones de Arriba)

Um...not green. (La Pedriza at the end of the summer.)

My point is, I never thought Madrid would have good hiking.

Wrong. Madrid has some great hiking with some beautiful views and great trails. It took me a while to discover this, but I found out in a great way. Last fall, a friend of mine was Googling hiking in the Madrid area and came across a group that does hiking excursions on the weekends in the fall and the spring. At this point it was November, so the season was over (the mountains actually do get snow and ice in the winter), but we decided to check out the group when the spring season started up.

Check out this view! (Patones de Arriba/Cancho de Cabeza)

Basically, a few years ago, two Americans living here started the group and over time it grew. They also wrote a book about many of the hiking routes in Madrid (both north and south of the

Lots of pretty mountain flowers.

city, actually), because they discovered that there weren't any books on this topic published in English. Unfortunately, they're both back in the US now, but the group has been passed on to new hands (we went on the first hikes for the "fall" this past weekend!) and it's really a blast. Not only was I proven oh-so-wrong about there being no nature in this barren land, but each time I've gone on hikes I've met new people from various places - some Spaniards, some Americans, other foreigners living in Madrid, tourists in Madrid that are just there for a few days, etc. Some people you see once and some people go regularly and you get to know them. It's a great social experience - not only does it get you out of the pollution-filled city into some fresh air, but you meet new people and often times it's a great intercambio opportunity (the hikes are led in English but often you find yourself talking to someone in Spanish).

Animal life - mountain goats of some sort.

LOTS of cows also.

The hikes really vary a lot in scenery - sometimes you're walking in a forest, sometimes you're practically rock climbing, sometimes there are caves, sometimes there are animals (both wild and domesticated). Sometimes the routes start or end (or both!) in cute little Spanish towns that you may otherwise never know to visit (such as Patones de Arriba). Sometimes they start or end in well-known towns that already attract lots of tourists (such El Escorial and Chinchon). Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows (once, honestly!), sometimes its 90 degrees out in the blazing sun...but I've always had a good time (cheesy or not).

And we always end the hikes with a nice cold one of these:

 On some rare occasions we're able to end a hike like this:

Dipping our feet in the water near Rascafria on a hot June day.

So if you live in Madrid, you should check out the group. If you're just visiting Madrid, you should still check it out!

Teaching Eeengleesh in Espain

I thought that since it's nearly September (seriously, HOW did that happen?), it was about time that I finally actually admit to the fact that, well, I'm living in Spain to teach English, not to go gallivanting off to as many foreign countries as possible. As you may or may not know, this past year I somehow got myself into teaching English to (mostly) preschoolers. I had seven classes in the primary school (fourth, fifth, and sixth graders), but the majority of my 25 hours teaching were spent with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Don't ask me how or why that happened. (Not because there isn't a why or a how, but rather because it's better that I leave that topic alone.) So anyway, I spent the greater portion of the last ten months reviewing colors and numbers, playing games, and teaching songs. (That's right, my friends, I was forced to break my strict rule of never, ever singing in public - but it's okay because they're so little they don't care, right? Or perhaps the opposite, I'm scarring them for life with my awful singing voice?)

I'm still not sure how, but I somehow grew to enjoy teaching the little kids. After all, they're too young to be really obnoxious or critical or negative like teenagers and preteens can be. This isn't to say that teaching such young children English is a piece of cake, because it isn't; more than anything it's very difficult to keep their attention for nearly an hour in a language that is almost entirely foreign to them when they're that young. Some classes wound up being really great and easy and fun, while a select few others were just short of a nightmare.

Naturally, the five-year-olds were my favorite this past year. They're the oldest (in preschool), they know the most English, and they also just happened to be a really great group of kids. (I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but let's be real - it happens. I absolutely had some favorite students, and the majority of them were five-year-olds.) Unfortunately, it's unlikely I will have these students next year when they more to first grade in primary school. I'll see them but I most likely won't teach their English classes.

Preschool graduation.

I should probably clarify that the majority of my preschoolers still have an...interesting level of English competence. This is something that varies greatly amongst Spanish schools, and as far as I know, the English program at my school is relatively new. The vast majority of the preschoolers I teach have never heard or spoken any words of English when they enter preschool at three years of age, and since they only get an average of five hours of English a week, the learning process is slow. However, I can generally lead my classes in English and speak entirely in English with my preschoolers and they understand the majority of what I say (especially the five-year-olds), but they aren't able to produce full sentences on their own. My four- and five-year-olds know how to say "My name is...", "I like...", and "I'm fine thank you, and you?" but these are automatic phrases they've learned by memorization. By the time they reach third or fourth grade they will most likely have a pretty decent level of English (as far as Spain goes), so they're on the right track.

But the great - and surprising, to me at least - thing about their level of English is that they do understand a great deal of what I say, even if it's just the gist of it and not word for word. Furthermore, they have an incredible vocabulary, the five-year-olds in particular. They know more animals in English than I think I knew in Spanish previous to this year, they can tell you what the weather is like, they know a ridiculous amount of insects in English, they can tell me what foods and sports they like, and most impressive of all, they know the alphabet in English and can identify a lot of words written out in English. It really is incredible how much information their brains soak up.

Anyway, my classses in primary were a much different experience (i.e. they can usually - keyword "usually" - speak full sentences in English and they're often much bigger pains in the butts). I had a little bit of different things, science taught in English (a serious nightmare), English grammar classes (where I was actually for once the teacher's assistant, what I'm actually supposed to be), and English theater workshops (a mix of fun and nightmare). I'll admit that even though the primary classes could be miserable, mainly because of the students' awful behavior, it was generally nice to have a mix of older kids with the little preschoolers.

I'm going to leave commenting on the Spanish education system, the program that I'm a part of in order to teach here, and the differences between education here and in the US until another time...probably once I've finished this school year because, well, I want to keep my job (if you catch my drift). But I will say, it has been a very interesting experience...

Oh, and the above video is the five-year-olds at their preschool graduation, singing a song in English (not taught to them by me). The quality isn't great, and I didn't realize that I was NOT recording the song until halfway through (oops), hence why it just starts in the middle of a line. But I think it's cute and they did a great job singing it - it's a challenging song for their age/English level!

Hungary (and a little bit of Slovakia!)

I can honestly say that before I visited Hungary I really knew nothing about the country. I'd seen amazing pictures of Budapest and heard great things as well, but in terms of central (and eastern) Europe, my knowledge is basically non-existant. (Is there a reason why in high school I had three years filled with the pilgrims, the American Revolution, and the US Civil War, and yet we never got past WWI - during which, by the way, I still have no idea what happened? Something about some archduke being assassinated? Anyway, my point is that my European history is extremely limited and I think the only things I know about communist/Soviet occupied Europe I've learned by visiting formerly occupied countries...yes, America, there are other countries in the world besides you.) Anyway, tangent aside, I learned a lot about Hungary and even central Europe just in the five days we were there. And the country (and city of Budapest) is really beautiful.

View of Pest across the Danube from the Fisherman's Bastion in Buda.

What else can I say about Hungary? Well, for one thing I have two pieces of advice: you should absolutely go, but you should absolutely not go in July or August, unless you're a masochistic person who enjoys high temperatures and intense humidity. Hungary seems to be doing an okay job, economically speaking, but it's still not western Europe. This obviously means a lot of things, but what I'm trying to say is that air conditioning is scarce, and well-functioning AC is even scarcer. We had an extremely miserable first night's sleep until we discovered that - thank God - the window actually DID open. We also had a pretty brutal train ride to a little town called Visegrad. But enough about that.

I'm not going to give you a detailed account of what we did during our trip because, well, I think that's pretty boring. And my pictures will give you a better idea of that anyway. What I will tell you is that aside from a few days in Budapest, we also took day (or half-day) trips to the little towns of Visegrad, Szentendre, and also the larger city of Bratislava, the capital of neighboring Slovakia. We loved Budapest and Bratislava. The other Hungarian towns were nice and pretty but nothing too spectacular.

Bratislava - isn't it pretty?!

The last thing I'll tell you about Budapest is that one of the best things I did (I use the word "best" instead of "favorite" intentionally, and you'll understand why) was a relatively new museum called the House of Terror. I know what you're thinking, I was too - sounds like some cheesy horror museum or haunted house tourist trap. Well, horror, yes; cheesy, not quite. The name is, unfortunately, very fitting. Basically, the museum covers the Nazi Germany and Soviet occupations of Hungary during the 20th century. Let me tell you - this country had it rough. They had a tough time recovering after the first World War (during which they lost 70%

House of Terror

of the country's territory) and as a result, had a difficult time fighting off Nazi Germany and not just one, but two periods of Soviet occupation (Hungary was never a Soviet state but they had a communist government both before and after WWII). So anyway, the building in which the museum is housed was actually where both the Gestapo and the communist government had their headquarters. Particularly during Soviet occupation, it was no secret that torture, imprisonment, and executions were going on in the foreboding, gray, Soviet cement block-like building. Thus its nickname.

So there's my Budapest trip in a nutshell (maybe...I'm not very good at keeping things short). Great trip, great food, and beautiful city(ies). Just oh so hot and sticky.

Spanish bureaucracy (and why it makes me wonder sometimes why I'm still here)

I'm going to tell you a little story about one of the most BS things about living in Spain as a foreigner. But first I have to explain a little bit about the process of obtaining the documents to live here legally. So, Americans coming to study in Spain on a student visa for more than 180 days have to apply for a residency card. The process is a pain in the butt, but if you have all of the right documents, you usually have no (major) problems getting your card. Renewing the card is a bigger issue. Again, it's not that it's difficult to renew your residency card, but the process can be frustrating and it takes forever.

Let me give you a brief overview of the first time I renewed my card. Last year (2011), the process basically went like this: call the Extranjería (immigration office) 60 days before your card is due to expire and they give you a date for an appointment to submit renewal documents. My card was going to expire August 23rd, so I called June 23rd. I was given an appointment for September 1st. Yes, you read that correctly - the appointment was for after the card was going to expire. Unbelievable. No worries, though, this is totally normal (for Spain).

On September 1st, I submitted all of my documents and was told that I would receive a letter in the mail telling me when my new card would be ready for pick-up. Approximately three to four months. Okay...

So December (three months), rolls by, January, February...no sign of any sort from the Extranjería. Finally March hit and at this point I'd been living in Spain without a valid residency card for literally half a year. By the time I was going to receive the new card it would be time to renew it again for the next year! But anyway, the company I work for told me to just go to the office in person to see if the card was ready, because likely, it was and I was just never going to receive that damn letter.

So I went sometime in mid-March to look into the whereabouts of my MIA residency card, and low and behold, it was sitting right there in the office. (Who knows how long it had been sitting there; I think I'd rather not know.) Here's the kicker though - in order to be handed my card, I had to pay a fee of 16 euros. This is on top of the 20 or so euros I'd already paid at my renewal appointment. My card was basically being held ransom! Spain: 1, Sarah: 0.

Long story short, I got my card. Three months later (June of this year) I had to make an appointment to renew it again. The process has changed a bit this year, so we'll see how long it is before I get my new card this time around.

Now, here comes the major BS part. While you're living in Spain with an expired residency card, it's fine so long as you're in the renewal process and have proof that you've made the appointment to renew it. However, this technically prohibits you from leaving the country. So essentially you're held hostage in Spain because the government is as slow as molasses. Why don't you guys go take another siesta or two. You can get around this, however, by applying for an autorización de regreso ("return authorization").

So, another day that I had to get permission to leave work in the morning to go to the immigration office way out in el culo del mundo (the middle of nowhere) so that I could go home last December for Christmas. Another ten euros that I had to shell out just for a particularly ghetto-looking piece of paper that says that I am allowed to leave Spain once and return once (valid only for 90 days from the date of issue!). This is the part that irks me the most - I have to pay the Spanish government for permission to leave the country because they are incapable of processing a cheap little plastic card that says I live here legally in a timely fashion. Seriously, the epitome of the term "bullshit." Spain: 2, Sarah: 0.

That was last Christmas. This summer (actually, tomorrow) I am traveling for two weeks in Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia (I know, bizarre choices) and I moronically failed to notice that when I booked my (non-refundable, of course) plane ticket back into Spain from Estonia, I did so for August 24th. Literally one day after the expiration date of my card. Faaaan-freaking-tastic. Originally I was going to just risk it - I'll being flying within the Schengen area, which means I won't be going through customs anywhere, and therefore no one should be checking my visa. When I went to Portugal last December I was never asked for my visa or any sort of documentation other than my passport.

But then, on two separate occasions already this summer - going to Hungary from Madrid and returning to Madrid from Poland, the obnoxiously irritating Ryanair check-in desk attendants asked me if I have a visa. The guy in Poland had a field day scrutinizing my passport before he asked me about my visa, and then had the gall to ask me if I had noticed its upcoming expiration date. So I guess my frustration in this case is not just with Spanish bureaucracy, but also with the pesky little Ryanair workers (who I only imagine get some sort of bonus every time they find an illegal American in Europe, as if they're bounty hunters or something).

But in all seriousness- are airline attendants even legally allowed to request your visa? It makes sense to me that they should make sure your passport is up-to-date, but shouldn't checking visas be the job of immigration or customs officials?

And even so, how is it even their business if I live legally in Spain? Isn't that for Spanish immigration officers to keep tabs on? Why do other European countries even care how long I've been in Spain? I'm an American with a US passport - I'm clearly not trying to take up residence in Poland, for example.

So anyway, I spent yesterday (Sunday) hunting down a place where I could print and make photocopies of documents in order to apply for an autorización de regreso today (Monday). Of course, being a Sunday in August made things particularly infuriating because practically nothing is open on Sundays and the places that are seem to all be on vacation for the month of August (financial crisis? huh? no money? let's go on vacation for a month anyway!). On the verge of tears I finally found one place that was open (after about four or five that were not), and they even had a photocopier. I was so grateful I almost hugged the guy who works there.

End of story, I went this morning to request the aforementioned BS document, forked over ten euros that I barely have to spare right now, and was given the paper with no problems (I had my doubts for a few reasons, but I won't go into that). The man helping me was also very nice, which is a refreshing change from the series of bitter and rude employees in practically any form of customer service in Spain. Spain: 3, Sarah: maybe 1/2.

So tomorrow I'm off to Stockholm, sola. Some quality alone time with yours truly. I would be willing to bet a good chunk of change that I won't even need to present my autorización de regreso form. But if so, I'll be fighting those petty little Ryanair employees to the death over my legal residency, rest assured.

Buen verano a todos! (Enjoy the rest of the summer!)