This past Monday was a failure of a day. The only two things I did well were eating some bread for dinner--though one could argue that having just bread for dinner is a fail also-- and drinking a beer. A few highlights among the fails of the day:
NIE card
Waking up at 7:30 and spending a total of 5 hours on the bus (about 2.5 hours each way to and from Sevilla) to try to get my NIE card (a national identity card for foreigners--also what I need to get paid at my job here). After waiting in line at the office for half an hour, it turned out that they couldn't do anything that day so I have to come back again in two weeks to try again. Stuart, my Scottish friend who's also teaching English for the year, shouldn't have had any problem getting his NIE paperwork taken care of because the process for people within the EU is much easier, but the computer was broken in the office where he was supposed to go. So we both called it a wasted trip, went out for a beer, and took the bus home.
ATM
Attempting to withdraw money from the ATM. It's a fairly normal part of traveling and living. Should be an uneventful part of the day. I walked with Audrey (my French roommate) and her mother to the ATM on the far end of the street because since it was during the daily 3 hour "siesta time", all of the stores including the bank closer to our apartment were closed. Needed to take out 100 Euros for our WiFi installation fee and for groceries. There's a man using the ATM, so I wait for him to finish. He holds the door open for me, and I walk in and close the door behind me. Try taking out money and enter my PIN two or three different times, but even though it's a "Plus" compatible machine, it won't let me take out any money. I'll have to go to a different ATM in a couple of hours once siesta time is finished. So I take out my card and grab the door handle to leave. CLUNK. The sound of a solidly locked door. Maybe I just didn't pull hard enough. So I pull harder. CLUNK! The door doesn't even budge.
Oh right. Spanish doors sometimes have a little button that you have to push to unlock/open them. So I start looking around all over the place. On the door, next to the door, over by the light switches, on the wall with the ATM. Nothing. I try pulling at the door a few more times and increasingly frantically. Well great. Audrey and her mom are in equal parts concerned and amused and are yelling to me in French and gesturing wildly. Audrey told me later that they were thinking about how to figure out how to call the fire department. After a full minute or two, a Spanish man in his 40s came up to take out some money and after seeing my exaggerated "What the hell am I supposed to do with this!?" arm gesture/worried face/smirk, he started pointing. So I looked around by the ATM again for the button. No luck. He was still pointing and gesturing, so I moved over to the door. And there it was. A tiny little yellow button. I walked out and the three of us started laughing hysterically in relief while the Spanish man chuckled contentedly to himself. I think Spanish door makers get some sort of sick pleasure out of hiding the "open door" buttons in the most difficult places possible. Some sort of standardized button placement would make too much sense I guess. And I didn't even withdraw the money.
Groceries
Since I hadn't accomplished anything that I was planning to during the day, I decided to go buy some food for dinner and then call it a day. So after getting a little turned around on my way to Mercadona, the big grocery store in town, I wandered around the store picking out things that I recognized. As I got in line to check out I remembered that I needed some form of ID to use my credit card. And since I couldn't get money out at the ATM, I only had 20 Euros in cash. I frantically looked through my purse hoping I had at least a passport copy since those usually work. Perfect! B&W copy of my passport and a student ID card. So I stand in line still praying that the total will be under 20 Euros so I won't have to risk them turning down my tattered but still readable excuse for ID.
After having to wait for one of the store employees to come and get my eggplant, cucumbers, and lemon (I didn't know I was supposed to weight them before bringing them up) and holding up the line for a few minutes, the total came up to 26 Euros. Damn. So I pulled out my credit card and my folded up passport copy and mumbled out some broken Spanish trying to explain that that's the best I have with me. Still holding up the line. She calls her manager who, as usual, takes his sweet time coming over to look at my ragged excuse for ID and tells me that I need to bring my actual passport in. I explain that it's in my flat but that I can come back in a few minutes and somehow manage to communicate (again with some fairly extreme facial expressions and arm gestures) that my frozen foods are going to melt. So they stick the frozen ones in a fridge for me and stick the other bags under the cash register until I get back.
I walk home, try to open the door with the mailbox key a few times before switching to the correct one, grab my passport, almost get run over by a tractor on my way up the hill to Mercadona, and walk into the store out of breath and thinking only of dinner and my bed. Despite the fact that I'd convinced myself that my credit card wouldn't work for some reason after all that, in ran through just fine. So I took my groceries, which were of course a little heavier than I could manage, struggled back downhill to the apartment, and collapsed on the couch for a minute before putting my food away, eating some bread for dinner, and going to sleep with smile and a defeated sigh.
Sometimes I just feel like stopping and yelling "Just so you know, and in case it wasn't painfully obvious, I'm not from here!" Today was one of those days. I think it's funny how much I can fail at simple things when I'm not used to how they work.
So yes. Lessons learned: Governments everywhere are inefficient. Call the office to double check that you can get the paperwork done that day before buying a bus ticket. Carry more cash than you think you'll need. Weigh your produce when you're in Mercadona. Keep looking -- there's a button to open the door somewhere. And look out for tractors. :)
