Self portrait

Today has been full of events. We decided to wake up “early” and get a head start on the day. We had lots of errands to run. The internet went down last night a little past midnight. If you know me, then you know I'm pretty addicted to internet, but also Terri's main source of life is the internet. She works on another job from here, so its important that she has it all the time. Plus, she has to keep in contact with her husband, of course, so internet is a must. We also needed to get my name registered on the car, grab lunch, buy some groceries and get some more Euro.

We started off this “morning” (aka noon) on first priority – the internet. Anything wireless is monopolized by a company called Vodophone. They basically run things here (poorly.) You have to purchase a wireless modem (just like a punch drive) and a chip. A modem is 50E and then anything after that is per Mb or Gb, depending on if you have a contract or not. If you have a contract its not too bad of pricing, but it requires a local bank account and a 12 month commitment. So, we're doing pre-pay and paying out of our bung-hole. Its 19E for 150mb. That's not a lot in case you don't know. But, if that wasn't so bad, it's obviously frustrating when you're overpaying for something that isn't working. Vodophone at any given time has about two people working the desk and about 14 people waiting in line. Each transaction takes approximately 15-25 minutes. It's basically the DMV of the internet, but in Spanish and without any waiting music or electronic holding numbers.

After our initial 30 minute visit to Vodophone telling us our internet is fixed we returned home (10 minutes away) to make sure they weren't lying. They were lying. So we returned to the store. Another 45 minute transaction later they told us we had to go to another store. We stopped to get lunch and found a fabulous Turkish Kabop place. It's actually the best meal I've had since I got here and the least expensive. The food was fresh, delicious and the service was amazing. We sat outside and gobbled. We also found a really great clothing store that had great prices that I plan to spend too much money at. Back to business now. Headed out to the other Vodophone store. Another V store later we recovered internet and later found a Bull Ring, (not the one in my nose) a grocery store, a fantastic view of the ocean and a toilet. (note: view not from the toilet.) We did a lot! Phew! We bought some yummy pastries (11Euro's worth, 8 of which are mine... oops) and got groceries.

It's interesting how so many things here are different than at home. Vegetables can often come in glass jars, the shopping carts have luggage-esque dragging handles, there's 4 different aisles of cookies. I can't calculate what makes those cookies separated. Also, the grocery stores here are either larger than China or smaller than an apartment. The one we went to today was pretty tiny but it did have massive fruits and vegetables and a very wide selection of cheese and milk which wasn't the case in the Chinese sized store ironically. There were no hanging pigs, either. In the picture you can see a machine where oranges go to die. Here I purchased a 0.5 Liter of freshly squeezed OJ. You toss a few oranges in the top of the swirly machine and it runs it through a spiraling metal tunnel where it hops into a case with a clockwise and counter clockwise wheel. These have small 'buckets' that the orange will drop into. When the orange meets up with the contrary rotating wheel it gets smushed and then sliced into two. Underneath this meeting place it drops into a lower bucket where the two halves sit continuing to get smushed by the rotating wheels. The juice then drops through a small filter and then into another smaller bucket where there is a spout. The contraption is very Pee-Wee's playhouse. I loved it. Farewell concentrate!!

I am speaking Spanish! I can understand a surprising amount of what they're saying, but all I can really retort so far is si, bueno or no. But it's been interesting because I'm not only learning Spanish but also body language because that's a large part of all I have now, too. A guy came up to me today and had a “Dad” moment. He walked up to me and said “Olive-o's?” Now, I was pretty sure that the translation for olives isn't olive-o's but I gathered the old guy was doing the best he could and I pointed to the glass jars. Did he think I worked there? Did he think I was a local? Do I have a lisp?

I took some pictures of the sites as we were driving around and when we'd catch a pretty view I'd make Terri walk over to take pics with me. We're a bit in the country in Marbella. The city is located more in Malaga. But, I talked to Booby Suzy today who was in the Vodophone store and she said life will change dramatically once May hits. She said then there will be parties during the day everywhere, the parties at night go until 6 in the morning, and there will be 10 times as many people circulating around and at the beach. I haven't even touched the ocean yet!

Also, in case you thought bankers hours were ridiculous, here they are open from 8-2 during in season months, and 8-1 during off season. Enough said. Everything lies in perspective!

Lastly, I'm voting to get an automatic car because right now there's nothing more intimidating than learning how to drive a stick in a place where I don't know where I'm going with signs in a language I don't speak with 293 roundabouts per square mile, tiny roads and steep hills. Who wants to do that? So we planned on adding me to the rental car today, but after 8 hours of running errands we headed home to grab dinner, put away groceries, and use our beloved internet. Hopefully tomorrow we can continue to adjust our hours and wake up in what I consider the “real” morning. I teach tomorrow! It'll be the first day of the kick-off week. So excited to dance!

In the pictures:

The one with the driving circle and the massive building behind it – that is a SuperStore containing a grocery store.
You can also see a bull ring, one of the pastries I bought (the tower is a Meringue), the view from the place we ate lunch, another view of the ocean, the weird luggage shopping carts (and Terri) and the massive fruits and veggies, and a few others.

Enjoy!

P.S. Bano is so outdated. If you're cool you say “Donde esta el toilet?” (I'm just making this up because all the signs and Brits say toilet.)