Suerte

Suerte.. there´s your word of the day. Spanish for luck. My life sometimes feels like nothing but a mix of incredibly amazing luck followed by the most horrible luck someone can find. The past 24 hours of my life have been a perfect example of Murphy´s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Yesterday started out oh so beyond perfect that I had to hold myself back from dancing through the streets of Huelva as I walked home from the Oficina de Extranjeros (immigration office). I had gone into the center expecting a horrible waste of a morning waiting in lines and being stressed out in an attempt to finish my immigration documentations so I could get my national ID number and residency card, but that did not happen.

I walk into the center and find Calle Fernando el Catolico, which brings me straight to the extranjería, which cannot be missed: outside there are tons of immigrants sitting in somewhat of a line and inside there are another 50 or so awaiting their turn to process paperwork. I talk to the guards and tell them I´m from the States and they let me right into the building without going thru security. I go straight to the lady at the front desk and explain (in Spanish of course) that I need to see someone ASAP to process my NIE and TIE because I was only given 30 days from my entrance in Spain to do so. She smiles brightly, goes off to the back, then gives me the hand sign to come right on back and talk to an officer. I cannot freaking believe what is happening. I sit down, he gives me my applications, I give him my paperwork, he smiles, tells me stories, there may have been high fives, and once we´ve finished he tells me to come back Monday morning at 8:30 when the employees are arriving and to meet them at their entrance to finalize the process and do my fingerprints. ¿WTF? Being blonde and speaking Spanish definitely paid off to say the least.

Oh, but don´t worry. My entire day was completely down hill from there.

I arrive home, turn on my ancient Dell, and start on my homework and making a plan to somehow get everything done before my big due dates on Sunday and Tuesday. I get an hour or two of work done before I decide I´m hungry and need to cook some croquetas. Of course the oil is super hot and as I try to move the pan over to another burner it splashes my right hand with boiling grease, and I feel a pain I can only describe as horrific. My roomie wasn´t home and I didnt even know what to do, so I stick my hand in a glass of cold water and try to google up some remedies with my left hand. Meanwhile I´m on gchat and get horrible news about a family emergency with a friend and I´m freaking out about that. I try to take my hand out of the water, scream, put it back in, ahhh, then get on skype to make some phone calls while wondering if I should just go to a doctor and wishing my roomie was home. After no straight answer on what to do, I decide to walk to the farmacia because that is always the solution here in Spain. I get some cream, the lady and I giggle a bit, then I return home, realize I have got no homework done and say screw it and just chat with my roomie til I go to bed at 11 and watch some Craig Ferguson on youtube (aka my sleeping pill). I pass out while the computer is still on, then wake up to find my computer battery has died even though it was plugged in, and now my adapter no longer works. putavidademiera. I get ready to go to work and to stop by the electronics store to see if they have Dell adapters/how much a new laptop would actually cost. As I´m packing my purse I grab my ipod touch to put it in its protective case and of course drop it on the floor and the screen halfway shatters. Tears. At mediamarkt, computers are way over priced, they dont have adaptors, and I´m sorely dissapointed. I catch the city bus towards the bus station, the bus breaks down, I walk to the station from there, almost miss my bus to Cartaya, and here I am, sitting on my boss´s computer waiting to go to the staff bbq in the countryside and forget all my troubles for awhile.

Tomorrow I am headed to Sevilla because Julia IS coming and I want to throw WSU online out the window. We´ll see what happens. Until then, gracias for reading. Adios.