Bureaucratie & Séville de nuit

Le vendredi, 30 octobre 2009

Thanks to Bob and Claire’s offer to drive me to Cadiz, I FINALLY got my provisional NIE (numero de indentificación extranjero) so I can open a bank account, get books at the library and, heck, be a legal resident of Spain! So first we went to the Comisaria (police office) which has an Oficina de Extranjeros inside. I wait in “line”. Lesson 1: here, people don’t make a line, they just wait around in a bunch, and when someone new shows up, he/she asks “¿Quién est el último?” (who’s the last one) to know who he/she’s after. My turn comes: “Ah, you must got the OTHER oficina de extranjeros to collect your documents, and then come back here. It’s just a 10 minute walk from here!” Great.

So by the time I find the place, I’ve asked directions to 10 people and it’s taken 30 minutes. There, I wait in “line” again. “Here are you documents. You must get your picture taken and go to a bank to pay this fee.” “…any bank?” “yup.” Lesson 2: in Spain, government offices don’t handle any type of money transactions, that’s all done through the banks, who get a little percentage! But how hard would it be to install a photobooth and coin photocopy machine in the Ceomisaria... really... So I go to a bank, pay the 16.30 euros, go get my picture taken in a photobooth near the Comisaria, and go back to wait in “line”. “Perfect, now you must go in any bank to pay THIS fee of 15 euros for the NIE card, and make a photocopy of this document in a papeleria, and come back”. “… you’re kidding right?”

Bank, papeleria, back at the Comisaria, no line-up (w00t!), and guess who must come back to Cadiz in a month to collect the NIE card? That would be me. Quick stop at a huge supermarcket, Wal-Mart style, where I found long red socks for my Halloween costume and a bunch of food items I’ll never find in Alcalá: pesto, pizza doughs, asian eggnoodles, Caesar dressing, coconut milk, mushroom soup... very expensive grocery list as most of this stuff is not from Spain, but hey. My treat!

Back in Alcalá, I pack my bag to go out to SEVILLA!! Rendez-vous at La Parada with Paqui who gives me a ride. Her English is excellent so I allow myself to speak to her in English for the ride. We meet up with Lars (german), Santí, Israel and Zulema and off we go for beer and tapas. There was some meat balls, couscous and cheesy nachos but I don’t remember the Spanish names of each tapa. As I had no paper, I started my list of new words on my hand/arm.

We wandered around Sevilla, stopping here and the to take pictures of monuments or churches, even though we weren’t in the historical center. The Town Hall was a pretty interesting and funny sight… I mean, Brussels city center is funny because it’s not symmetric. But the asymmetry of that town hall made it too easy to joke "oh the sculptor had a backache and retired"... basically, nearly half of the façade has no sculpted details whatsoever, just the basic square columns and templates. Why was it never finished? They ran out of money. And the people got fond of it this way!

Left = town hall: notice the details on the left, and the lack thereof on the right!

Right = some feminist looking statue in some church.

We wandered around a few more commercial streets where all stores were closed, and entered the most peculiar bar I will ever find in my life, I have no doubt… el Garlochi, decorated on the inside solely with religious images and relics, wooden Jesus bust with his crown of thorns, little naked angels up to the ceiling, fake flowers and golden crosses, the virgin Mary and the child (dans une moitié d’baignoire), it was all there and very creepy. And hilarious. Plus, with all the smoke from cigarettes, it really looked like being up in the clouds. We ordered the most popular drink of the Garlochi: Sangre del Cristo (the Christ’s Blood). Sah-weeet. As in too much sugar, sweet. I think Jesus should be check for diabetes. Once we had are dose of blasphemous jokes and too much smoke, we left. Someone in the group, which I won’t name because Zulema might feel bad about it, was tired and working the next morning, and for some mysterious reason, everyone decided it was time for bed. At barely 1pm. Boo. I guess we’ll be in good shape for some tourism tomorrow morning!

El Garlochi and a few glasses of Sangre de Cristo

Song of the day: No más llorá - Bebe
(avertissement, la tune est poche! mais Santi et Lars l-ont chanté en blague toute la journée!)