La suegra

Well, today I´m off to take my mother-in-law (suegra) to get her knee operated on. I will be living with her for the next few days while she´s getting better. I hope she doesn´t expect me to cook much becuase as we all know....Cindi can´t cook! Maybe we´ll live on take-out?!

Planes, trains and automobiles...

The trip turned out to be a "success". In less than three days I took 2 planes, 4 trains, 2 taxi´s and 4 subway rides...when I got back to Barcelona I was EXHAUSTED!!!

I arrived in Madrid and got to the hostel, changed and went to the temple. I had three roommates in my room, a mother and daughter from Portugal and an 80 year old lady from Spain that had gone to live in Argentina for 45 years and is now back living in the northern part of Spain. They were all very nice, but just my luck the portuguese mother had a really bad cough and snored like my Aunt Lou!!! (I thought I was going to get a rest from Davids snoring, but nope!)

The second day I got up at 5:45am took a cab (I was soooo lucky a cab passed by right as I got to the street!) to the Police Station (where they handle the documents) and ended up being lucky number 13 in the line. So, from 6:15am to 9:10am I stood in the cold wind and rain...yes it just HAD to start raining that day...and I was out there for three hours. I called David about 8:00am and told him that if I had to do this again in 5 years I was going to go live in MY country with or without HIM!!! Once I was in the building it took about 15 minutes for them to call my number, do what I had to do and I was out on the street again to go back to the temple. It was still raining when I left and my feet were frozen so I just wanted to get warm. On the way there in the taxi I remembered passing a Starbucks not too far from where I was, so that´s where I headed!!! When I walked into the Starbucks I was soaking wet, my glasses fogged right up, but I was happy to order un "chocolate caliente...grande y un muffin de arandanos". (Large hot chocolate and a cranberry muffin...yummy!) I cleaned off my glasses sat down and warmed up. I took the subway back to the temple (much cheaper than a taxi). My roommates weren´t there so I got into my PJ´s and warmed up for about an hour before getting dressed and ready to go to the temple. I spent the rest of the day at the temple...which I absolutely LOVED!

The third day I got up when I wanted (after another night of symphonic snoring and coughing) and spent the WHOLE DAY in the temple. For those of you that have temples "right-next-door" you probably don´t understand the "spending days at a time at the temple", but for those of us that have to travel "far" to get to the temple that´s what we do. We go for a few days and do nothing but work in the temple. As much as I wish I had a temple close by I have to admit that I like going and being there for days and not just hours. I got to know all the cute little temple workers real well. I even brushed up on my Portuguese!!(that´s a whole other story!)

On Friday it was time to leave the hostel...you have to be out at 9am and clean the room before you leave...and catching the subway to the airport. I got there EARLY as usual, which was good because the Madrid airport is funky confusing!!! I bought some chocolate chip cookies and tic tacs (things that aren´t available on a normal day...the airport has things that no one esle does) and sat and waited for my plane. OH!!!! I totally forgot....I ate my first McDonalds Egg McMuffin in Spain!!! It wasn´t quite the same, but it felt a little like home!

All in all, it was a short-long trip. But hey, in another two weeks I get to do it all over again!! Yup, I have to go back to pick up the marriage certificate....NO, they can´t just send it to me! Welcome to life in a different country!

Living in Spain

Living is Spain is not horrible, but it´s not as exotic as it might sound either! David and I have been here for 5 years and that means it´s time for Cindi to renew her "green card" (that´s not what it´s called here, but you get the gist) and let´s just say the spanish government is NOT making it easy for me!! So, to make a long story short, in order to have all the apropriate documents I need to get my green card renewed I "get" to take a trip to Madrid. I "get" to go to a government building at 6am. I "get" to stand in a line, hope to receive a number and hopefully have all the information I need so that they´ll give me a new marriage certificate. It´s not all bad though, I will be staying at the Madrid Temple hostal and I´ll go to the temple Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday....that makes it all worth while!!