The Book Addiction!

I now buy and sell second hand books in English!!

For the list of books I currently have available, click on "My Library" in the box under my profile picture. That will take you to a website where all the books for sale are listed. Be sure to check back periodically, as the list will change every time a book comes in or goes out.

**Great prices** All the books for sale are 5 euros. I buy books in good condition for 2 euros.

**The best way to leave behind books you don't want to stuff in your suitcase and get new reading material for trips**

In the Toledo area only

You can contact me using the email address located in my profile.

Step 1: March 23

I know I've been completely absent for over a month now, but things have been really hectic. More than half of my life has been put on hold as I am preparing for my driving exam. I left last time with the news that I accepted a private student in the morning to help pay for the exam. Although the classes aren't hard to prepare for and the student is fairly fun, I spend Monday through Thursday noticeably stressed and impatient, due to my very busy schedule.

Today is a holiday, so I'm taking advantage of the respite during the week to get some stuff done. Including this post!

Monday, March 23rd I will have my theory test!! I've been doing really well in the autoescuela with the practice tests, and I feel prepared.

To present myself for the exam I had to turn in:
2 photos
a copy of my Spanish ID
a medical form (more on that below)
85 euros (taxes)

The medical form: Last Friday I went to a "medical office" in front of the bullring that specializes in forms for driver's licenses and gun permits. I went, they made some pictures (because I wasn't told I had to take them, conveniently for them) and I had to wait. Some time later, they tested my sight (with a different eye chart than what we use), hearing, and reflexes? I had to turn handles (one for each hand) on a machine to keep two moving balls inside different tracks that beeped every time one of the balls left the track. ????? After 30 minutes of waiting, and maybe 5 having all these things checked I got my certificate of "good health" for 42 euros! Highway robbery! Then, they proceeded to load up the counter with free stuff. I mean, charge me less and don't give me all this crap! (Picture)

Tally:

Time:
14 hours in the driving school practicing tests (February)
13 hours in the driving school practicing tests (March)
6 hours at home studying
Total: 33 hours

Money:
180 euros: sign up fee at the school
42 euros: medical form
85 euros: test taxes
Total: 307 euros

WISH ME LUCK!

Still hanging in there...

I've been absent for a few weeks, caught up with being busier than normal with the driving classes. They're going well...I've now spent three full weeks studying like crazy. So far I'm doing dreadfully on the questions about the mechanics of the car (which I answer using common sense, since I tried reading the chapter on mechanics and couldn't make anything stick in my brain!) and most of the questions about first aid (also, answering with common sense).

My favorite question so far is: (translated losely from the Spanish, answers in Spanish since I have no idea the English translation, so, if I look them up, it looses the affect.)
If someone is bleeding profusely from the neck area, on which artery do you apply pressure with two fingers?

A. La Carotida
B. La Humeral
C. La Subclavia

Do you know??
But apart from not knowing the answer, I have a problem with the question. Why in the world do they ask that? Ok, so now that I studied the answer (to remember in case it comes up again), does it actually help me in the case I come across someone bleeding from the neck? I can just see it, I run to the bleeder, hold up two fingers, ready to apply pressure, and I know exactly which artery to apply pressure...but where is it? Wouldn't it be better to include a picture?

Anyway, I'm hanging in there and it's going surprisingly better than I thought it would. I recently agreed to teach an extra class in the morning, to pay for all this, so on one hand I'm relieved, but on the other I'm exhausted just thinking about my weekly schedule!
Have a great week!

My Journey to Driving Legally in Spain

If you read my other blog, Being Here and There, then you know I signed up for driving school last week. (Take a look over there for the reasons why I signed up and how this makes my life suck.) I've decided to chart my progress here and save the other blog for the big steps and interesting cultural moments that are sure to interest those who read the blog for the insight of my life in Spain. :o)


So, let's get to the charting.


Time
My goal is to be a legal driver in Spain before the start of Semana Santa (Easter holidays), which start for me on Saturday, April 11. That gives me 70 days.

I hope to pass the theory test in February, then take about two weeks to pass the driving test. Following the plan, that puts me in the middle of March, three weeks before Semana Santa.

Money
The average cost of getting a driver's license is €1,000. I hope to not pass the average (although doing it in less would be great, too).


So Far...
I signed up on Tuesday and paid €180 (sign up fee and books). It took me about 20 minutes.
Since then I've spent about 5.5 hours studying this week.

You never know what you've got til it's gone! :o(

About a month and a half ago our French neighbor slipped out of our lives in the dead of night. Now we miss him dreadfully.

Actually, we don't know when he moved out...he didn't say goodbye...but we do miss him dreadfully. We never really knew how paper thin our walls were (he must have never watched TV or listened to music), although Jose swore he heard him fart a couple of times when we were all going to bed.

Now we've got the loudest neighbors born in Spain! (Foreign neighbors tend to be hard of hearing, playing loud music ALL the time.) These are true Spaniards, they talk loudly, they scream through the house, they laugh loudly, they all talk at the same time and they are very social. In the week and a half they have lived next to us, they have had 3 different visiting couples over to stay. Yesterday evening was particularly nice as they were all singing karaoke (we assumed), left to go out after we went to bed and came back at 7 am, still singing.

The silver lining in this earplug inducing cloud is that Jose is more and more happy to look for a house (and not an apartment). Let's see how long we hold out before we're banging on the walls and writing obscene messages on their door.

Keeping Up with Los Garcia

I'm not sure what the Spanish equivalent is to the expression "Keeping up with the Joneses", but there has to be one. Even without knowing the people on the street, common sense tells you that there is no way so many people are as rich as they live.

You see it everywhere. BMWs, Audis, Mercedes cars everywhere you look (from what I gather, they are a little cheaper here than in the US, but still!). The latest styles on every woman. Lots and lots of skiing vacations for the school children. Wildly expensive houses. Weekly proof! One of Jose and my favorite TV programs (we only watch 3) is Ajuste de Cuentas. Every week the presenter goes to a different family's house and helps them sort out their financial mess. The only bad thing about the show is that it's more or less the same every week. Families that lived like kings and queens for years and now find themselves with loads of debts, maybe multiple houses (because of buying one before the other sold), and crazy spending habits.

It's a familiar tale, I know. Millions of Americans spend beyond their means and have a scary amount of credit card debt. But in Spain I see it a little different. In the US it's a problem easy to ignore, since you never know someone's salary or earning potential. Because everyone has debt it's become acceptable. Everyone is believed to have the ability to work a little harder to earn more money to buy anything what they want. I know it doesn't work this way in real life, but that's what we're led to believe.
In Spain, however, I know that the average monthly salary is less than 1,000 euros. And I know that it's almost impossible to buy a house for less than 150,000 euros (and that's not a bad price!). So where are these people getting the money to eat out all the time, buy lots of clothes, afford a mortgage on that house, buy new cars and go out to drink with their friends once or twice a week? That's what I don't understand.

You get the feeling like people know something you don't (like the exact location of a money tree). And at times it's hard: to stay at home,to buy the car we can afford, to spend what we've budgeted to spend, to save like crazy people. But sometimes it's great, especially when we can afford fun trips. We're about to make one of the most important financial decisions of our life, buying a house. It's a decision we've already spent lots of time thinking about, and Jose has already made multiple spreadsheets to show all our options. Knowing that this one decision will affect the rest of our lives (in this case, financially speaking), it's not something that we're taking lightly, yet it's strange and a little hard to look at it so differently than so many people, Spanish and otherwise.

Get ready for lots of posts!

We started the Cheese!

January 10: We cut the cheese.

By "the cheese", I'm referring to my 3 kilo, bigger than my niece when she was born, cheese I received for Christmas in my basket. It's a lovely Machego sheep's milk cheese. Last year I received a similar one and we were munching until the beginning of April (3 kilos is a lot for only 2 people! and we're not particularly cheese fanatics.

Let's see how long this one lasts!