¡¡¡Hola chicos!!!
Today was yet another eventful day here in rainy Granada!
My friend and I had to take our government forms which declare that we are living in Spain to the government building for foreigners so that we could get our Spanish I.D numbers. Doesn't sound too bad so far right?!
We left with plenty of time as we knew we had to get some photocopies of the documents they needed before walked there. Unfortunately it was absolutely hammering it down and we both knew our shoes were not waterproof nor did we bring any with us to Spain!
So after only being outside for about 5minutes and still getting soaked (walking to the printing and copying shop) we decided that taking a taxi was probably a far more sensible option. We popped into a shop asked for a taxi number and proceeded to call them.. The first time my friend got through the woman from the taxi company was very unhelpful as she insisted that they could not take us to the Plaza we needed to go without a road name and to call her back when we had one. So we hung up and got out the trusty map and found a road name. We called her back and this time she insisted that we needed a building number. We did not have one and she flatly refused to send a taxi to us without one! She even told my friend to ''ask them'' for the building number! She replied ''ask who?'' and the woman hung up... Great! So we resolved to walk it in the pouring rain.
After walking 15mins and looking more like drowned rats we found a parked taxi and decided to try it. Fortunately the taxi driver knew exactly where we wanted to go (without a building number or road name) and was happy to take us there. Perfect!
We arrived at the building with plenty of time to spare before it closed at lunch time so we were very pleased. We collected our ticket numbers to wait our turn and sat down. (It was much like the system at Argos!!)
My friend got called first and went in with all her documents... When she came out she looked very distressed and proceeded to tell me that the man on the desk would not accept her document from the University of Southampton and that she needed to bring her enrollment letter from the UGR. She had this document at home but had crossed through it as she thought she would not need it. Therefore she could not get her Spanish I.D. number..
I would have the exact same problem as I did not have this document either and I did not have it at home. We could not re-access this document as the UGR enrollment page had closed and there was no way for us to get any proof from the uni that we were erasmus students as we are not enrolled on their system yet!
It seemed we were in a bit of a predicament. By the time I got called up to the desk my friend had decided to argue our case and came with me. She explained to the man that we could not access these documents and that even if we could they aren't proof that we are erasmus as it was just our module selection page. He proceeded to have another look at our docs from Southampton. He went off to ask someone else and came back stroppily. Finally he processed both of our forms and gave us our Spanish I.D's. After getting these you have to go to the bank to pay a tax and then return to the office to receive an identity card with the I.D on. So arguing does work!
We then went off to the bank to pay the tax.. My friend went first, all was fine she paid, got her form stamped.. and then it was my turn. The man behind the desk entered my Spanish I.D. number and then told me that one of the numbers must be wrong as it wasn't going through. This meant I had to return to the government building, wait again to be seen and have someone check the number. It turns out the guy had written a 'Q' at the end instead of a 'R' .... grrrrrrrr!!!! So I had to go back to the bank again to pay my tax. Luckily it worked the second time. Then it was another trip back to the government building to hand in the stamped form in exchange for my I.D. card. This was all within 20mins of the office closing.
I got seen to pretty quickly and my form was processed and I got my card. I was very relieved! Luckily I checked the card and noticed that they had put I was born in Poole, Ireland instead of Poole, United Kingdom and therefore my nationality was Irish... I went back to the desk of the man who originally wrote my number wrong and he was very apologetic and said I had all the mistakes of the day! He managed to change my card for me despite the time being 13.50 (they closed at 14.00) and all other members of staff were running out the door at 13.55!!
After all the chaos not to mention the fact we were soaked through my friend and I decided we deserved an alcoholic drink and some tapas. I had beer and she had tinto de verano and we shared some great tapas.
I am pleased that we managed to survive the day! When I told my housemates what happened they laughed and said ''welcome to Spain!''. The Spanish are very aware that a lot of their systems out here are appalling and we have to get used to it!
Rant over!!
Adiós xx
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