Today is the first day that I felt like I had a "normal" work day. I actually walked to work from the bus in a downpour that lasted about 5 minutes. By the time I got to my office, the sun decided to shine. I did a bit of work, had a meeting, had people in and out of my office to ask me questions, got a bunch of work done, had lunch, went to Spanish ... and the miracle is, it all feels a little normal. It feels like this is where I work. And I know how to do things here (*at least a little bit).
I also got a series of hysterical e-mails that culminated in a phone call to my work. So, yesterday, I placed an order with Zara Home (Zara is a huge clothing chain in Spain - they have some stores in the US too. They also have a home store with home goods for slightly less than a regular home stores - I don't think it's particularly cheap, but I'll take what I can get). Anyhow, I ordered some things from them, and had to use their online chat feature to chat in English with a representative because I couldn't change the billing address to the US. Of course, this was not a trivial thing to do, but we figured it out. I thought. For my phone number, he said I could put a US number, so I put my Google Voice number. Then this morning, I got an e-mail saying "Dear Customer, Beforehand we want to thank you for your order. Please be informed that we have tried to contact you by phone as it is mandatory a valid contact telephone number in the United Kingdom in order to proced with you order. Anxiously awaiting for your reply." Fortunately, I have an ancient, expensive cell phone with a UK number that works anywhere in the world that I use for emergencies. So I e-mailed them that number. Since they were awaiting anxiously and all.
About an hour later, I got another e-mail saying "Dear customer, Beforehand we want to thank you for your order and apologize for our incorrect previous e-mail. Regarding your order, we need also to have a valid Spanish contact telephone number in order to procede with you order [closer this time, in terms of English]. Anxiously awaiting for your reply." So I e-mailed them my work phone number. And, then they called. I don't have my own phone yet, but the guy who sits next to me got a call announcing it was for me. The admin assistant said "It's Zara Home for you." So, I talk to a very nice guy who said they were just checking my numbers to make sure they worked. Very intense this whole process.
Tonight, I'm going out with a couple of friends to a bar where one of the girls' boyfriends organizes what sounds like a sort of music session where people play and sing. It should be interesting! Then, we're going to do something on Thursday night, and possibly also this weekend! It should be a lot of fun, I hope. I'm most hopeful I can convince them to hang out with me this weekend, I heard rumblings of a party, so we'll see!
Finally, I found a cookbook on Amazon that is for cooking in Spain, but written in English and geared toward expats! I'm too excited and can't wait for it to come!
Lucky you on the cookbook! An American-in-US friend managed to find me a Dutch-but-in-English cookbook for Christmas, which is nice, but it turns out I don't really want to cook Dutch food, so much as anything ELSE, just using Dutch ingredients.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually the real problem. I think the Spanish cookbook will help with the whole "I can't cook ANYTHING here" problem, but I am CRAVING ethnic food that is not Spanish because it is next to impossible to find a non-Spanish restaurant or any ingredients that would be fitting for other food. I guess I'll enjoy eating in the US way more now.
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