On Monday, May 9th we started Spanish school at PickUp Valencia. We got lucky that at least 2 other people in our classes, this week, were over 50. Many, if not most, are young students from all over the world (The Kingdom of the Netherlands, France, Germany, Russia, England). This first week of school, no matter what level of classes I did not see one other man, besides the owner Jacobo.
Our classes are from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm Monday through Friday. After our first day we both had headaches and we both wondered what we got ourselves into. One other note about the classes/school, our teacher Laura, speaks almost NO English.
After class and after school we were walking around and stumbled upon Centro Cultural Bancaja, Museo Lladro. The entrance was free, as is the case for many if not most museums in Spain. "The Lladro Collection, Six Centuries of Painting, which is one of the most important private art collections in Spain. It is a balanced selection of the main trends in Spanish Art History, primarily emphasizing Valencian Art. From Gothic to XX century regionalist paintings; from Juan de Juanes to Sorolla, as well as El Greco, Jose de Ribera or Francisco de Zurbaran It has a repertoire of periods, styles, formats and techniques."
Our favorite was called Descargando la Pesca (unload the fish) by Jose Mongrell Torrent, we also like Paisaje Surburbial (Suburban landscape) by Juan Bautista Porcar Ripolles.
It was raining a little but when we left it stopped and Beth took this double rainbow picture with her phone.
Wednesday, May 11th - our move in day! After being in Valencia for two weeks living out of our luggage tonight we moved into our apartment. At 16:30 (4:30pm) we met Andres, our agent at their Real Estate's office, Elite Habitat Inmobiliaria. The owner of our apartment Dona Eva Mengot Sabater also met us there. Fortunately we asked David Leventhal to review the contract as it was all in Spanish. With Andres and Eva speaking almost no English we used Google translate for specific sentences we didn't understand. We "trusted the universe" as their simply was no way to know everything that was written in the lease.
The process of getting our Visa extended required not only that we have signed lease, but we needed to be living in our new apartment. So this was a important first step forward. However, we only had one more week to accomplish everything else we needed to do.
Thursday, May 12th, after Spanish class we meet Jorge to go over the Ayuntamiento (City Hall) as we needed to "register our home location". We we arrived there was a line, to get in in order to get a number to wait for your turn. Jorge told us it was the last day to vote so that's why there were so many people. We decided that we would come back tomorrow, as we expected the line would be shorter. So instead we went to open a back account. You would think it would be easy.....ah but this is Spain. The first bank we went to we could open an account, however they required that we purchase health insurance thru them, sorry but NO. We walked across the street to Banco Sabadell what a difference! I could tell just by the elegance of the space that this was a more "upscale" bank. The women who helped us open the account spoke excellent English. This is what was funny to us....it was just about 2:00pm (closing time) and we had Euro's to open the account but she said, no problem you can open the account without making a deposit. Can you imagine that happening in the states?
Now we needed to have the bank account, even though it currently had no money in it, to get our WiFi, TV and local phone accounts via Vodafone. Of course we didn't question these rules and regulations it just how things happen in Spain. So we got out phones and arranged to have the WiFi to be installed the following week, which was the first date available.
Friday, May 13th after this first week of Spanish classes and all the running around for our residence requirements we were waisted. Fortunately for us we had developed a friendship with one of our classmate Kersten, from Germany. We decided to meet later in Barrio del Carmen to try and find the street of baskets and just to hang out with each other. We did find the street of baskets and wouldn't you know it Beth bought a basket. From here we wandered a bit and then Kersten suggested we go to the Marina Beach Club, at the sea, to have a drink. WOW, this is the place of the young and good looking, right on sea and brand new. We hung out enjoyed cocktails and some cheese, quince and olives. All of us needed this! We loved getting to know Kirsten. She is a Director for a few different TV series shows in Germany. We also found out that we have "personal growth" work in common. She is very smart, friendly and super cool, we like her a lot. By now it was after 9:00 pm and we decided to take a walk on the boardwalk. It was a beautiful night. I think we all felt so fortunate for so many things in our lives....it's moments like a simple walk on along the boardwalk that truly remind us of the moments in time that are special, and this was one of those moments. So at about 10:30 we all said let's chose a restaurant and eat. Kersten recommend La Pepcia restaurant...another WOW, this place has been in business over 120 years! Kirsten and I shared calamari, small clams and a seafood paella. Valencia developed paella and we very much loved our meal. What a amazing afternoon and evening and we got home early, about 1:00am
Saturday & Sunday, May 14 & 15 we slept, we walked around town, we rode bikes.
Wednesday, May 18th, Jorge got in line at City Hall and we met him there after school. The line was longer today than last week, but no worries. We got inside before they close, at 2:00 pm, got our number and took care of registering us living in our apartment. We receive a paper that we needed to provide to the local police to establish residency. On Thursday, Jorge went over to the local police, first to make sure it was the "right" local police station and second to make an appointment for us to bring in our paper work on Friday. Have I mentioned that Jorge is our Guardian Angel....I know I have but I can not say it enough how fortunate we were to have met him.
Friday, May 19th, the BIG DAY we go to the police to turn in all of our paperwork to get their approval to extend our Visa's and become residents. Jorge picks us up at school, actually his nephew Luis (age 19) is driving as he needs the practise having his license for only 2 weeks. Our class ended at 12:00pm and our appointments were at 12:30 and 12:45....and since Jorge had made these appointments we did not have to wait in line to get in. Of course another surprise to us....this was the fastest and easiest meetings of all. They took our paperwork, and photo's (which we purchased in one of those small photo booth's that we make funny photo's in at home) and then they fingerprinted us....DONE! YES we are residents. After we took Jorge and Luis to lunch to celebrate.
Jorge told us his wife Ferni had heard so much about us that she wanted to meet us. Ferni is in her residency to become a Cardiologist. So they invited us to see a movie with them this evening. They picked us up at 10:00pm to see the 10:30 movie X-Men Apocalypse
Sunday, May 22nd today is my buddy Larry Katz's 59th birthday. I called and left a message, sent a WhatsApp message and an email. He was at the Padres game vs. the hated Dodgers, which went into 17 innings, with his 3 kids.
Today also is Mike Levy and Crystal's wedding in New York. I've become quite friendly with Mike over the past few years when I would travel to NY for business. I felt so bad missing their wedding and seeing all of our East coast family. I was able to experience their wedding through my sisters, as they both posted pictures on WhatsApp. It was a gorgeous wedding!
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