Made my fifth trip to the Oficina de Extranjeros today to be told that my insurance papers have to be translated into Spanish so that they are sure that my insurance isn't just valid in America. I guess international travel insurance isn't specific enough. Now it's time to begin the search for an official language translator to translate my info. I'm sure this won't be cheap.

I made another trip, number four to be exact, to the Oficina de Extranjeros (the foreigners office) today and was told once again, something different than what I was told in my previous two visits. Now they are saying that I need a different insurance than what I have. Something that they told me was fine in October. Who knows when all this will be settled.

Big congrats to Cal. He won the Europe division for his Chevy commercial and will be traveling internationally once again for an  awards show and party. Proud of you man, keep up the good work. I had a sneak peek of his next commercial and it looks like another winner.

Cal's video again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLZ9WnSnHUU&feature=colike

This is amazing! Here is the conversation that took place with the captain of the Italian cruise liner and the Port Authority.

Schettino: "Now I'll go back up", he claims. "I came out to check out to figure out what was happening."
PA (Port Authority):"Will you be the last on board?"
Schsttino:"I will be the last on board."
00:42am

PA asks how many people still need to be evacuated.

Schettino:"I called and they told me there are about 100 people. I am coordinating the operations. But I can't go back on it. We have abandoned the ship."
PA:"Captain, did you really abandon the ship??"
Schettino:"No, no, I am here, I am coordinating the evacuation."
PA:"Captain, this is an order, now I am in charge. Get back on that ship and coordinate the operations. There are already casualties."

Schettino:"How many?"
PA:"You should tell me that! What do you want to do, go home? Now you get back on that ship and tell us what can be done, how many people are still there and what do they need."
Schettino:"OK, OK, I am going."
(The captain will not get back on the ship)

This is from an article on msnbc.com. Here is the link for the entire article.
http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/16/10164356-captains-favor-to-head-waiter-to-blame-for-cruise-ship-disaster

This morning I was looking through the National Geographic while I was in the library and came across an article about an amazing place that I visited 2009. It is about the Flysch Cliffs in Zumaia, which is in the Basque Country in northern Spain. The article is in Spanish but I will also post the link for the pictures from the article.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/2011/12/23/escrito_las_rocas_2.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/2011/12/23/escrito_las_rocas.html

New pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamal424/

Back to cold weather after having two weeks of wonderful, warm weather for Christmas break. I had forgotten how cold and dark it was at 7 in the morning. First day at my other school went well though. First full day there will be on Friday.

Back to cold weather after having two weeks of wonderful, warm weather for Christmas break. I had forgotten how cold and dark it was at 7 in the morning. First day at my other school went well though. First full day there will be on Friday.

For New Years in Spain, everyone eats twelve grapes. There is a bell that rings every two or three seconds and you eat a grape each time it rings. Well last year was my first year attempting this because my first year here I spent New Years in Portugal. To my surprise, the grapes we had were not seedless so I was thrown off from the beginning and never recovered. I gave up and ate the grapes casually. This year I did better, but not by that much. I did know that the grapes were not seedless though. I made it to about the ninth or tenth bell when I realized I had way too many grapes left. After the last bell rang, I still had three or four grapes left so I shoved them in my mouth of course, which was still full of all the other grapes that I was still trying to chew. Needless to say, I was not able to tell everyone happy new year because my mouth full of grapes. Maybe next year...