The Residency Process: Part I

Residency is to complicated as toilet is to broken.

Remember that stack of 100+ papers I carried to Chicago for the visa? Well, that stack is now an integral part of remaining in Spain. It is 20 to 30 pages higher than when I left the States (although I admit my tendency to make multiple copies when one is just fine). And today was the first step in The Residency Process, a name I will heretofore capitalize to emphasize both its importance and its foreboding nature. Step one included taking all of the papers into a very official building in Madrid, turning them in, and hoping for the best. I was a little nervous, as one of my documents required a translation--I had gotten a scan of the translation via email, but I'd missed the mail earlier in the day, so the actual copy was stuck at the post office.

However, everything went smoothly, thanks to one of my WorldVenture teammates! He guided me to the rather nondescript--but still official--building and acted as translator/liaison while the woman--business-like but not unfriendly--asked for each document. They took the copies, they took it all, and now I have a number saying that I'm legit. Or at least that my legitimacy is in process. So thank you, Chad, for being my guide! Thank you, government official, for being merciful on me and my photocopies!

Also, thank you, random official woman, for crying "¡Cucaracha!" as your hands flew to your mouth in horror, and thank you, heroic official man, for smashing that cockroach beneath your shiny sole in a most chivalrous display, which I certainly watched out of the corner of my eye as I handed in my papers, making this good day into a great one.