Barcelona - NIE Is The Magic Number

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Arriving In Barcelona

Off To Barcelona

Things worked out quite well. My career as a grape picker was very brief {one day!}. But two days after getting the sack the job offer from Barcelona came through. Everything then went into a panic. I had a few days to get back to England, sort out lots of loose ends, get my house in a fit state to rent out and get myself to Barcelona in time to start teaching. Fortunately lots of friends helped me out and I find myself flying out to Barcelona on the Sunday afternoon ready to be in the classroom on the Monday morning.

I fly out with "BMI Baby Fly Extra" which I guess is there is their equivalent of business class. Who knew that BMI Baby had a business class?? I've only ever flown business class before when the airline has made a mistake. But paying a bit extra means I get to take my guitar and laptop with me. It also means I'm one of the first on to the plane {now if it was Air Europa you'd take that option just in case they ran out of seats} and I get to use the Executive Lounge at East Midlands Airport. Who knew that East Midlands Airport had an executive lounge?!? It means that I get to sit down and eat some small pieces of cheese while I'm waiting for my flight.

At the other end I'm met by someone from the school. There's a minor hiccup because I'm supposed to get off the airport bus at the first stop but, as no-one else wants to get off here I haven't realised I'm supposed to request it, the bus goes sailing past the first stop and I get out about a kilometer down the road. But it's only a temporary setback, we manage to meet up.

First Days, First Impressions.

I've also been lucky in that a couple of days before I flew out the school managed to find someone with a room to rent so I have somewhere to stay for a few days instead of having to stop in a hostel. I'm staying in the area of Poble Sec. I like this area. There are no obvious tourist attractions here so it tends to be "off the beaten track" but it's only about 10 minutes walk to The Rambla and to the port. The room I'm staying in isn't particularly wonderful but the flat has a terrace which is a real bonus. This usually means that the flat is the attic floor at the top of the building. The flats can be smaller but part of the roof is used as a terrace. In this case we get the afternoon sun and views out to the port. I decide that when I start looking for somewhere more permanent to I'm going to need a flat at the top of the building with a terrace - this could prove to be quite a challenge as everyone else in Barcelona is looking for the same thing.

The Green Line

It's also a handy area for my journey into work. The school where I work is almost the last building in Barcelona as the city spreads outwards into the hills surrounding it. I travel to the end of the Green metro line and then it's a short bus ride or walk {or both} up the hill to my school. The place where I'm staying is also on the Green line so on a good day my journey to work can take as little as half an hour door-to-door.
It takes me a few days to learn a different "culture" for the metro. I'm used to using the Underground in London where you are expected to run down the stairs as quickly as you can throw yourself at the doors of the carriage if you hear a train in the station. It seems that the transport system here is more efficient. If you don't get onto a train there's usually another in less than 3 minutes at rush hour so everyone is a bit more relaxed. And most days I even get to sit down! I guess one of the advantages of Barcelona being a compact densely-populated city is that it's easier to move people around.
{Curiously when I move to live on the Purple line I do notice a small number of people running down the stairs like their lives depended on it. I'll have to follow them one day to find out where on the Purple line people work that is so stressful}
And the cost of transport is much cheaper than London too. With my monthly T50 "travel card" each journey across the city costs less than 60p and a single journey can be a combination of train, bus, metro and tram.
I don't take anything to read or listen to on the metro. I want to listen in on people's conversations to see if I can pick up a few more words of Spanish. This turns out to be over-optimistic. My metro stop is Zona Universitària and I'm travelling with a carriage full of students. At 8 a.m. I may as well be travelling with a carriage full of zombies. They all seem to be dead and there is no conversation. The first sign of life from the students is when we get to the stop before the end of the line they all start searching for a cigarette paper, a match and some tobacco to roll so that they can light up as soon as they are out of the metro station.
Other people read on the metro. It's even not unusual to spot someone in the sea of people walking along the connecting corridors in the stations reading a book as they walk. Or even someone reading a book as they walk down one of the busy shopping streets.

Barcelona is very much a "happening", vibrant city. My early explorations are more about walking in different areas to "discover" what's there rather going to the tourist sites or the bars and clubs. It's quite usual to come across some unexpected event just when out walking. Of course, it's also a city in a country in economic crisis. In Spain there is almost 50%!y(MISSING)outh unemployment but it still surprises me to see that so many of the beggars are young people.
After a couple of weeks I have moved to the area of Eixample. I'm now sharing a flat with The Dutchman. The flat isn't ideal - a lot of the fittings don't work properly {we have a microwave that only works on public holidays} - but it's OK and for me one of the main attractions is that it is close to the Sagrada Familia, one of favourite buildings on the planet. I see the towers of the Sagrada Familia from my room and walk past it each morning on my way to the metro. And on our walks around the the city we always see people scavenging in bins. On one walk we see three people going through the bins within 5 minutes of leaving our flat - and they all seem to be doing the same "circuit". I'm sure I see more people scavenging here than I did in Havana. I assume this is a sign of the current economic crisis but people who have lived in Barcelona all their lives tell me that it is normal.

The NIE Number - So Good They Make You Queue Four Times

My early days in Barcelona are occupied with a chase to get the correct paperwork so that I can live and work here. It comes as a shock to find out that Spain has a level of bureaucracy that I would have associated with Eastern European countries 50 years ago {apologies to people in Eastern Europe if I am stereotyping}. There seems to be an obsession here with having the right documents.


• I recently set up Internet banking for my Spanish bank account. This involved having to personally go into my branch of Santander and provide 14 signatures
• At the time of writing this I am still trying to find more evidence for the education ministry officials of the courses I took at university more than 35 years ago. They won't accept original copies of my certificates as evidence that I am qualified to teach.



The most challenging trial is the quest for a NIE number. There seems to be little you can do in Spain without being able to quote your NIE. Talking to people in the queue on the day I queued up for mine I met people who were queueing up for a number so that the could open a bank account and rent bikes. Since getting mine I've needed it for booking flights, buying a Spanish SIM card, getting my camera repaired, signing up for Spanish lessons and joining a gym amongst other things. But it's useless as a form of ID because the paper doesn't have a photo on!

The office where NIE numbers are issued opens at 9 a.m. I'm advised to be in the queue outside at 7:30. On the day I go to get my number I follow the advice and join the queue at 7:30 and 6 hours later I am the proud owner of a NIE number! The first couple of hours are spent queueing in the road outside the building. Whilst finding things to entertain myself with I notice that every shop on the street has a photo booth. I decide that there must be a reason for all these photos booths and I panic, ask someone to keep my place in the queue, and go and get a set of photos. They weren't needed!

At 9 a.m. the queue starts to move. After another hour or so I discover that I've been queueing to get a ticket to join the queue inside the building. But I also discover that the advice to join the queue at 7:30 was good. Apparantly they only issue 100 numbers every day and I have ticket number 81. There are a lot of people behind me in the queue who have queued for several hours and are going to be turned away.

My number is called shortly before midday. I have all the correct papers! There is a charge of €10 for the NIE number. But I can't pay it here! I now have to go and queue up at a bank to pay the €10, get a receipt and come back to this building and queue up again! I do eventually come away with my NIE number, though. And I think there are many people who take several attempts to get their number.

But At Least I'm Here!

I guess a lot of this blog must sound quite negative. I didn't set out to paint a negative picture. I'm really exciting about being here, I'm looking forward to discovering Barcelona and I expect to be here for quite some time. Of all the cities in the world I would have chosen to live in to learn Spanish, Barcelona would be very near the top! And, of course, at least I now have my NIE number.......{but I'm warned that if I ever lose it the bureaucracy is many times worse!}

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Photos

The View Of Bits Of The Sagrada Familia
From the flat in Eixample