Registro Civil

January 24th

This morning I came to the Registro Civil, the place to be in order to become a Spaniard. The plan was to be here by 9am, but I made a mistake in going in the wrong direction with public transportation, so it’s 10am, however the big crowds and long lines are no where near as bad as I thought. By the time I left around 12 noon, there was a larger crowd.

Cristobal Colon

“Immigrants!” I’ve heard this complaint before, actually the first day out with Wilbur, as I chatted with a couple of spanish speaking neighbors with their dogs, born from southern Spain emigrants, what old Catalans like my grandmother would call ”xarnegos”. So, it’s a little funny to hear them complaining about all the new emigrants, as Spain, and Catalunya mostly, opened it’s borders a few years back to everyone. It had started with political refugees in the early 90’s, more so when Barcelona gained attention after the 92 Olympic Games, and hosted more countries than ever before.

The Government has been providing help and services to the new residents, so “some” resent them taking away, taxes...well you know, we have “some” also, all over the US.

But it’s actually quite nice, there’s less trouble on the streets than there was when I grew up here. The streets are cleaner, and we have a super cosmopolitan city. Of course it's not all perfect, and a few may cause trouble, just as some locals can do that too. It's just that when an recent arrived immigrant does it, they make more of a fuss.

And yes, everyone talks about how bad the economy is, but from my point of view, after having gone to the DMV last Tuesday in Corte Madera, to try to rectify the address of my vehicle, it made me sad to see the lesser people behind the counter expediting customers to the best of their abilities, while people in the waiting lines were complaining about them...really? how is it there fault? If you haven´t been, well many DMV offices are now closed, so people from East Bay have to go there.

So even though I’m tired, and apparently not paying enough attention to see where I’m going, I did see TMB (metro transport) security guards on the trains, and security guards everyday all along the park where Wilbur and I go to work, although these guys just inform you of the rules, they do “la vista gorda” in spainsh, meaning they don’t enforce certain things; like dogs are supposed to be on leash, but I asked a couple of these guys, and they said as long as I had my dog under voice control it would be fine, but if I saw a cop I should put the leash on or I might get a ticket.

Anyway, I created a bit of a stir, but they decided I am "español de origen", which is an easy process, all I need is my mother´s birth certificate (check), a legal translation of my birth certificate (to do list) and the empadronamiento (to do list), this is to register at the local city hall with my permanent address, so I need to work on that too. Actually, once I have that I can also register for CatSalut, Catalan Health Services (woohoo! I get health care) 


Leaving this place, I stopped at Albert´s place to use his wifi and post the previous blog, and then we went on his new scooter (keep in mind it´s still freaking cold) back to Victor´s place, to take Wilbur out first, and then go to the "Gallego" for lunch.


At 5pm I met my cousin Edward at his place, I was showing him something on my laptop and saw Jordi was online, so I skyped him for the first time since I left, it was also very exciting, since he had not seen Edward for so long, I can't even remember. Later Edward took me to an eco-foods store, but it´s lacking quite a bit. And back on my way to Victor's, in order to not be late for dinner (and Wilbur, as he's not allowed on public transport)