Another Sunday...................

Hello Everyone,

Well,  I am just chillin´ here on this cold Sunday afternoon. I finally got paid from my Dominican students. I really really need the money. One of her sons is in the hospital so I bought him some roses. I really hope he comes home soon. He´s such a nice kid.  Today the father made my favorite Spanish food without even realizing it´s my fave : Octopus, garlic and shrimp, bread, and potaoes. VERY GOOD STUFF.

After I got paid from my telemarketing job I realized that I don´t get paid when I miss work due to being sick. ( I was told otherwise) I was sick for 2 days and therefore lost 80 Euros. And right now, 80 euros is a lot of money for me. That did NOT make my day. And guess what ? I am getting sick again. This friggin´blows.

The ability of employers here to royally screw their employees over is just unreal. In the US I would NEVER even consider doing what I do here. You have no idea how lucky I feel that I have a University degree and TEFL certificate. If I didn´t have those there would be absolutely no hope for me.  If I get working papers I can have a better chance of finding a better paying job. Until I can get those, I´m afraid that I will have to keep bending over.

And to get legal working papers I will have to stay with my current job for another 6 months and kiss a lot of ass. I really hope it´s worth it. I guess we´ll just have to see.

Anyways, I better get ready for my week. Tommorow is a holiday, but I have to go to work anyways. And early, becuase I have to make up the 3 hours that I missed when I went to register at the city hall on Friday.

Ciao.

 

 

Elections, Immigration issues, yada yada yada........

Hello Everyone,

Wow, the elections are really coming up next week. Unfortunately I completely missed the deadline to vote absentee. Crap. I really wish that I could have put my two cents in this time around, especially since it is all part of my American duty.

Honestly, I really don´t know who to vote for. To be honest I don´t like either. But one of them has gotta be president, right ? I was talking to my dad the other day and he told me that he would seriously vote for Kermit the Frog over Bush. I kinda laughed.

I am normally a Republican, and lean a little to the right. I voted for Bush last time around. But in the past four years he messed up relations with other countries. In order to remain one of the most powerful countries, I would imagine that we have to get along with the other countries, right ? We´re only a small part of the globe. Europe is growing each year as more countries entered the EU. 10 new countries became a part of the EU. I would hate to see Europe band together and become our enemy. Of course it wouldn´t happen overnight and maybe it won´t happen at all. But I really feel that we are walking backwards a little. I am really torn over who to vote for. Anyways, that´s my two cents for what it´s worth.

Yesterday I finally got in contact with my boss and he let me take off a couple of hours to register in the town hall so that I have proof that I am actually living here in Barcelona. This is one of the requirements for me to apply for working papers and residency for about one year. My roommate really helped me out. He missed some of his classes to go with me. I woulda been really screwed without him.

I felt like I was at the DMV all over again. I waited for about an hour (which is not that much). Like the DMV there were seats to wait for our turn. There were a lot of immigrants there, and I was trying to read the various passport covers to see where they are from. A lot of people from South America, India and Pakistan. I think that I was the only American girl there. People did kinda look at me. Oh well.

It´s wierd. Back in the states I used to read about immigration issues but I never had to experience any of it because I am a US citizen. Here I am one of the "immigrants" that I always read about in the US and that I always read about here in the Spanish papers . It is different being on the other side.

Anyways, Without my roommate accompanying me I would have had to buy my own apartment to prove that I am living in Barcelona. But he vouched for me and told them that I am living with him and that he invited me from the US to live with him. I was silent the whole time and let him do the talking. I didn´t wanna fuck up any of my chances.

So now I feel better because I registered within the deadline and have a chance to get working papers in six months. Yeah, I have to wait a while. But hey, immigration issues are almost never dealt with rapidly unless you are a refugee or can pay off officials. Sometimes not even then. I was told that if I paid about $70,000 to the immigration officials I could get my papers overnight. Hahaha.

I finally got paid today and was able to put money on my phone. So now I can send text messages. I had no money and was unable to call anyone here for about a week. Shit, that was frustrating.

I also bought some food for the week. I bought bags of fruit for under €5. You don´t know how relieved I am that I can finally go to the store and buy FOOD. We´re not talking about a shopping spree. We´re talking about eating. I never had to worry back home. So yeah, you get the idea.

Anyways I am gonna go out with my roommate and his friends tonight for tapas. I hope to get full.

Ciao.

Warning ! I used cuss words in this entry !

Hello Everyone !

Let´s say that today was not a good day. For starters I don´t like the men in my office. They say the stupidist stuff to us girls. And today I told one of the guys to go back into his office because there was nothing special to look at while he was looking at me. I said it in a joking manner, but he took it seriously and is now being a dick about it. Whatever. Ladies, I swear to GAWD if you meet a guy for the first time and he tells you he is a financial analyst or a stockbroker do yourself a favor and just bolt out the door. Most of them are just worthless.

I think I should get paid tommorow but I have been broke all week, and I am a little hungry right now because I don´t have a lot of food left. I mean, yeah I am not gonna starve. But I am really really low on food. By tommorow I will have nothing left. I am counting on getting paid. I am sick and tired of living like this.

And remember how I wrote a nice journal entry about a glimmer of hope yesterday ? Well fuck it all. I am really nervous about it all right now. If I wanna have a chance to get my working papers I HAVE to register at the city hall by tommorow. And I didn´t know this until I got home after work today. Because if I don´t register by the end of October I have no chance. The problem is getting in contact with my boss. Today he is not picking up his damn phone. And if I don´t show up for work tommorow morning I will lose my job. I really don´t know what to do right now. I am very nervous.

Plus I arrived at work early to work today to ask my boss if he would help me out by putting me on contract ( so that I can apply for working papers) and he told me that he´ll have to talk to his lawyers about it first and then he´ll get back to me. I won´t know if he will help me out or not until December or January. So I will be living with this suspense for the next two months. I could tell by his response that helping me out was definitely not a priority. Motherfucker.

I hope that he ends up helping me out. His business needs me. People quit all the time and I always work holidays and I am on time for the most part. I always do my job and have a good attitude. I really don´t know what I am gonna do if I ask him to let me miss a couple of hours of work to register and he flat out tells me no.

Being here in Spain illegaly has kinda forced me to put up with shit. I took a lot of rights that I had back in the United States for granted. When I go back to the States I am deninitely not gonna put up with as much shit as I used to. I am not gonna turn into a complete bitch, but I will stand up for myself more than I used to.

Yes, I am tired of the way I live right now. But what´s bothering me is that I have a small chance of getting papers to work and live here legally for a year, but it seems like I am even losing that.

I love Spain and things would be a lot easier if I had money. Seriously. Ask anyone who has been here. If you have money this is a wonderful city. If you are broke or have no money life is a lot harder.

I absolutely love the culture here and Barcelona has won a place in my heart. However, I kinda want to go home because I really miss the rights that I had. I miss being able to walk into businesses and apply for a job. I also miss having a social security number. Here the equivalent is called a D.N.I number and I don´t have one of those. Coming here I feel like I took 2 steps backwards. I grew up in the United States where I lived a life where as though I struggled, I always could find a job and have my rights protected at work. I didn´t grow up in poor country where struggling to survive is a part of every day life. So therefore things are harder here for me.

So yeah, you get the idea of how I am feeling. I really can´t wait for this evening to pass. Anyways I now that I got all this outta my system I am gonna go do something else now.

Ciao.

A glimmer of hope..........

Hello there everyone,

Wow, do I have a lot to write about today. For starters I have one Euro left until this weekend. Joder ! I think that I will use it to buy some chocolate tommorow at work. I am so glad that I should be getting paid this weekend.

You probably don´t know that I am illegally here in Spain. Well, now you know. I have no legal working papers, and no health insurance. European citizens can get free health services and I can´t. I guess that you can say that I am kinda living on the edge right now. So when I bitch about my job, just know that I just can´t go look for something better.Well, actually I can but the chances of actually finding anything are slim to none. It´s not so simple here. I kinda take what I can get around here. Hell, I am even lucky to have a job right now. I was told that Spain is one of the worst places to work in Europe. Damn right it is !

Without working papers employers can rip me off and delay paying me and there is nothing I can do about it. Yeah, I can blubber to my mom about it but I can´t go to court.

And yes, I DID try to obtain a visa before coming here. Almost impossible.

So am I scared ? Nope. The absolutely worst thing that can happen to me is that the Spanish Authorities ask me to go back home. But there are no reports of any Americans being sent home.

So...... on to why I am feeling hopeful. Well, I was reading the Spanish newspaper and the government is giving people such as myself that are living and working here illegally the opportunity to obtain a working contract and a right to live. Between January and April people like me can apply for permission to live and work here. People that have been living and working here for at least 6 months can apply for permission to live and work here if they can prove it. And by February I will be able to apply AND prove it.

I am so excited because opportunities like this almost NEVER happen here and for some reason the government is all of a sudden giving people the opportunity to live and work here. For those of you that have immigrated to another country you KNOW how much hell you have to go through to obtain your rights to live and work like the rest of the citizens. It can take YEARS, lawyers and waiting in line for hours. So you can imagine how I must feel that all this can be accomplished under a year.

Once I have permission to live and work here, I can apply for any job that I want without people rejecting me for a lack of working papers.

But I am very nervous. I have the opportunity in front of me, but I am worried that things won´t work out. To prove that I have been working for the past 6 months I will need to ask my boss to write up a letter and sign it, stating how long I have been with the company. But I am afraid that my boss won´t help me out. There are many reasons why he may not do it. And it would be really sad if I lost my little window of opportunity to be here legally ALL because my boss refused to sign a friggin´sheet of paper. Especially since he faces no consecuences by doing it.  So yeah, I am nervous. I will be praying a lot. I guess if things don´t work out, I´ll know that I just wasn´t meant to stay here for a while. Who knows at this point.

Anyways, I better go now. Wish me luck. I will be getting up earlier to talk to my boss about this tommorow.

Embarassment

Hello there my lovelies.........

Today at work was kinda funny. I laughed A LOT. You all know that I find my job bring and meaningless. And I am tired of people cutting me off in the middle of my pitch and hanging up on me. So today I decided to speak in a  softer, sexier tone. Not overly trashy or dirty but sexy enough so that I could have some fun and not get busted by my bosses because they are always walking around us while we are calling.

Anyways, I called Germany and Switzerland and as soon as I got the managers on the phone, I changed my tone. And some of them gave me a shy laugh as I was doing my pitch and one guy kinda laughed like Santa Claus and asked who I was. Meanwhile I was trying not to die of laughter. And my coworkers thought it was kinda funny too. Soooo, everyone was entertained and I still have my job.

I also don´t use my real name over the phone. I use the name Eva. I love that name. It sounds like a name of an actress from the 1940s. That way when people shout at me, they aren´t using my real name.

My roommate showed my how to iron today. I was so embarassed. I really just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I really should know how to properly iron. But at least I am learning now.

Anyways....................... I better to and make some food now. I really don´t wanna cook right now. But if I want to eat anything I have to cook it. I don´t have any snacks or anything. Gah ! I am waiting to get paid. I should be getting paid this weekend. My English student should also be paying me too. If she backs out on me I really don´t know what I am gonna do.

Okay, I am gonna go for reals now. Ciao :)