November 10th 2010
Well, I am planning to come home for thanksgiving but I had a little bit of a problem with that. Since I am staying here for a year I am here on a visa and I am in the process of getting an identity card for foreigners. My problem is that my visa is only good until Nov 15th and There is a 45 delay gap between when I applied for my identity card and when I will actually receive it. I made an appointment to apply for my identity card in the middle of September. The earliest appointment I could get to apply for the id card was Nov. 4th. I went Nov 4th to apply and they told me that I will receive my id card 45 days from that date. So then I realized that I had a problem bc I want to travel back to the US n.Nov 20th and return Nov 28th and my visa expires the 15th of Nov and I don't get my ID card till the middle of December. There is no doubt that I can leave Spain but I was told I wouldn't be allowed back in with an expired visa. I thought that was strange bc I have always been told that Americans can enter and leave the country freely ever 60 or 90 days or so.
So, to be on the safe side, I went to an office on campus to see if they could help me. They said that it is possible that they will let me back in and not check my visa, but it is more possible that they will give me problems when I try to reenter. So, the people at the Asoex Office helped me get everything taken care of so I could reenter Spain with an expired visa. My first step was to fill out a form requesting reentry into Spain. The second step was to make an appointment online. The problem with this is that the office is so backed up you have to make an appointment about a month in advance. My appointment was scheduled for the 21st of December but that obviously wouldn't work because I want to leave and reenter in November. So luckily the people at the Asoex Office at UAM have a friend who works at the place where I had to go request the certificate of reentry. They called her, told her my situation and she said that I could come down ASAP to get the Certificate of reentry, all I had to do was tell the security guard at the entrance of the building that she was waiting for me. So the Asoex office printed out the forms I needed and told me that I had to bring copied of my visa, passport, and the stub I received from when I applied for my ID card. They also gave me a carbon copied sheet of paper and told me to bring that with me as well.
So yesterday I took all my stuff I was told to bring and headed to the office of extranjería and told them that a woman in the department of "regreso" was waiting for me. So they let me cut a huge line. But I had to stand in another line and wait an hour to see the person I was there to see. When I was waiting on line I started talking to the person behind me and he realized that I had not payed the fee I needed to pay inorder to receive my certificate of reentry. He knew this because I had not filled out the carbon copied piece of paper that the Asoex office gave me and it didn't have a stamp on it from the bank. No one told me I had to pay in advance, I thought that I was going to pay at the desk when I received the certificate. There was also another girl who in the same line a little bit behind me who didn't pay in advance as well so we both went to the bank together. It was about a mile away from the office we were in and both the bank and the office of extranjeria closed at 2pm, so we ran the whole way because by this time it was like 12:30pm....
We got to the bank and paid and returned to the office of extranjeria again. When we got there the security guard let us cut another line return to the line we were in when we realized that we hadn't paid yet. So I got the certificate and everything is ok now :) here is the certificate:
Madrid 2010-2011
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Manzanares and MTV Concert in Madrid
So, this past weekend was really fun :) on Saturday Nov 6th Diana had to go to Manzanares with some girls from one of her classes. She is taking a tourism class and they have to do a project for the class where they go to some touristic place and ask the people who work in the tourism office certain questions. I got to go with them and it was really cool! http://www.manzanareselreal.org/turismo/ Here there is a castle and a national park. The tourism office for the castle was closed so we went to the national park instead. The castle looks really cool tho and I hope I will be able to go back there one day. It is only 20 minutes from my dorm so I don't see why I wont be able to go back. Its just easier to take a car and one of Diana's friends drove us. so here are some pictures of the National Park:
Here is a video of the cow just chillin' in the park. Its not a very exciting video, just a heads up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKK6X-zo28
After Manzanares, Diana and I went to the Plaza de Toros in Madrid for their version of Oktoberfest called Feria de Cerveza. We waited 30 mins to get in and it was ok, by the time we left tho, the line was rapped around the building!
The next day, November 7th was the MTV EMA and there was a free 30 Seconds to Mars, Katy Perry and Linkin Park concert in the Puerta de Alcalá. It was soooooo cold that night but it was interesting. A group of 5 of us went. When we first arrived we managed to get pretty close but then too many people started showing up and then people started falling into each other in waves and it was really scary because we could hardly move. I got really freaked out and started to panic a little bit bc I thought we were going to get trampled. I grabbed Diana's hand and pushed our way out of the crowd. On the way out of the crowd someone ripped my backpack open. I don't know if it was an accident or if they tried to steal something but nothing was missing so that was good. We all decided that it would be better if we stayed towards the back. I think I was traumatized from what happened earlier and I wouldn't get very close at all. I wanted to stay as far back as possible. Here are some pictures and videos from the night:
Here are some videos that I recorded at the concert:
Katy Perry
Katy Perry and my friends :)
Linkin Park
Linkin Park 2
Here are some videos of the concert that I found online:
30 Seconds to Mars
Katy Perry
Linkin Park
there were cows just randomly everywhere! |
I was trying to pet them but they wouldn't let me get close enough. |
There were cows everywhere! |
Cows in the park. |
cows in the parking lot! |
Cows in the street! |
Cows outside the window! |
Cows on the side of the road! |
The castle from far away. |
These are some of the houses you will find in Manzanares. They seem really nice. On the other side of the street there is a huge lake and it is really nice. This house is facing the lake. |
Leaving Manzanares. |
Killing time while waiting to get in. |
Inside the Plaza de Toros. |
There was a band playing inside the Plaza de Toros too! |
They carve meat right off of here and use it to make the sandwiches right in front of you! |
The next day, November 7th was the MTV EMA and there was a free 30 Seconds to Mars, Katy Perry and Linkin Park concert in the Puerta de Alcalá. It was soooooo cold that night but it was interesting. A group of 5 of us went. When we first arrived we managed to get pretty close but then too many people started showing up and then people started falling into each other in waves and it was really scary because we could hardly move. I got really freaked out and started to panic a little bit bc I thought we were going to get trampled. I grabbed Diana's hand and pushed our way out of the crowd. On the way out of the crowd someone ripped my backpack open. I don't know if it was an accident or if they tried to steal something but nothing was missing so that was good. We all decided that it would be better if we stayed towards the back. I think I was traumatized from what happened earlier and I wouldn't get very close at all. I wanted to stay as far back as possible. Here are some pictures and videos from the night:
The back of the stage/ Puerta de Alcalá |
The stage from far away. We ended up moving closer. |
These people were advertisements for a cellphone company. |
This is a view of the audience whit my back to the stage. |
More advertisements. |
Kanye West made a guest appearance! |
Katy Perry |
All of us havin a good time :) |
This is a picture my friend took. He was very close to the stage and took a picture of the audience behind him. |
Katy Perry
Katy Perry and my friends :)
Linkin Park
Linkin Park 2
Here are some videos of the concert that I found online:
30 Seconds to Mars
Katy Perry
Linkin Park
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