They came with a long list and answered all of the questions on our list. I think that they were here for at least a couple of hours - WAY above and beyond.
First and foremost, they are going to help us with the registration process. With our visas, we must register with the local government within our first 30 days in Spain to get our residency cards. If we don't do this, our visas will become invalid in 90 days. On their end, they have to register anyone who is renting from them. If you own a rental property in Spain, it has to be registered as a rental and the local police departments want to know who is renting it. In addition to other things, this helps in the allocation of resources to areas due to increased population due to visitors. So, Mario is visiting with the local government officials tomorrow to make sure he knows the procedure and he offered to help us with our end as well. After reading about how messy this process has been for others (down side of having good web access - the ability to know about everything that could go wrong), we are glad to have someone that both knows the language and the government structure on our side.
They also helped with the dozens of small details -
Why we may want to use the bus but will probably not need the metro - and how to buy passes for each (bus passes sold in tobacco stores, metro passes sold in metro stations).
Where, eventually,we can get mail (there is problem right now with the lock - so we can't get mail for a little while).
How to rent a bike - which we will probably take advantage of - and the offer to drive us out of town if we decide to buy one and need a ride to pick it up- which we probably will not. If we do go that route, however, there is plenty of room in the hallway to park it. Lots of people do. I am sure that the lovely woman who comes in to clean the marble floors of the hallways LOVES having all of these bikes to work around.
They explained which lines on the roof are ours to hang clothes (each flat has assigned lines). We have a washer in the flat and this is our dryer. I do like a dryer with a view.
It gets really hot in Sevilla. It is supposed to be over 100 this weekend. So as you can imagine, it would not take long for the city to start to smell if people left their trash outside. So, garbage collection happens every night from centralized dumpsters that you are not allowed to use until after 8pm. So, if we have trash to take out, it goes out after 8pm. Luckily dinner is not until 10 pm, so this should not be a problem once we fully transition to eating like a Spaniard. (Not sure this will ever happen....)
They told us about the best places to visit in Sevilla, best places to visit outside Sevilla in southern Spain, where to go to the beach, when the local festivals are, how to best adjust the air conditioning units, which markets are best for which types of shopping and when they are open, where some good language schools are, how to change the battery in the gas water heater unit, and on and on....
We did figure out a few things completely on our own - like how to make ice in a one time use ice bag.... We try not to take straws at restaurants, we use reusable shopping bags, we recycle over half of our "trash", but now we are supposed to make ice in one time use bags? We will see.
After they left, I registered for a language class that starts on Monday. I had to do an online placement test that took me about an hour. I am not sure why you would want that much information on someone who is going to start in level A-1 (the lowest level), but I did my best. The class meets from 4-7:30 pm Monday-Friday with two 15-minute breaks. I signed up for two weeks. If all goes well with this school, I will continue on and Albert will likely sign up for a class of his own. There are a number of schools to choose from, so if the first two weeks don't work out - I will try another one.
We went walking, shopping and stopped by the language school to pay. Then it was time to cook dinner. The kitchen and the shops are nice - so far, we have had every meal at home. At some point, we will try out one of the many cafes that line the street that lies perpendicular to ours at the end of our block. Maybe when it is 100 degrees, I will feel less like cooking and more like going out for gelato!
