Más adventuras

So this weekend I've stayed in Madrid. I started out Friday with battling Spanish Bureaucracy, heading to the Office of the Foreigner to apply for my NIE, the equivalent of a Social Security number, but for foreigners. Its certainly been an eye opening processes. I always here it is hell for foreigners in the US to get a SS number and work with our government for Visas etc but now I have a little taste of what it is like for real. Spain is no where as tough as the US I'm sure but there sure are a million conflicting directions and people telling you different things and different papers to fill out, long lines, and general mayhem. I was finally able to meet with someone and submit my application for my number which will allow me to do several things; the one I'm most excited about is opening a bank account so I can buy my plane tickets in Euros and save lots of money. Its supposed to be ready in 10 days...I'll let you know how it works out. In March I have an appointment to apply for my foreigner ID card which will replace the need for me to carry around my passport as a form of ID, that will take 45 days from the time I apply to be ready though so I'll have it for like a month before I leave....thanks Spain. I will need it to get out of the country though so I really hope the don't mess it up and delay it.
After that I went and explored Madrid the rest of the afternoon which is pretty silly to admit but I haven't done that in the daytime yet. I wandered around the downtown for a bit just fallin' in love with the city. I love Madrid, really really really. Its a beautiful, amazing, big city. Watch out Portland! You've got competition for my love! But you aren't really that big so maybe I just shouldn't put you in the competition.
That night when I got back I was feelin' pretty ready for just a movie and then bed but my friend I met on Couch Surfing (also an auxiliar, from Atlanta) messaged me asking if I wanted to go on a hike in the snow the next day at 6am. Of course I did, so this meant I went to bed immediately so I could wake up early and go.
The hike was really cool, around 25 couch surfers all met together in Manzanillas? where there is a regional recreation park. The main guy who planned it was older but really awesome. He knew the place really well and was quite the tour guide. I was incredibly unprepared for a snow hike (just had on regular pants and tennis shoes) but figured I could handle 5 or 6 hours of cold wet feet for an awesome hike with cool people. Uhhh, this was an intense 10 hour hike! We were still hiking out of the park for a good 30 min after it was completely dark out. The climb up wasn't so bad but we went straight down the mountain, like sliding down ice on our butts sometimes on purpose, mostly not on purpose though. It took us like 3 hours to get down the side. I'm scratched and bruised and sore all over but it was a ton of fun and as frozen as my soggy feet were 6 hours into the hike I would do it all over again. I'm fully converted to the Couch Surfing website, let me tell you. I meet some of the greatest, friendliest people from all over the world. So after leaving Alcalá at 6am to get to Madrid and then go to Manzanilla I got home at 9pm to find my heater was not working and there was no hot water! OH my poor wet, frozen feet. After a few good shakings my heater starts working and so I forget about the shower, eat dinner, and crash.

Today I woke up feeling warm, rested, and sore a pretty good combination I think. Hopefully tonight I'll get to finally watch that movie I had my heart set on a few nights ago...