predicaments.

let's see, how exactly have i been occupying the past few days? monday, i helped S (an american living in spain for 10 years now) put together the big ikea purchase- a new closet for O. that was my first ikea furniture experience. i also ventured to corte. i needed a few things for salsa, mainly corn chips. even the one in bilbao smells like jackets. it was so refreshing to be back! yesterday i went to the guggenheim. although i have been before, this was my first true guggenheim experience. (the last time i went the museum was changing exhibits.) the current exhibit is cai guo-qiang. he is a chinese artist who works in several mediums (sculpture, gunpowder drawings, and pyrotechnics). there were great video installations of some of his pyrotechnic designs. perhaps his most famous was the opening ceremonies for the beijing olympics. the videos were awesome. he also had a large scale gunpowder 'sketch' of his inspiration for the opening ceremonies. i have to admit, the richard serra sculptures were still among my favorites. afterwards, i picked O up from her bus stop and played in the park. it's a nice park in the middle of city. some of the fall bcn kids wandered there on our last day in bilbao. there's an old merry-go round, plenty of benches, and a ton of kids releasing their energy after a long day at school. kids here don't get out of school until 5 pm. today was spent spreading my fake resume to english schools around the city. in order to ensure i get a teaching job, i had to stretch the truth, aka make up english teaching experience. some of you may not know this about me, but i have experience teaching english in germany, spain, and tutoring english in the us. impressive, huh? i spent most of my day walking from language school to language school. nothing overly promising came of it. keep your fingers crossed. and i probably shouldn't post this on the internet, but if i get a job i will be living illegally in spain! the visa process has been a bitch. basically to be an au pair in spain you have to have a student visa. in order to obtain a student visa, you must do it before arriving in spain. i'm not holding my breath for a work visa either. that process is supposed to be even worse. i emailed the us embassy in madrid, thinking they could be of assistance since my circumstances changed drastically. however, germany seems to be the only country in the eu, that technically has an au pair visa. not only that, but it's the only country that allows au pairs to enter solely on the tourist visa. great!