Joder

Guy behind desk: "If you want to get a job, first you have to get a visa."

Me: "I have a job and a visa. I'm here for an NIE."

Guy behind desk: "But this is a tourist visa."

Me: "No it's not. Look at it. It says 'work visa.'"

Guy behind desk: "Oh."

The Office of Extranjeros (Foreigners) was a little maddening, but no one was mean to me and I didn't come close to crying. On another note, for a city of a million-plus people, Barcelona is ridiculously small. I basically don't know anyone here, and I ran into two people who I kind of know at the Office of Extranjeros. (Both Spanish people, which doesn't make a lot of sense.) Anyway, after two hours at the Foreigners' office, I've now applied for an NIE (numero de identidad de extranjero, a.k.a. national ID number for foreigners), which they say I can pick up in a week and which I need to open a bank account, and I need to open a bank account in order to ever get paid. I guess that's progress. When I finally got to work, I could suddenly no longer connect to the internet. Half an hour with the IT guys later, I hunkered down in my borrowed office to maybe get some work done, but the lights wouldn't come on. So I started fucking with the switches, which I guess tripped some kind of alarm, and then the lights started flashing disco-style and an alarm screamed for about an hour before I could get anyone to come fix it. Joder. But, then I went for a run on the beach and life was not so bad. The End.