LOS RUMANOS

It was a good day... 7th floor penthouse started the morning off right with a little Stevie Wonder. They'll totally rock my world if I hear ELO to start the day.

In other news, the flat-mates and I spent a mini-afternoon with José, The old man from Plaza de Fuerte... We had to shop around for internet but we met back up with him in front of his fave cafe at 7:45. (I'll be switching to 24 hour time soon by the way, just a little heads up) Anyways instead of havING a coffee with him as intended he asked us to go to dinner with him. We already had dinner plans so we took a walk with him to a wine store and he bought a bottle which we thought was going to be from “his vineyard” but the lady behind the counter shook her head like he was crazy. Perhaps José has an imagination... Anyways he also promised us grapes straight from the vine so he brought us back to his retirement home which which we passed all his amigos and they just congratulated him for bringing back 3 young girls. Then it felt creepy. He invited us into his tiny room to drink some wine but we declined because it really was getting weird. He sent us away with a huge bag of grapes, some cookies and a rotten apple. Oh not to mention he gave Emily a smack on the booty (old people and babies get away with everything). We don't sit on benches in Plaza de Fuerte anymore and we try to make friends from our own generation.

Speaking of Emily (flatmate), she works at the elementary school in the oldest part of town. Most of it is surrounded by the original Roman walls. In saying that, it is in the lower-income part of the city and thus many of the students come from families of gypsies or, Romanians. For the first few days we heard everyone pointing out the Rumanos and were confused when we realized they used it as a synonym for “gypsy.” Emily was inspired to research Romanian immigration into Spain because the profesora of one of her classes actually gave Emily an enrollment sheet and had her but an “X” by the gypsy kids and a star by the “well-behaved” children. Just by looking at the names it was obvious that the “well-behaved” students were all native and pure blood Spanish and the “X's” were Romanians. Not only are Calatayudians proud, they are bluntly racist. Romanian immigrants make up 14% of the current population of Spain as a country. They are the largest minority here and Spaniards stereotype all of them as illegals without papers who work for less and are basically filth. This is why our friend José compared us to the Rumanos (as a joke) and every time we walked by a “gypsy,” José would point his finger practically in their face and whisper, “Rumanos, Rumanos.”

One reason why there is such a huge influx of Romanians in Spain is because just recently Romania was admitted into the European Union. I've heard before that many eastern European countries do not belong to the EU because they don't have drinkable tap water and now Romania does, thus they are a part of the Union.

This is how it all ties together: When we were inquiring about internet at a phone store, the employee told us we must have a bank account to contract an internet provider. To get a bank account, we assumed we needed our NIE or our identification card for foreigners. We haven't received our NIE's yet because the police station hasn't been able to consult the program they use with the computers and I'm sure they are just confused (they certainly are not the only ones) why 3 American girls up and moved to Calatayud for 8 months. So, the employee at the phone store said, “you only need a passport to get open a bank account because the Romanians are all illegal and they have accounts with just their EU passport.” I shouldn't quote because it wasn't in English and isn't word for word but you get the point. Then the other employee said, “No, you need an NIE.” Then a different customer said, “Romania is now a part of the EU so they only need a passport because they are all illegals working without papers.” Then the conversation continued until it was decided that Romania just joined the Euro Union and they only need a passport AND they are all most likely illegals working for less but we probably still need an NIE to open a bank account and then to buy internet. This morning I got the number of my NIE but they still haven't been able to process my documents and other information SO I opened a bank account before school and today after siesta, we will contract an internet provider and FINALLY WON'T HAVE TO STEAL INTERNET FROM “MOLINA”!!!!!!!!!!

Last couple things: This weekend is the huge festival de la Virgen PILAR in Zaragoza. We are hoping some other auxiliares will house us for the weekend as there is a lot happening as far as music, food, parades, etc...and probably the whole town of Cala is going. The director of English at my high school plays the guitar in a traditional Aragonian band so I hope to catch the music competition (I think it's like a talent show) on Sunday. It should be very fun and super authentic. Her “band” of 30-40 people including dancers is called Estampa Baturra and if you HAZ CLICK here you can see videos of music, dance and traditional dress. Baturra refers to traditional Aragonese from the campo, casi las montañas o algo así.

Entonces, one more day of school this week and hopefully an adventure this weekend. If you'd like to read a little more on the festival de la virgen Pilar, HAZ CLICK here. ¡Que lo paseis un buen fin de semana y besos!