(L)Immigration, Leasing and Language

Hello!

Well, we successfully got our re-entry permits today - meaning Jason can travel out of the country on business (which is good since that's his job :-) ) and Katie & I can go with him occasionally, even before we get our final official residence ID cards. Jason has a meeting in Rome next Thursday and we're considering making it a long weekend - we'll keep you posted! :-) BTW - I apologize if I mentioned this yesterday - but we were very struck by the horror stories we heard about immigration troubles from the people we met at church - and we are SOOO grateful to God that it is all going so quickly and smoothly! The immigration lady told us that actually us applying for/getting these today will help us get our permanent cards faster b/c they had to log our request for the cards in order to give us the re-entry permits. We did not know that - but it's a nice side effect!

We also signed our lease at our new house - it was great to see it again! I was fairly jet-lagged when I saw it first in December, so we made the decision to rent it primarily on Jason's second impression in January and its closer location to his office. But my impression today was that it was very warm and bigger than I remembered it. I really think it fits us perfectly, and the street that it's on seems full of international families. Katie's favorite part was that her window opens out into the room, which means that Peter Pan can come visit her :-). She also enjoyed playing on the terrace and seeing the pool. She did not want to leave! (actually none of us did :-) I think it made it a bit harder to come back to our hotel... but only for a few more days!)

I wanted to mention our Spanish speaking experience - overall people seem to understand us fairly well and I am understanding most of what others say to us. (the new vocab for car shopping, bank loans and cell phone plans is getting me, but I guess that will come) It's funny tho - some people seem to understand us perfectly and others don't really at all. It seems especially when we speak Spanish to people who know English, they seem to be amused at our attempts. :-) We don't know if it has to do with our abilities/confidence, or others' expectations of our abilities given that they know we're Americans. Maybe that's just how life is - some people just don't click with where you are coming from. Or maybe everyone else is just being really nice b/c they're surprised we have any Spanish. :-) Another striking thing from the people we met yesterday - most of them don't feel comfortable with Spanish at all - and in some cases they've lived here for years! Yet another thing we are grateful for - that we have a big head start in the language department!

Well, it's bedtime (at least here in Spain!). I hope you all have a nice evening!
Love,
Becca