Málaga end of week 2 of 12, July 12, 2011 Tuesday

 Arabic Spice Shop. Chubacca? Aaaaargh.

The good news is the oarsmen are getting TOMORROW off; the bad news is Ceasar wants to water ski TODAY! I bought an inexpensive electric guitar so that I can play TODAY and will either sell it or give it away when I leave. The neighbors are going to have to wait UNTIL THEN to get some rest. LOL. (What do you think of this one, José?)

I can´t take the stuff I´m buying back home. The radio/CD player, coat hooks, clothes pins, trash basket, and whatever else I buy while I´m here is going to have to stay here. The baggage fees are higher than the stuff is worth, plus I don´t want to lug stuff around and try to get it past Customs. Plus, the electric stuff won´t work back home. BTW, the radio stations here play the worst music (to my taste). A flamenco song can be followed by an American, English, Latin American, French, or whatever song.

The University of Málaga (original building?).

Albóndigas. Meatballs. No can opener required. Man does not live by tapas alone.

Accessing your American money overseas. You can take out 200€ ($300) per day from the Cajero Automático (ATM) for a 3% service charge. You can also open an account with any of the banks here and transfer money into it, assuming you signed a form(?) with your American bank in person BEFORE you left! I just found that out TODAY.

To open a cuenta bancaria all you need is a passport, no NIE. Transferring money into your account is done from the sending bank, not from here, via a phone call from anywhere. My American bank charges $30 for each transfer. On a thousand dollars, it works out to be the same charge either way. Also, American bank accounts use a bank routing number and an account number; European banks use an entity number, branch number, two control numbers, and an account number. Additionally, in order to transfer money, these must be preceded by a bank-assigned code and followed by a bank-assigned SWIFT BIC CODE. We don´t want just anybody tranferring money into my account!

Bikers. Motorized bicis (BEEsees) are very popular here. (I haven´t seen/noticed any electric bikes, Rudy)

InstaNet is the name used by ClearWire 4G for its operation in Spain. It costs 36€/month, no contract, no NIE needed. Ay. It´s Tuesday. I’m on the service now and it works great! I can also call the US for free when my VoIP phone (512) 704-9864 is plugged in. (Thanks, Marsea) I´ll still pick up my NIE on Thursday, just in case somebody else requests it later on.