Feeling Renewed

San Geraldo and I don't just feel renewed, we are renewed! After four months and several visits to the Foreigners Office (Oficina de Extranjeros), we finally have our new residency cards. Since it took 4 months for our renewals to be completed, our 2-year cards are good for 20 months. But, that's more than the 9 months we had on our 1-year cards. And it all makes sense. After about 19 months, we can renew again for another 2 years (or 20 months, I'm not sure). At least we don't have to worry about this again until 2014.

La Rubia (remember our unpleasant blonde friend?) was at the desk again today. We each took a deep breath when we queued up and saw her. When it was our turn, we walked up to the desk, I flashed a broad smile and said (in Spanish), "Good afternoon. How are you today?," as I handed her our receipts from last month and told her we were there to pick up our cards. She smiled warmly. La Rubia smiled! And she said, of course, she remembered us. She took the receipts and our passports, pronounced both our names, found our cards in the box on her desk, and handed them to us with another warm smile. I thanked her. She smiled again and wished us a good afternoon. I wished her the same. La Rubia  wished us a good afternoon!

OUTSIDE THE OFFICE AT PLAZA DE ESPAÑA WITH MY NEW CARD AND A NEW FONDNESS FOR LA RUBIA..

On the way home, we decided to follow our annual tradition. We've only done it once before but, in San Geraldo's world, that often makes a tradition. We stopped at Starbuck's near the University. We each had a mango and passion fruit Frapuccino. Per our routine at Catalina, of a jumbo gin/tonic for me and a mini for San Geraldo, I ordered one jumbo and one mini chocolate/chocolate chip muffin. However, in this case, San Geraldo got the jumbo and I got the mini.

SAN GERALDO'S JUMBO ON THE LEFT.
(THERE'S NO REAL WORD FOR "MUFFIN" IN SPANISH. SO, I JUST ASK FOR A "MOO-FEEN.")