Getting to grips with LIFE...

FLIGHT:
13 hours of flight - lots of sleep just not in a horizontal position... which is problematic.

Aircraft meals are at best satisfactory... when you try to avoid animal products the fun really begins... dinner was ok, vegetable paella with some salad and some fruit - BORING but satisfactory

Breakfast was TERRIBLE (thanks iberia)... so, here is the misconception(S):



1) People following a vegan diet do not enjoy food
2) People following a vegan diet are trying to inflict pain and punishment onto themselves
3) People following a vegan diet are trying to lose weight/have some kind of eating disorder

.... erm not really. Actually, most people following a vegan diet (I assume) do it out of genuine concern for sentient beings (this includes humans and non humans) and the environment.
Most human beings I know are caring people that do not want to cause unnecessary pain and suffering, yet, consuming animal products results in pain and suffering 99% of the time (you can read on this if you are interested, I am not here to preach)...

Anyway, the point is that if we pay the same price for our meal as everyone else WHY DO WE GET 1/3 of the calories?!?!? Now listen IBERIA, vegans do not need low calorie jam (who needs low calorie jam anyway?! you only use a teaspoon of it, it is not like you are saving many calories?!) AND we do eat bread!!! not disgusting little waffery crackers that melt in your mouth because they are made out of air.


APARTMENT:
Very nice!!! :o)

Only issue is that it is a temporary place and we need something more permanent... except bureaucracy is getting in the way (we need to be residents here before most agencies even agree to show us a place)... then they want a mobile number (which we do not have), a permanent address (which of course we do not have, that is why we are looking for a place... doh!), 12 months worth of payslips from current employer (ooops... well, I have just moved to Chile to start a new job so that isn't going to work either, is it?!) and a long list of things like these...

FOOD:
Supermarket. about 30 different types of milk... except they all come from cows' udders. Ever heard of Soy, almond, oat, coconut, rice milk!?

Finally made our choices... very interesting fruit and veg. Among our finds there were:

Fruta del paraiso - we enjoyed learning to eat this one! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_melon
Pepino fruta - this one was really lovely too! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_muricatum

Then we got some rye bread rolls, quinoa, broccoli, granadas (pomegranates) , oats, olive oil, etc...

Tried to pay at the till. The cashier told me that I should have weighed the breadrolls so we could not have them! jeeeeeeez... surely they know how much they weigh: they are all exactly the same (or at least look it) and they made them? :op She looked at us like we came from mars when we asked if they were not charged by the unit!

On the bright side, they have delicious juices (jugos) everywhere we go. Today we had Mango and another one of Chirimolla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard-apple   if you have not tried this, we strongly recommend you buy this fruit next time you are in Spain or south america, they are delicious!)


BANK ACCOUNT

I knew I was pushing my luck, but we wanted to try this anyway. We walked into BBVA... a Spanish bank I thought, safe bet! ;op We asked what we needed to open a bank account...
They laughed and said "be a resident". I put on my poker face and said "ok, that is not a problem"... then, he said back "Be a resident for at least 6 months!"... I kept my poker face and said "so... what do people do until then? how do they get paid?" He said "I have no idea, this is the policy of all banks here"...

Grand... we shall see if that is true! looking forward to the challenge!

more soon!