Monday, March 16 - bank research

We believe that it'll be easiest to pay the monthly school tuition and the monthly rent with a Spanish bank account.  Our research before arriving in Spain taught us that we'd need to go to the police station and get a foreign SSN (for lack of a better translation).

But, my research on Monday found that we could get a Spanish bank account without one since we're here for less than a year.

We put the paperwork in action and we're now hooked up with one.  Now we're trying to link paychecks (or at least expense checks) to deposit there.  One step at a time.

To share a bit more, it was:

• visit #1 to find out what paperwork was needed (passports and a copy of the lease) as well as 100 Euros + to open an account
• visit #2 - bringing that paperwork and money.  The bank attendant was incredibly helfpul and actually spoke in English.  Usually I'm finding that while most people can speak English about as well as I can speak Spanish, they're nice enough to let me practice my Spanish.  For the bank, it was great to have the English so that we could both understand it.  I have enough trouble understanding it in my native tongue.
• visit #3 will be to pick up our ATM cards and sign more paperwork
• visit #4 will be a visit when we move back to the states to close the bank account