Ok, so having been confused/inexperienced/clueless expat for a week, a few questions:
1.  Does anyone know how to do accents, tildes, etc. with an computer that has an english keyboard???  I would assume that it’s possible, but I really don’t know.  I’m using microsoft windows XP pro…
2.  What is a laundry clip called in spanish and, more importantly, where could I find some?  Failing miserably with this one… 
3.  Why didn’t I learn more spanish before coming here?  You don’t have to answer that; I’m either lazy or stupid and it has become muy claro a mi.

1. Try taking a look at your keyboard options first in my computer.  Try and switch it to Spanish there.  If you can do that, from then on all you have to press is alt gr + shift to switch from english to spanish.  The ? is your colon key and the tilde is the one right next to it.
2. Laundry clip is pincho de ropa.
3. Keep with the Spanish- try some immersion.  You’ll be frustrated for about a month then it will start to come together.

1. I use the Character Map and just cut and paste the accents in when I need them. Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools, and the Character Map should be there.
2. Una pinza. For a pack of pinzas go to any store that says ferreter?a (hardware) or menaje (housewares), or any of the Todo a Cien shops. These are the discount shops where they have all sorts of random stuff for real cheap.
3. Being in Spain is the perfect opportunity to get an intercambio. It should work wonders for your Spanish…

Good luck!

Thank you both.  I did manage to find the laundry pins and can now switch my keyboard to spanish.  Por supuesto I have no idea how to use the keyboard, but it will match my spanish until I’m more comfortable with both.

cookyjar - 29 August 2008 07:45 PM

Ok, so having been confused/inexperienced/clueless expat for a week, a few questions:
1.  Does anyone know how to do accents, tildes, etc. with an computer that has an english keyboard???  I would assume that it’s possible, but I really don’t know.  I’m using microsoft windows XP pro…

Try using the ‘Alt’ key and whilst holding it down press a combination of two or three numbers on the keypad. You will have to go through the permutations to find what you want and take a note of them of course. On my Spanish keyboard holding Alt and pressing 156 gives me a UK pound sign, you can get ‘half’ ‘quarter’ etc etc as well as the accents that way.