Written September 27, 2010
I can’t believe it’s already been almost a week since I arrived in Madrid. To say the least, it’s been a bit crazy! My mom and I flew standby from LAX to JFK, and JFK to MAD. Somehow we ended up making all our flights, even made first class on the latter flight. We arrived on Tuesday, the 21st, and ended up resting all day. It was a lot for me to take in; I didn’t have any expectations, however, upon my arrival I was overcome by emotions and memories of the last time I was in Spain. I was comfortable living in my old neighborhood of Argüelles, hanging out with my California friends and having my own Madrileño to be close with. It was a bit of a shock to previously thinking you can just pick up where you left off, yet in reality, you must start all over again.
The next day I was feeling a little more adjusted, and was ready for what was to come. I had a 10-hour orientation [and 5-hour orientation the next day], which felt like it lasted forever, but made me completely excited about my job. The instructors and program leaders were so happy to have us in their country, for we are the ones to advance the English skills of their youth in bilingual schools. It felt nice to be appreciated, since sometimes it feels like Spaniards look down upon America and their citizens. The rather ironic part of the program is that the whole orientation was conducted in Spanish, yet at our schools we must only speak English, and even pretend that we don’t understand a lick of Spanish! Our program also spoke about getting settled. Unfortunately though, I didn’t feel quite as knowledgeable about everything as I did my first time around. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t know any Spanish or had never lived outside of the country before—Getting settled would be a much harder feat!
My mom stayed until Friday, which I was so thankful for. She paid for a hotel, bought me a new phone, and did as much as she could to try and help me get a head start on getting settled. She originally booked me an extra night at the hotel, yet when I went to check in after dropping her off at the airport, they told me that there were no rooms available [after we had already paid for it] and that I had to leave immediately. I had to pack up all of our bags [Lolly and I] and figure out where to go. I had no way to get a hold of Lolly either, since she was in orientation until the end of the day with a phone that didn’t work, and my brand new phone which turned out to be a piece of crap. Luckily I was able to stay at Sara’s old piso with Bea, who also helped me call apartments with her perfect Spanish. She advised me to go exchange my phone, since it kept cutting out on calls [which were necessary to make in order to find a place to live]. I spoke to the same guy who sold me the phone, and he told me he couldn’t exchange the phone because I threw away the box, which I did in a hurry because I had to leave the hotel. He further went on to say, “I don’t know how you do it in your country, but here in Spain you need the box to return the phone.” By that point I was on the verge of tears. It was just one thing after another that would continue to um, I guess you could say, “challenge” me.
Lolly ended up going back to the hotel, not knowing where I was, nor her bags, which as you could imagine would scare anyone a bit! We ended up getting a hold of each other through Facebook, and decided to meet the next morning at Starbucks. That began our long and draining search for a piso. When my mom arrived back in the states, she booked us 2 more nights at the same hotel, this time making sure that what they said was available actually was available! After those 2 nights, Lolly ended up getting us 2 more nights at a hostel, which ended up giving us just enough time to find a place to live. Needless to say, we had become nomads! After calling about 100 pisos and seeing close to 10 of them, we found a spacious, 3-bedroom apartment, decently priced, right in a great neighborhood near the center of the city. The downfall: My room was actually a part of the living room, leaving me with drapes as a door, a tiny, individual sized bed who’s wires practically pop out of the mattress, no heater or internet, and a hot water heater that only allows you to take a warm shower for less than 2 minutes before turning ice-cold. My room isn’t actually that bad after getting settled, we decided we were going to use a radiator as well as bundles of warm clothes when winter rolls around, we were going to find some sort of internet [even if we had to pay our neighbors every month!], but the lack of hot water was definitely going to be a problem. Our landlord is elder and really wants us to be happy in the piso, but no matter how we try to explain it, he doesn’t understand that 2 minutes of hot water is not good enough. We had him come over and feel it until it turned cold, and it turns out that he actually thought it was acceptable, and that he wasn’t going to fix it…that pretty much we are just being spoiled wanting to have hot water. I’m sorry, but that is essential. I’ve already taken 2 showers at this place, both of which I only got to shampoo my hair and wash my body. Conditioning my hair, washing my face, and shaving all have had to be done after the shower, mostly in the bathroom sink. So after arguing our point, telling him we weren’t happy, and what we paid should cover the essentials, hence: HOT WATER. Now it is something we must take into our own hands and hire a repairman, and hopefully give our landlord the bill. If not, he said he will give us our deposit back and we can move. We REALLY aren’t looking to move anymore, but if the water is not going to get fixed, it is pretty much necessary that we find another place. So, we hope for the best. But it definitely has not been an easy few weeks to say the least! What is it that they say, though? “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”? “Once you hit bottom, the only other direction is up”? “God wouldn’t put you in situations unless he knew you could handle them”? Haha, sorry for the downer of a blog, but as many up’s as there will be, there will also be many down’s…and most people have a rough start. ButI know good things and experiences will be coming soon, once I get completely settled! ¡Hasta pronto!
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