Calle de Alfonso XII, 19, 3-C
28014, Madrid, Spain
Before leaving for Spain, one of my top priorities was
finding a place to live as soon as I got here. With only a list of phone numbers
and names of apartments in my notebook, I was a bit weary of not finding
anything for a while. I created an account on Idealista, a site for searching and saving apartments up for rent
in Spain. I could search by the area of Madrid and size of the apartment
(called piso here). It was so
helpful!
After getting my Spanish phone number/sim card my second day
in Madrid, I started calling the numbers on my list. It was interesting… not
used to the accent here in Madrid (very different than Spanish spoken in
Mexico), so I had a hard time understanding. I met up with a few other girls in
the Fulbright program that wanted to look for apartments together. Kim (now my
current roommate) had arrived in Madrid a few days before me. She already had a
long list of appointments for the day luckily! We were looking in the same
area, Atocha, because it’s near the main train station called Atocha-Renfe.
Jamie (my other roommate) was also looking in this area because all three of us
had to take trains to our schools south of the city. Atocha is in the city
center but in the southern part of it. There was a big group of us all looking
at apartments together, but when we found our place we decided the three of us
would get it because the others worked more north or west in the city, so living in other areas would be best for them.
We lucked out finding a place on me & Jamie’s first day
apartment-searching (Jamie had arrived on her plane only hours before)! Kim had
spent the day before looking at places and said they were all very strange… so
we didn’t have the highest hopes on our first day, but it went better than expected! The first place we saw was awful… it was a Spanish guy’s apartment with all sorts of weird
decorations and things around. One bedroom had a chandelier that looked like
giant, creepy paperclips all bent around each other. We were a bit discouraged
but kept on. The second place we considered. It had a nice entry and courtyard.
The apartment was okay, just very old. The bathroom was teeny-tiny. There was
just a toilet that barely worked and a shower you could stand in but not really
move about. The rooms were decent in size but with a tiny bathroom, no oven,
and an electric stove we had to think about it.
Then… we had the appointment for the apartment we have now!
The second we walked in we knew it was what we were looking for. It has an
entry hallway, kitchen on the left side, and then a decent-sized living room
area.
On the left of the living room are two rooms (now me &
Jamie’s) and on the right side another room (now Kim’s) and the bathroom.
There’s only one bathroom, but it’s long and has hooks on the walls and shelves
along the other side for all our things. We each have our own shelf and another
couple shelves for things like the blow dryer and soap. The hot water didn’t
work for our first month… it was as cold as ice and showers were awful. We got
it fixed now though!!
Each bedroom has pros and cons and we each decided on what
we wanted most. Kim’s room has the most floor space, a chandelier, and the
nicest closet. Jamie’s room has a giant wall-length closet. My room has the
biggest bed but less floor space, a smaller desk, and a smaller closet. I
decided the bigger bed was worth it though for when people come to visit. I
also liked the flower photos on the walls and mirror above my desk! I took a
whole Sunday afternoon decorating the wall next to my bed with photos from
home. I made the word “LOVE” out of photos with a heart underneath. I was going
to write “AMOR” (love in Spanish), but the “M” and “R” were too wide to fit on
my wall. Oh well this works and reminds me of home all the time <3
Okay so the kitchen is tiny, but it has all the essentials I
couldn’t live without! Because my independent study project while I’m here is
studying Spanish and European cuisine, there were certain things I needed to be
able to cook everything. Most importantly our apartment has an oven! Many
apartments here don’t sadly. And we also have a gas stove, which is awesome
since most are electric and I prefer gas. We have a neat drying rack over our
sink too. It looks like a cabinet, but when you open it up it has racks to dry
the dishes! And the water just drips into the sink while they dry. Dishwashers
aren’t common here, and dryers for clothes are almost non-existent. We hang all
our clothes on the line – the old-fashioned way!
We almost immediately decided on the apartment and signed a
contract that night! We met a couple of days later to write up an official
lease and pay the deposit and utilities for the year up front. Then we were handed
the keys – such an exciting moment!
 |
| With our landlady, Marie José, the night we signed the lease! |
Since moving in we’ve been making our piso more and more like home. After orientation we took trips to Al Campo (similar to Walmart) and Ikea.
Each trip took a whole afternoon since they’re a bit far, but it was worth it!
We bought organization supplies for our rooms, sheets, pillows, comforters,
décor, kitchen & cleaning supplies, and much more! We made trips to the
grocery store, and as of the last couple weeks we finally have a fully stocked
kitchen! It’s great to feel like I have a “temporary home” for the next months.
Always good to be home at the end of a long day J
 |
| Our mailbox (buzón) now has our names on it - we were so excited for our first mail! |
No comments:
Post a Comment