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As anyone who has lived away from home before will know, the first time you step into your new city is a thrill. The anticipation of not knowing what is to come, who you will meet, or exactly where you are going to live is just as exciting as it is daunting.
Alexi and I made our way on the metro from the airport to our hostel without a hitch (a feat in itself considering the weight of our overloaded suitcases and all the steps we had to climb!). We found our lovely hostel, dumped our bags and immediately went out in search of some beer and tapas. We´ve noticed that Madrid is very mutlicultural, far more so than we had expected, with lots of people from China and Bangladesh especially who have come because they "can make good business here". Indeed I found out that 51% of people who live in Madrid are not originally from the city, so we are in the majority! You can also imagine my confusion when faced with a chinese shop owner, I was talking to her in Chinese, Spanish and English all at once much to Alexi´s amusement, haha my poor brain!
So our priorities for this week have been to find jobs and a place to live. We have been very proactive in these essential quests with Alexi attending 4 interviews and us viewing 5 flats in our first 3 days! As you can guess this has not been without its stresses. Like London, it is quite expensive to rent in Spain´s capital, let alone finding nice house mates, a decent land lord, and a reasonable location! Despite all this however, Alexi has bagged herself 2 English teaching jobs and we have also met the family of the little boy that I will be looking after in the evenings. A Very cute blonde angel called Miguel
Our time in the hostel has been fun, as hostels always are due to the strange array of people that it holds. Andrew, a 28 year old American who has dred locks down past his arse and wears them as a scarf was a great find. As was Martín, an Argentinian legend with an outrageous sense of humour who had me and Alexi in stitches as he kept reminding us that he was the leader of the group and we had to respect him.
Today we moved into a Spanish family's home as our aprtment is not available until 1st March. She is my boss' cousin and doesn't speak any English so this is a good way for me to drastically improve my rusty Spanish, a crash course if you will! Anyway I must go because I don't want to be late on my first day of picking up Miguel from school!
Hasta luego!
- comments
mum oh my sweet, love your blog, such a way with worrrrrrds. Arthur is trying to sype you now, so hasta luego chiquitas xxxxx mumma
Mum Brilliant- thrilled you're writing this! What an adventure! Have fun! You've achieved a lot in a week! But pleased you are not missing out on rain!!
dad very proud of you rose,lots of love x x