My attempt at becoming a Madrileña… and being far from it!

After about four weeks in my new city (and a lot of persistence from Jen) I guess it’s about time to write something about it!! Some days I feel worlds away from home, but most days I absolutely love where I am living and the little life I have found here for myself.

Some days I even feel like I fit in (at least compared to the tourists crowding the main streets on my commute home!) There is so much to explore just in the city of Madrid itself as well as within Spain, it is overwhelming in the best way!

I’ve been here for almost a month and I STILL cannot get over how lucky I got with where I am living and my roommates! After all the horror stories I’ve heard (including my own roommate who escaped a bad situation and even a girl in my program whose landlord slept in her closet!!) I am counting my lucky stars. It turns out that there are plenttty of things that can go terribly wrong when moving to Spain according to the various Facebook pages for English speakers who have moved here.

So after coming home late one night to a quiet, dark apartment and unexpectedly finding a few pairs of men’s shoes in our shoe rack, my first roommate Maddie and I prepared ourselves for the worst. Because things had been **suspiciously** good previous to that, we weren’t sure who we’d wake up to the next morning.

Luckily they ended up being two super cool and totally harmless guys our age- one from NYC and the other from the UK. Last week the last room was filled with Leo from China and now our ‘Casa de Amigos’ is complete. We all happen to be 22 and are either studying Spanish or teaching English. We have already planned plenty of movie nights ahead, roomie dinners and next weekend an overnight bus trip to Málaga in southern Spain.

Rather than being in a ‘study abroad’ mindset, I am really trying to ease into a daily lifestyle and spend my weekends and short-day exploring the many ‘barrios’ or neighborhoods of Madrid, each with their own special vibe. My roommate Maddie and I have our hour morning commute to our schools at around 8am and we get home around 5:30pm if we don’t have a private lesson to teach after school hours. I work a half-day on Wednesday and have Friday off! I absolutely love my school and my schedule and use the extra time to walk around and explore or check out new shops and markets.

But honestly, as a person who never gets sick and absolutely hates it when I am, I’ve most recently use this time to nap and drink warm tea with a tablet of Vitamin C! My body is bombarded with germs on a daily basis when I cram myself onto the sweaty bus and over-crowded morning train and then breathe in all of the coughs, sneezes and flying boogers of little preschool and primary children. I’ve been sick for over a week now, and I haven’t been able to locate (yet) hand sanitizer or Clorox wipes anywhere! Still, I absolutely adore the children I work with and their daily excitement and enthusiasm for everything, including learning English!

But to sum it all up, I am so thrilled to be here. Mostly because I was so on the fence of staying in Ohio to find a job surrounded by my amazing family, boyfriend, friends and my dog (lol I miss her everyday)….or taking a crazy risk and moving to Spain by myself to teach for the year. It was a dream of mine and some days when I wake up I still can’t believe its happening. I am proud of myself for being able to figure out this whole long process and to successfully settle in. Now if only I can become fluent in Spanish!