My New Piso

I’m finally starting to feel settled in my new apartment. I finished moving all my junk in January 5^th but I’ve been so busy saying goodbye to old friends, meeting all the new kids, and studying for finals, I could hardly believe it when my flat mates showed up at my door already looking for the second month’s rent. I hadn’t even done a load of laundry yet!

I was a month into it I was still not convinced that moving was the right decision. Life at my Señora's house was good and simple and I was afraid I might not be getting what I wanted out of the move after all. I moved for a few main reasons:

1. I wanted the freedom to have friends over

2 To not be tied to coming home for mediocre food or carrying a sandwiches around all day

3. I wanted to make some Spanish or Erasmus friends who I would speak some Spanish with, because although my señora was really nice, our conversations were too short to be good Spanish practice.

4. To get a shorter commute.

Recently I’ve been feeling much more at home. The past couple weekends I’ve hung out with my neighbors who are a lot of fun. Little by little, I’ve been getting to know my roommates, who are quiet and studious. And for the first time since I got to Spain, I did one of the homiest things of all; I lied on the couch and watch a lame movie for hours. With the start of classes, I've also been enjoying the new commute which is a half hour walk or 15 minute bus ride, rather than a 30 minute bus ride plus a ten minute walk. And last week I had my first ever in-Spanish dream!

Now I am sure that moving was worth the trouble, (and it was a lot of trouble!) Finding an apartment in Spain was easily one of the most stressful things I have ever done. For a solid three weeks the process of searching online, making phone calls, visiting places, and getting lost looking for them, completely took over my life. The variety of apartments I saw ran the gamut: big, small, luminous, windowless, filthy, immaculate, central, far far away, new, old, some with normal seeming and others with not so normal roommates. One of the crazy ads I came across offered a shared bed for 200 euros a month!

After visiting at least 10 places, the decision came down to three very different choices, location-wise, size-wise, and window-wise. The day before my parents arrived, my time was up and I bit the bullet and chose a cute clean little apartment only two stops away from my university, with two 22 year old Spanish girls.

I never posted pictures or said much about my old place. So I guess now would be a good time for it, so we can compare and contrast.

The who of Jorge Juan (my homestay):

Name: Kristin
Age: 70 something
Birthplace: Sweeden (married a Spanish guy and has live here for like 40 yrs)
Occupation: Señora
Role in my life: My señora: fed me 3 meals a day, cleaned my room, washed my laundry, was nice to me.
Affinities: God (in a nice personal, not pushy annoying way) and movies (especially old ones like with Audrey Hepburn, or ones with religious themes, or Poirot)
Random facts: 4ish kids, 2ish baby grandkids; speaks a lot of languages, including English; phone # growing up was 4.

Name: Anke
Age: 25ish
Birthplace: Romania
Occupation: Nanny
Role in my life: The girl in the bedroom at the end of the hall who never spoke to me
Affinities: Lying on the couch all day watching TV
Random facts: Is somehow related to Kristin’s daughter in law

Name: Chari
Age: 31
Birthplace: Canary Islands
Occupation: Studying to be a chef; working part time in a Bakery
Role in my life: I helped her with her English homework; she invited me to her cooking class ( but I was never around to go)
Affinities: Cooking
Random facts: Spoke so fast I could hardly ever understand

Name: Gustavo
Age: 35 ish
Birthplace: Madrid
Occupation: Teaching Spanish to non-native speakers
Role in my life: My señora’s son; entertained me (although I think I was the one keeping him company)
Affinities: Religion, making hand made Christmas cards, playing cards
Random facts: Moved home at Christmas time; taught me how to make a Tortilla Española.

The who of my new piso:

Names: Carmen and Eli
Age: 22
Birthplace: Ciudad Real and the Canary Islands
Occupation: Students of dentistry
Role in my life: Flat mates
Affinities: Like to watch TV and sing along with whatever show is on Monday nights.
Random Facts: They are both really nice

Names: Alberto, Julio, Fran, and Joaquin.
Age: 20's
Birthplace: Valencia, Cordoba, Extremadura, and Ciudad Real.
Occupation: Studies marketing, is a podiatrist, studies law, studies medicine
Role in my life: Neighbors
Random: They are all really nice and a lot of fun

My old Bedroom:

My new bedroom:

about the same.

Old Bathroom:
New Bathroom:The new one is better because the shower head in the old one always fell down from the holder.

Old Kitchen:
New Kitchen:The microwave in the new one is a million times better (and a million years newer), but the old kitchen had a cool fryalator

Old Family Room:
New Family Room:Both good.

Old View:
New View:The view from the 6th floor was better than the new bottom floor view, but there's enough light.

Old Entrance:
New Entrance:I think no old guns hanging on the wall is an improvement.

Old Food:
New Food: ??

The food change is both a good and bad thing. My señora's food was good enough. I miss her "cocido" (like stew with garbazo beans and other stuff) and her lentil soup especially. However its nice to be able to eat when, where, and as fast as I want.

Thats all for now. I'm off to hang some more laundry!