I FINALLY HAVE A HOME.

Well, really, it is a room in a piso. I found the piso on Tuesday, I believe, after I had the most unique experience with the landlord… So.. The piso had 6 rooms in it with a labelled name above the door and the price of the room on the door. When I was looking in the room there were already around 8 other people looking and by the time I left I saw maybe 8 more faces. After I viewed everything, the landlord gave me a sheet asking: 1)My name, 2)My Nationality, 3)My Occupation, 4)How long I wished to say, and 5)My preference of rooms in priority order. However, there was only one room I was interested in (the cheapest one). The landlord said he wanted to select the people he thought would work well together and he chose me! Apparently my room was the most sought after. So, it felt good to be chosen like I was.  My room is pretty cheap and in a funky shape, but I love it as my home for the next 10 months!

The tapestries were already there, but I may get some of my own. I will say, that the “wardrobe” I have will definitely be a different experience, but this is all brand new for me so I am all about it:) The room is already looking better than when I took these photos and is continuing to look more like a home for Colby. I still need to get a desk and a chair. So, IKEA, here I come.

In this photo I am actually in a different person’s room, but one of my new phenomenal roommates took the photo! Her name is Lu and she is from Argentina:) I have a total of 6 roommates that I live with and I am so excited to be on a journey with them. I already mentioned Lu from Argentina, but there is Sol alsooooo from Argentina, Yolca (I hope I spelled that right…) from Finland, Remi from France, Amelia from Germany, and Hank from Florida who is in the same kind of program I am! They are all wonderful young people and are fantastic to be around. They are all here for Undergrad and Grad Schools so I am happy for them. We talk about so many things in our kitchen into the wee hours of the night and I love it. I FINALLY bought groceries with one of my awesome roommates and have been cooking some of my own meals. Ya know… is Spain…. for the first time 😀

Moving on. I have been looking to buy a cheap guitar here to practice while I am here and they have a great website called “Wallapop”. It is pretty much craigslist but in Spain. I have higher priorities right now that require money, but, hopefully, a guitar will be joining me in my room. Other than wallapop are these two markets I have been to a few times now! I mentioned El Rastro in my last post and the music was even better this time! The themed photo for this post is of a wonderful band called Ataca Paca. Check them out! El Rastro is always great, but I visited a new market called Mercado de Motores. This is a little vintage market where the products range from peoples’ crap to amazing artisan items.

A lottttt of people were there as you can see. Normally, the building is a a sort of train museum, but on the weekends it turns into this wonderful market with food trucks outside in the back! Do not worry, it was muy delicioso. I alllllllmost bought some local honey (shoutout to the salon on Belmont Blvd.) but I chose to skip out for right now. Priorities… Next time…. BUT I took a photo of this booth because I thought it was pretty dang funny. All they were doing was selling cereal you cannot get at all the grocery stores! Just seemed like an interesting path to take haha.

I have had some struggles so far, though. The bus system is quite flawed, in my opinion, lately. The buses say they go one way and I end up getting off 30 minutes in the wrong direction because it had a different itinerary for the day. Quite frustrating. I helped Amanda (NUEVEEE) transport her stuff to her home far away from the city center, but that is easy, right? The answer is and was no. Turns out the bus will not let you on if you have a lot of luggage. Luckily, Amanda needed to take the bus. So, we tried going on a cercanias, which is what they call their train system. Also closed that day. In the end, after an hour and a half, she just took an uber and I found a weird way home. I also received my bank account that day, but the process took almost an hour and a half as well. Then, I had my TIE appointment which is pretty much my appointment that lets me be a resident of Spain for the next 10 months. Keep in mind this is all the same day so far. The train to get there was the same closed one I ran into with Amanda. I took 3, three, different metro lines to get there and the address was wrong… Sooo, my appointment was in 12 minutes and it was a 34 minute walk away. I downloaded a taxi app, plugged my card in, and took a taxi and was late butttt I made it! That has been the worst day so far. I honestly think that this section is more of a venting piece than anything else but, hey, you are learning about my time here haha.

I believe the last thing to mention is that SARAH IS HERE. She has been in Spain for about 16 hours now? She is surely asleep, which she needs, but I made sure we did some fun things! I was waiting for her at the hotel where we CIEE people are dropped off at. We all came on a big charter bus so I knew what I was looking for. I see the bus pull up and I am searching for Sarah. All of a sudden, everyone on the side facing me turns their heads to stare right. at. me. So, you know Sarah yelled, “That’s my boyfriend!” which is great. It is always normal when a wave of people stare at you at once. Then I saw her red hair and all was well. I took to an Indian restaurant which was quite good and very very spicy. Bastante picante. We ended by hanging in a hammock in one of my favorite places, Parque de Retiro, before she had to be back for orientation.

Anyways, that is another week in the bag! Went to some markets, ate some amazing food, found shelter haha, will be buying honey, have my woman here, and will be sharing more about traveling! Thank you so much for reading if you did and I hope to keep up with this! It is more fun than I thought! Sorry for any mistakes!