mi casa, su casa

I have a home!

My building! With an awesome park on the right. 

Apartment hunting these past two weeks has been ridiculously stressful. Trying to find a place that feels like a good fit when you're moving in with strangers is difficult, especially when ones language skills are not proficient enough to worm through all of the details of renting a room (especially on the phone. Calling landlords was terrible). I had to keep reminding myself that roommates were the most important part; living in a shitty hole may be terrible, but if you have great people there to keep you laughing it won't be that bad. Plus, I wanted to make sure I had Spanish roommates. I saw a lot of international flats, which would have been awesome had there been at least one Spaniard living there. I am in Spain after all, and one of my main goals this year is to become fluent in the language. I probably saw about eight rooms total, and I can happily say I am typing this now while sitting in my new bed.

I live on the outskirts of a neighborhood called Salamanca. It's not that close to the downtown area, where I wanted to live, and even farther from campus. I'm estimating a 45 minute commute each way to school, from my door to the classroom. The location isn't ideal, but the metro system is incredible here, so it really isn't too difficult to get around the city at all. I have my own bedroom with a balcony overlooking a park outside, and I love it. Two others roommates live here, one from Spain and another from Argentina. They both seem really friendly so far, and more importantly patient enough to deal with my constant "Qué?"s and "Cómo se dice...?"s. They remind me a little of a bickering old couple together, arguing about different accents (vosotros vs "sh") or who has better fútbol teams. I usually don't know what they're saying, but it sounds hilarious anyway. 


If you ever feel like sending a special something this way, or if you happen to be in the neighborhood and want to stop by... ;) 

View from my balcony. 

Brian McMahon
c/ Sancho Davila 35,  3º C
28028 Madrid
España


New address in more recent post...