August is a very quiet time in Madrid. This small stores just close for most of the month, and people leave to escape the heat, going to visit friends or the beach. Most of my friends are gone, and will return someone before September, when the temps will no longer reach 40° C/ 104° F. Since nothing is going on here, I'm going to write a few blog posts about everyday life answering some questions that US friends have asked me.
How do you get around?
A visitor can drive here using their US license, but a resident like me can't. Getting a Spanish driver's license is super complicated and expensive, so I am frateful for the excellent public transportation system. For example, in my neighborhood there are two Metro lines and maybe six bus routes, and a ticket costs less than a euro. In the United States I would have waited 10 or 20 minutes for a metro usually, but here I usually wait less than five. In fact, if you have to wait more than seven minutes, it's pretty much considered a delay. The public transportation system in Madrid is really one of the best I´ve ever encountered.
Where do you shop?
The Spanish usually shop at small local stores. I do that sometimes, but since I'm an American, I prefer large stores and shopping online. I often buy groceries at Aldi and Lidl, the discount grocery stores that are the same as in the US. Thrift stores (charity shops in the UK) were my main source of household goods and clothing in the US, but unfortunately, they don't exist here, so I have to buy almost everything new.
Agosto es un mes tranquilo en Madrid. Las tiendas pequeñas cierran, y la gente sale de la ciudad para escapar del calor. Las personas van a la playa o visitan familiares. La mayoría de mis amigos se han ido, y regresarán cuando las temperaturas no suban hasta los 40ºC. Como no pasa gran cosa, voy a escribir unas cuantas entradas en el blog sobre la vida cotidiana, las cuales están basadas en preguntas que me han hecho amigos estadounidenses.
¿Cómo te mueves?
Una turista estadounidense podría usar su carnet de conducir de EE . UU., pero un residente aquí no puede. Conseguir un carnet de conducir en España es muy caro y complicado, y por eso, me hace feliz que el sistema de transporte público sea increíble. De hecho, cerca de mi barrio, hay dos líneas de metro y quizás seis rutas de autobuses, y un billete cuesta menos de un euro. En los EE. UU., estuve esperando 10 o 20 minutos por un metro, pero aquí espero como mucho cinco. Si necesitas esperar más de siete minutos, se considera prácticamente un retraso. Es totalmente cierto que el funcionamiento del metro en Madrid es evidentemente ventajoso para sus ciudadanos.
¿Dónde compras?
Normalmente, los españoles compran en tiendas pequeñas y locales. Yo lo hago a veces, pero soy estadounidense, y por eso, prefiero las tiendas grandes y las compras en línea. Frecuentemente, compro en Aldi y Lidl, que son supermercados baratos aquí como en EE. UU. Lamentablemente, no se pueden comprar artículos de segunda mano como ollas, sartenes y sábanas con frecuencia porque esos tipos de tiendas son muy difíciles de encontrar aquí. Por esta razón, compro casi siempre cosas nuevas.
5 comments:
that is so unbelievably hot. I was trying to tell my mother it was hot today, 25C and she said oh it was really cool today in Albuquerque, 79F. I'm out of practice it seems with C to F but we quickly realized her cool was still hotter than our warmest temperature! The public transit is not so fine here in smaller cities but still reliable, and we are able to bike without hills or heat.
When Wife and I were in our hoping to move abroad stage, we specifically wanted to be in a situation where we did not need a car. So it seems that is not such a bad thing for you...unless you are looking to get out of town and have mobility.
If you rent a car can you do so with your American drivers license? Or have you had to give that up?
Nope, I can´t rent or drive a car in Spain until I get a Spanish driver´s license, although I believe I still can do both in other EU countries. I do plan to eventually get my driver´s license here, for exactly the reason you said, Uncle de-I - it´s nice to have if you want to travel to a smaller town in Spain. But since it is so complicated and expensive, I want to at least speak the language pretty well before attempting it.
How do you manage without charity shops? Now I'm retired, I buy most of my clothes from the many charity shops available, good quality items at a fraction of the original cost. I do though by brand new for the more personal items of my clothing.
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