July in Madrid

I have no news on the apartment search. Two days ago, my agent snagged a viewing for a possible apartment. As I emerged from the Metro stop to walk to it, she called me and said the apartment had been rented by the very first person who saw it. That's the way it goes in the very hot market. But my agent has not given up hope, so neither will I.

GOOD
I've already met two people who want to be language partners. That means we'll meet up periodically and I will get to practice my Spanish for a while, then they'll get to practice their English. One of them is a very serious student. I can tell he's going to make me use my brain a lot in these sessions.

GOOD
Madrid is very Instagrammable. Lots of beautiful buildings, and luckily the photos don't convey the heat.

HMMM
I continue to have no idea what's going on most of the time. I have tried three times to pick up my ATM card from the bank, but they don't have it yet. They give me an explanation, but I didn't really know what was said. That's okay, I understand that they're telling me to come back, and I'll keep doing that.

GOOD
Two weeks ago, I stumbled across a Symphony concert in the park. I went back the following week for another one, but 30 seconds into its start it was shut down by the police. I'm not entirely clear why, but I think it was due to the expected high temperature of the day. It was sort of fun to watch all the senior citizens on their lawn chairs booing the police.

HMMM
I think next month will be even quieter than this month, with fewer meetups and activities and less chance for making friends. That's because even more people are leaving town to avoid the heat. Maybe by next year I'll be settled enough that I can do that too. Or maybe I´ll have an air conditioner, which would be almost as good.

The more modern part of the city (plus antique water tower), near where I´m currently staying.

Learning Patience, or How to Not Rent an Apartment

I´m trying to put down roots...

Even before I arrived, I was worried about finding an apartment. There are dire warnings on the internet from other expats, and alas, my experience seems similar. Ideally, I need to find an apartment within a month of arrival, because an address is needed to continue the steps of the visa. And it has to be a real address, not an Airbnb or one borrowed from a friend, because I have to present the lease as evidence.

Apartments in Madrid are in short supply. This is probably partially due to the Airbnb trend, but also because tenant protections are so strong here. Landlords need to be picky, since it is hard to remove tenants if they cause problems. It is so serious that if squatters move into your own home, which you might have only left empty for a few days, it can take up to a year to remove them. So I can only imagine how hard it is to get unpaying tenants out of a home.

And I am a special case in Spain, because I am not working. If you cannot show your work contract or payslips, landlords don't want you. Credit checks or bank statements, for some reason, aren't accepted. In the past, I had heard that expats would prepay six months or a year's worth of the lease to get around this problem. However, they just passed a law making prepayment of this kind illegal. Alas, I wish the government would not protect me so much. And how do retirees in Spain deal with this? A local told me that people just don't move after they are retired.

About one week in, I realized I could not find an apartment on my own. Agents would refuse to show me places once they knew I didn't have a job, and when I did see a place there were would be 30 other people viewing it at the same time. I have now hired someone who works with expats, which means she helps navigate the system along with speaking Spanish and English. Even she is finding it hard to locate a landlord who will consider me. I am really glad that I am working with a professional relocator as well as my paralegal, but I see how much patience and time I have to put into the process. I don't even know if we will succeed in the end. Surely there must be a plan B and a plan C, but I don't know enough about the system to know what that might be.

Nine days in Spain and counting

My AirBnb

Here's my experience in the past week. I borrowed the format from a blogger I read, since it helps convey the mix of emotions I feel all the time.

GOOD

Not having to add tax and tip. The price you see is the price you get! (Except a lawyer I met, but I didn't like him anyway.)

HMMM
The Spanish government continues to ask me for documents I could not possibly have and requires me to make appointments I'm not allowed to make.

GOOD
I have hired a paralegal (Using a lawyer or paralegal to assist with things like buying a car or getting health insurance is incredibly common in Spain, due to the amazing bureaucracy.) He had already helped me get the shipment of my belongings out of customs purgatory. He only speaks Spanish, but was oodles nicer and more helpful than the fancy pants English-speaking lawyer I tried first.

GOOD
I have a Spanish bank account and a Spanish phone number. The bank teller was especially lovely and took extra time to teach me how to download and use the bank app.

HMMM
It is really, really hot every day, and will be until September. Like, 38C/100F. Yes, it is dry heat, and no, there is not much air conditioning. They don't have AC at my house or many restaurants. When they do, many have to follow the new government rules of not going cooler than 27C/ 80F. This is part of an initiative to reduce energy use because of the war in Ukraine. In theory, I support this kind of policy, but it's rough going.

GOOD
I have already connected to friends of friends who have been welcoming and helpful with advice. I have started going to meetups, but I'm balancing it with downtime alone, since my brain is worn out from struggling in a new country and a new language.

HMMM
It is wearying to just never quite know what's going on. I'm shuffling along all right. But every day there are new things to learn. How to open doors. How to weigh the fruit in the grocery store. How to pay a bill. How to pronounce the letter G so I can spell my name. Rinse and repeat all day.

GOOD
That fruit that I now know how to weigh? It's all been super tasty.

And I'm off!

My flight to Madrid leaves this evening. I currently own 175 pounds of worldly goods, valued at $300 by the Spanish government and $3000 by me. (I mean, do you know how long it would take me to recreate a custom made wardrobe of vintage woolen clothing?) If the fates allow, I will arrive in Madrid in what is their Wednesday afternoon. The most urgent items are to get over jet lag, open a bank account, and buy a new electric toothbrush.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Fourth of July and my departure with a very American cookout. It was delightful and I felt loved.

The day before, I took a 30-mile/ 48km bike ride with N and R, my long time biking friends. We gorged ourselves on the wild raspberries and blackberries lining the trail and suffered through what one of them called 175% humidity. I will not have air-conditioning for my first month on Madrid, but that ride made me appreciate that dryness does make heat more bearable.

The rest of my belongings, which will arrive in either two days or two months, depending on Spanish customs authorities.

Honestly, I am not very excited right now. I am tired and know how much work and discombobulation are ahead of me. But I'm also older and wiser than when I lived outside the country twenty years ago, which means I have confidence that all of this will be worth it.