Okay, we're dropped off in a hotel, as I said previously, jet lagged and cranky and just not happy and all you really want to do is get some food in your stomach and take a siesta. And, so, that's what we do on Friday.
So now we have Saturday through Tuesday to find a place, oh and by the way your first day of work is on Monday. So you'll be working and searching for a place to live, and getting a cell phone, and setting up a bank account while beginning work at school.
Oh, and P.S., the entire city shuts down on Sunday, banks close by 2pm on the weekdays, might not be open on weekends, and if you want to do anything between 2 and 5:30, you might as well just forget about it, because most of the city goes home for a siesta.
So how the hell are you supposed to get anything done? Please tell me, who thought this was a good idea? Who thought, oh, I know what I'll do, I'll give everyone 5 days to find a place to live in a foreign country and one of those days will be a day where NOTHING IS OPEN.
Can you tell I was frustrated by this? Just a tiny bit.
Well, as it turns out, Spain has a very strange apartment culture, as in everyone has a piso (flat/apartment) for sale, and everyone is looking to rent. On top of that, agencies have jumped in on this business and charge you a boat load for using their service to find a place. There are, however, news papers that come out every month with all sorts of piso listings and phone numbers to call.
A girl who's on the trip with us was incredibly efficient and found a place that Sunday, and thankfully had a ton of numbers for us to call and check places out. The first place we look at is beautiful. It's this stunning Spanish style house, three levels with an open patio in the very middle that reaches all the way up to massive terrace on top with plants and bamboo and shade and it's out in the open air. There's marble and tile and a huge kitchen... but there are two catches.
Catch Number 1: You split a room, 250€ a piece, but all the bills are included. Okay, that doesn't sound too bad.
Catch Number 2: You live with the flats owner, a 68 year old man who loves wearing track suits and has a 28 year old girl friend from Morocco.
On top of that, the first thing he said to Carol when she introduced herself is that she's "muy guapa" (very pretty) and then laughed for about three minutes while the rest of us were uncomfortably staring at one another. Creepo.
And boy does he like to talk. He talks. And talks. And talks talks talks talks talks UGH. Stop talking to me you creepy old man!
Can you say red flag? I can't. I was down to live in this place. I was ready to move in. I was gung ho. "Let's do it!" I kept telling everyone, "It'll be fine!" I kept telling everyone.
No. No no no no no.
We visit the place Saturday. I'm fine. Visit the place Sunday. Still fine, whatever.
We visit the place Monday for the third time. Not fine. Noooooot fine. NOT fine at all. Yes, it took me that long to figure out that this was, indeed, a rather poor idea.
So Carol and I are on the way back to the hotel, practically running through the streets of Córdoba because it's Monday and we must must must must have a place by Tuesday.
#%@!
Okay. Okay it's fine. We rush back, crack open our laptops and start searching. We now have ONE day to find an apartment. One day in a foreign country. Okay, well if we absolutely have to we can get a room in the hotel for one more night, but in spite of the intense freaking out we're all doing we some how manage to be incredibly productive and within 30 minutes of getting back to the hotel we've set up an appointment to go see a four bedroom apartment.
We walk in, and it's beautiful. It's perfect. Huge kitchen, everyone has their own room, two bathrooms, a HUGE living room, and it's in a very decent part of town. Did I mention it's about a 10 minute walk from my school? Sign me up. Well, we did. We signed the lease the next day, moved all our stuff in and, finally, found ourselves a home in Spain.
Did I mention our Landlady is not a creepo? Actually, she's probably one of the most awesome people I've met in my life. She let us move in two days before we signed the contract, and two days before we even paid rent. On top of that, she's only charging us until the 7th of June, but has said we can stay here the entire month if we like as long as we pay bills. She loves to talk, is a genuinely fantastic little lady, and is, thankfully, not a creeper.
So in case you are wondering, no, moving your entire life into another country, and then moving your entire life into a different city in that country, and then finally moving your entire life into a apartment every five days is not, surprisingly, the most enjoyable experience in the world.
But the sense of relief you have when you finally have a clean bed you can call your own to fall asleep in... It's priceless. It's beautiful. It's amazing. And suddenly the sun in Córdoba shined a little bit brighter.
No comments:
Post a Comment