Monday, September 7, 2009

Mi piso

After lunch on Saturday, I called some more places... with no luck. Tried a new site and clicked on a link with one of the lower prices I'd seen - and all utilities included. I called the number from the posting and talked with Gregorio for a few minutes, asking more questions about the place.

Partway through our conversation, I thought he told me that since he and the other roommate both work, they didn't want a student to live with them. I was almost ready to say gracias y adios, as many other calls had ended once the renter found out I was a student, but then it sounded like he asked if I wanted to come see the place. I decided why not, and set out to the metro.

The apartment is 7-8 metro stops away from the university, but I don't mind that. It's also right next to one of the metro stops, so that will be convenient. There are two other people who live in the apartment, and both work. The girl wasn't there when I went to see the place, so I'll meet her on Friday when I go to pay the fianza (security deposit) and 1/2 September's rent.

Gegorio works nights at the Ministry of Security (reminds me of HP.. ministry of magic) and is quite captivated by planes and jets. He was telling me about a second job on the side (it sounded like), but I didn't understand what he does - hah.

My room has a nice-sized window (which or coordinator said to make sure you have a window in your bedroom here) right above a desk. Lots of the rooms I had seen online didn't have desks, so I was pleased with that. The bed is small, like all the rooms in Madrid's apartments, but Gregorio said if I wanted a bigger mattress, that he could get a bigger size. I said I was fine with it, but we'll see... There is this really neat shelve unit on the wall made of a bunch of squares - I'll have to put up pictures once I move in. And then there's an armoire with about two shelves on the bottom, and space to hang clothes on the top half.

All washing machines seem to be in the kitchen, and nobody has driers in Spain. The washing machine here is brand new! It's digital and has a timer setting so that if you want to put in laundry but won't be able to take it out right away, you can set it to be done in 5 hours. Then your clothes can sit in there while you leave, and the washer will turn on whenever it's needed so that your clothes will be done in 5 hours! I thought that was nifty.

So today my coordinator approved the address/apartment, so Wednesday I'm heading to the bank to open an account, and at the same time I'll take out money to pay Gregorio on Friday.

Yesterday we had a group trip to Segovia. I'll try to put up those pictures soon! It had a nice, small-town feel, even though the population is 60,000. All of the roads/walkways were stone; I saw no blacktop all day, and no cement sidewalks. So that was a nice change from the city.

I'm off to take a quick nap, then we have a bus tour of Madrid tonight. Then I will be homeworking it up for the rest of the night...

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