Some people get extremely excited about an approaching birthday. Others who are more modest tend to play it down. This past week, I’ve been dreading that it would be a birthday to remember for reasons other than celebration.
After Sarah and I accepted the fact that we would not be able to rent an apartment in the area we wanted for less than a year, we resigned ourselves to the new task of searching for individual rooms to rent in shared apartments. We scoured the internet for hours on Wednesday, and I made a list of at least 15 different rooms that seemed like decent possibilities. I made some more phone calls, sent more emails, and set up appointments for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to check out potential pisos and their available rooms.
On Thursday morning, I woke up early (again) and set off for a new part Madrid that I had not yet explored. I plotted out the right metro stops to take me to the Salamanca district, just north of Retiro Park, and I walked around the neighborhood of the piso where I had an appointment. I was delighted to find lots of great restaurants, shops, and other amenities, such as several Metro accesses and bus stops. I found out that there were several metro stations nearby of at least three different lines, and I was only one or two stops from my school’s metro stop. Plus, I discovered the H&M, El Corte Inglés, and a great supermarket were blocks away from my final destination. Salamanca is a clean, upper-end, safe residential neighborhood, and I enjoyed strolling through the paseos and calles taking in the fact that this could potentially be my barrio.
At 10:00 AM on the dot, I pressed the piso call button and notified the owner I was there. A buzz preceded my entrance into the marble hallway. A woman with an arm full of groceries scurried past me and reached the cast-iron elevator first. We made small talk as we waited for the antique-looking elevator to make its way down, and Josefina (my new best friend) showed me how to open the iron gate and then how to push the double French-style doors to get inside the elevator. As she exited the elevator on the 6th floor, she gave me an open invitation to visit her whenever I wanted. How nice, I thought, would it be to have friendly neighbors…
Jittery from the small shot of coffee that I took at breakfast in the hostel 2 hours prior, I couldn’t stand still as I waited for the elevator to make it up one more level to the 7th floor, and I pushed open the door with a little more force than necessary. As I approached the white door in the center on the left, it swung open and a middle-aged woman wearing a nice suit with swanky matching shoes stood in the doorway. “¿Angela?” I asked. “Sí, pasa por favor.” She moved aside to let me in, and showed me to the first room at the front of the short hallway. Angela gave me a tour of the piso. She has two rooms available for rent. There’s one bathroom for all three roommates, a rather large kitchen (equipped with oven, stove, microwave, dishwasher, washer, and fridge—which is the max amount of kitchen appliances you find in Spain), and a lovely little salon (living room), complete with TV and aesthetically pleasing bookshelves. We sat down in the salon and Angela told me her requirements: la tranquilidad, el respeto, y la limpieza. Tranquility (calm conduct), respect (for everyone and their living space), and cleanliness (keeping things orderly and in their place). Angela said that after meeting me, she said that I seemed to be an acceptable roommate, and she offered it to me on the spot. I jumped at this incredible opportunity without hesitation.
In order to seal the deal, I had to return to my hostel to grab copies of my passport, my work documents (proof that I have a job in Spain that’ll pay me regularly), and la plata para la fianza de 2 meses (my 2 months of rent down payment… in cash). I literally sprinted back to my hostel, and I was literally jumping for joy through the streets and through the metro corridors (the jitters hadn’t abated as I waited on the metro either). By 2:00 this afternoon, I returned to my new place of residence, signed my contract, forked over enough cash to make me cringe, and experienced feelings that surpass description—although relief, joyful gratitude, and complete satisfaction are close substitutes.
Since I am the first of two renters, I could choose my room. I picked the one with the desk. I have a single bed (with new sheets and comforter) and more drawer and shelf space than I’ll ever need here. My piso has Wi-fi (yay for wireless internet) and my rent is actually incredibly inexpensive for this neighborhood—and it’s the exact price that I was counting on in my budget. Angela is a 40 year old commercial business lawyer from Peru, and she has dual citizenship in Peru and Spain. I told her about studying in Chile, and my passion for South American cultures… I think we’ve already bonded over our love of South America. She seems like a brilliant, well put-together, sophisticated woman, and although I am a bit intimidated by her, I’m excited about having at least one roommate speaking Spanish, and I’m simply elated to have a room to call my own and a piso to call mi casa for the next nine months!
And now, I think I’ll celebrate my birthday… el 26 de septiembre
1 comment:
Make sure you set it straight with Angela right away when it comes to putting your own dishes in the dishwasher. You don't want to let that situation simmer and then turn into violent rage when you find a rogue fork in the sink that hasn't been touched in a week.
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