I arrived at my apartment in Sol on Friday morning. Its located in Sol/Gran Via which is as central as you can get. The apartment itself is nice (well, it probably was before it was inhabited and trashed by students). My first impression was that the place was a bit of a dump. The toilet flush handle is broken (my flatmates later informed me that it has been like this for a year and the landlord has been saying he's going to fix it and never has). What had been advertised to me as a two bathroom was actually only one. There is a tiny cupboard off the kitchen which houses another toilet, but the door stays firmly shut and nobody ventures in, as its completely rancid. The kitchen sink was piled high with dirty dishes, and the kitchen surfaces couldn't be seen amongst the food, plates, pots and pans that littered the counter. The lounge was full of the remnants of the night before - empty beer bottles, dirty glasses, and fag ends - and the couch is covered in all kinds of dubious looking stains.
However, that said, my room is lovely and I'm very happy in it. Its very bright and airy and has a nice little juliet balcony that looks out over the square. When I arrived I headed to Primark to buy some bedcovers and storage boxes, and also invested in my own mug and cutlery so that I don't catch anything....
My roomies are also very nice. There are 5 rooms in the apartment. There's Michelle, an American girl around the same age as me who is an English teacher in a school and has been living in the flat for over a year. There's Catarina, an Erasmus student from Portugal. In the third room is Federico, a student from Italy. The last room was unoccupied until yesterday when a weird older guy from Honduras moved in. I wasn't too unhappy about it as he's the only Spanish person in the flat so at least I can practice with him. The others don't seem too keen on him, and i think he's only here for a short period so we might have another new flatmate soon.
The problem with not being able to view the flat before coming here is that I didn't know any of its faults. The state of the place for one, but also the fact that its directly opposite a lively club which is open until 6am. I guess thats the pay off in terms of living in such a central location. Its Madrid after all, its a city known for its nightlife! I thought I would really struggle with sleep, but i've been so zonked with the sun that I seem to just pass out. I do wake up with all the shouting now and again, but its like living next to a train station. You get used to it and eventually it just becomes background noise.
As soon as I sorted out a Spanish phone number I posted some ads on websites for english classes. Immediately I got a fair bit of interest and spent 20 minutes on the phone with a guy from Peru who wanted to travel 45 minutes into the city to meet with me. When he started asking me to go for drinks after the class and spend the evening together in the centre together, I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. I made my excuses and said he would be better off finding a teacher closer to his house. He phoned me a further two times asking if we could meet for drinks and go for a walk. I ended up having to block his number! Other than that the students I have met so far have been lovely. My first lesson was with Alberto, a retired doctor. He was very charming and spoke excellent English. He gave me 20 euros even though I only charge 10 (I didnt feel guilty as he's clearly minted). He messaged me after saying I was a great teacher, very easy to understand and that it helped that I was easy on the eye. What a charmer. He's already sending more business my way though which is good. I also met with a 16 year old student who wanted me to proof read his CV and university application. I love correcting people's grammar, so that was fairly easy money for me! I have another 3 students lined up this week so all in all its going ok so far.
I've already managed to eat my fair share of tapas and find some nice little places. I really need to sort out joining a gym though as all my favourite dishes are deep fried! I did go for a run in Retiro park the other evening, but as it starts to get warmer here thats going to become harder to do.
The salsa here has been hit and miss so far. On Saturday night I went to a nearby club called El Son. Because its in the heart of main bars area, many of the guys just go to drink and ogle women, and can't really dance. I think I maybe had 2 or 3 decent dancers there. However, the following night I went to another club called Tropical House and the level was so much better. There were some pretty amazing dancers! The only problem I found was that the crowd was quite cliquey and so initially I wasn't getting that many dance offers. I think that will change the more I go and the more my face becomes known.
On Sunday I went to a language exchange meet up which was great fun! There were about 20 odd people there, mainly Spanish people looking to improve their English. I made lots of new friends and got some recommendations on restaurants to check out. I spread the word about my English classes too so might be able to drum up some more business. The events are three times per week and they often do trips to cinema etc, so I'm glad I found it.
In other news, I had my first date last night with a guy called David. When he turned up he looked absolutely NOTHING like his photos - thats the first time thats ever happened to me. He wasn't unattractive, but I probably wouldn't have met with him had he had more accurate photographs on his profile. We spoke in Spanish the whole time, which was good for me as I need to get in as much practice as I can. We went to a place called Casa de Toni where I left it to him to order the dishes. Given I'd eaten all sort of weird and wonderful things in Asia, nothing really phased me. That said, I didn't particularly enjoy the dishes he chose! We had pigs ears, which tasted alright but looked slimy and unappetising, as well as lamb intestines (which I absolutely hated). Luckily I made him order some patatas bravas, so I was pretty happy just eating that! After dinner he took me to a couple of nice bars for more drinks and as the night progressed he began to get more forward. Typical sleazy Spaniard. At one point he started stroking my leg and then kept asking me for a kiss. I refused and told him I was a devout catholic and only wanted to make some friends. He asked to see me again on Wednesday, but I'm going to have to make it clear to him that it would only be for friendship!
Tonight I'm heading out to dinner with Ken (an American I met at the language exchange on Sunday) and then we're both going along to another language exchange meet up. Tomorrow I don't have any students booked in so I'm planning to take the train to Toledo for the day.
I apologise for the length of this blog post, but a lot has happened already! It's strange that I haven't yet been here a week, but it already feels like I've been living here for months...
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