Sleepless in Spain

Well, the heatwave has finally ended, but that doesn't mean I'm finding it any easier to sleep. I'm having to go out and get drunk every night just so I'm able to get some shut eye. It's a tough life!

This weekend followed the usual pattern of drinking and dancing. Michelle left for camp on Sunday, and Catarina is due to leave on Wednesday, so we went out on Friday night for a bit of a farewell do. As per normal, we drank in the flat until about 2am then went to Sol y Sombra club for some drinking and dancing before stumbling home around 5am. The next day we were all feeling pretty rough, but decided to go out for some hair of the dog. The Gay Pride Festival started over the weekend so we went to Chueca, which is the gay neighbourhood, for some drinks. We were lucky to get a table outside as it was heaving. We plonked ourselves down and 4 hours and numerous glasses of wine later we eventually called it a night around 2am. Fairly early by Spanish standards.

Teaching is going ok, although I have to admit I'm not exactly working many hours. I've taken on another student as from next week, but still I'm talking one or two hours a day if that. Going back to full time work is certainly going to be a struggle! I've become accustomed to the lady of leisure lifestyle. I need to ramp up my mission to find a rich Spanish man. On that subject, there's not much new with the love life here as I've been too busy with friends. The American has been ditched and I'm chatting to a number of other potential suitors. Although truth be told I'm eagerly awaiting the return of Enrique from Barcelona on Saturday and hoping to spend more time with him while he is in Madrid for two weeks.

Yesterday I went on my weekly trip. This week it was to Cuenca, one hour by train from Madrid. I usually give myself around 4/5 hours for day trips, but when I got there I realised just how small it was and two hours after I arrived I'd pretty much seen everything! It's a cute little place though, very picturesque with the 'hanging houses' and the Cathedral. I'm starting to get quaint Spanish town fatigue though. I think it's time to venture out to some of the other bigger cities and coastal towns.

Last night I went with Catarina and a few of her friends to After Brunch - basically one of the parties as part of the Gay Pride Festival. Was all a bit too techno for me though and the drinks were expensive, so we didn't stay long. I'm sad to lose Michelle and Catarina, but today a couple moved in from Venezuela and they will be staying until August. Can't say I'm too happy about it being a couple. Living with 4 other people and one bathroom is already a struggle so adding another person into the mix is a bit difficult. But the girl, Cristina, seems really nice. There are still two rooms to be filled though, so we will wait and see who else arrives over the coming week.

Everyone seems to be having major problems with our landlord, Pierre. He's fleeced absolutely everyone for money when they leave. He doesn't give them their full deposits back and claims its because the bills were higher than expected, but then produces no evidence of said bills. He gets away with it because most of the people living here are students, but Michelle wasn't having any of it and got into a full blown argument with him. I haven't had any issues with him yet, possibly because he knows I'm older and wiser! I'll be expecting my full deposit when I leave in August. I know I sound like a broken record but, bloody Frenchies!

Drinking & Dating

The heatwave continues, as does my moaning about it. All we do in the flat is complain about how hot it is. I sleep with my balcony doors open and I have a fan beside the bed, but all it does it blow hot air in my face so I'm not sure why I bother. As I write this today, it is currently spitting with rain, and I could not be happier about it!

I had my last lesson with Alberto last week since he will be spending the summer at his house in Marbella. I'm sure he probably has a yacht too.  For our final date, he picked me up in his Mercedes and took me for a lovely three course lunch and then we went on a private tour of El Pardo (which is the secondary royal residence). He insisted on paying for everything the whole day. He then took me to a private pool which he has access to and gave me the key, telling me I could use it whenever I wanted during my stay in Madrid. All my English teacher friends here are ridiculously jealous that I found such an amazing student and are already trying to poach him for when I go back to Edinburgh! He sent me a very sweet message after our meeting thanking me for all my help and that he wished he was 20 years younger. I resisted the urged to write back and say that even then he would still be too old for me!

I've become really close with Michelle, the American, and we've been hanging out a lot which is nice. Unfortunately she'll be leaving at the end of the month for a summer camp, so i'm hoping the new people that move into the flat are equally as nice. Rather annoyingly, a young French guy called Artur is now living in the room beside me, and his friend is living with him for two weeks which none of us are too happy about. Today I came home to find one of the ignorant bastards had taken my water from the fridge. They also left the fridge open the other night so a lot of the food spoiled. To make matters worse, ANOTHER French guy came to view Catarina's room, as she's moving out at the end of June. If this French invasion continues, I may have to find myself another place to live!

This past weekend was very much a party one. On Thursday night a few of us went out to some bars and clubs. The Spanish guys here continue to be inappropriate and annoying, so I've started saying I have a boyfriend back home. That doesn't seem to deter them. On Friday I went to a house party (a friend of a friend of Michelle's). It was fun, but the crowd was a bit younger than I'd have liked so I left around 3am, shortly after the police came to complain about the noise.

On Saturday I had a date with an extremely handsome and charming guy called Enrique. He doesn't speak much English, and doesn't intend to learn, so at least it's good for me in terms of practicing my Spanish. He was a proper gentleman, in that he didn't grope or paw at me all night and ask me for kisses. The unfortunate thing is that he lives in Barcelona. I knew I should have moved there instead of Madrid! His family lives in Madrid and so he was just visiting for the weekend. He's back again in two weeks and we spoke about meeting again. So we will see what happens. But at this stage, I already want his Spanish babies.

On Monday I had my third date with the American. I still like him, but after my date with Enrique, I'm less keen. But, he lives in Madrid, and he's a good drinking buddy. Its funny how I struggle to get dates back home but literally have had offers every night of the week here. Scottish men clearly have no taste. I wonder if my mum would be happy to lose me to Spain if it meant me finally acquiring a boyfriend...?

I've also got a couple of new students this week (a lovely women called Sonia and her partner Miguel). I'll be giving them two hours classes twice per week so that's bumped up my earnings a bit.  I'm now looking into doing some transcribing work on the side, which I think would be fairly easy money, as I am already becoming bored of this teaching malarky! It's getting in the way of my fun.

Today I went to Avila, which is a couple of hours on the train from Madrid. Its an old town known for its medieval city walls. I only spent about 4 hours there as it was really small, and I didn't like it as much as I did Segovia and Toledo. I did however have a very nice lunch there. Avila is famous for its meat so I had a beautifully cooked steak (which I came very close to regurgitating at spin tonight).

Anyway, time to head to the language exchange and see what weird and wonderful people show up this evening...

Melting in Madrid

Holy shit it's fucking hot! The hottest time in Madrid is usually between mid July and mid August. Well, its not even mid June yet and its 38 degrees! I love the sun, but there's only so long you can sit out in that kind of heat. Given the high temperatures, my flatmate Michelle invited me to go with her friends to a natural pool yesterday in the mountains north of Madrid, in Cercedilla. After travelling over an hour to get there, we discovered that for some unknown reason the pool was closed that day! So we sat on the grass outside all day and tortured ourselves, gazing longly at the cool refreshing water as we sat sweltering in the heat.

Later that evening we had everyone around to the flat for drinks before heading out. There was about 10 of us, half of which were Spanish which was good. After drinking and chatting for hours, we finally left the house at 0245! Bearing in mind bars and clubs would be long shut by that time back home! The Spaniards took us to a typical Spanish bar called Candela in the Lavapies area which was open until 6am.  I think we got home around 0515. At least I didn't have to worry about struggling to sleep that night!

In my quest to conquer Spain, I took my first day trip to Toledo, which is only 30 minutes by train from the centre of Madrid. Its an ancient city set on a hill and is known for its medieval Arab, Jewish and Christian monuments/architecture. Its a beautiful town and well worth the trip. While I was there I sampled the suckling pig, which is a delicacy of the town. At 20 euros its not the cheapest meal, and although it was nice, I didnt think it was worth the money.  

My lessons are still going fairly well. Alberto, the 68 year old retired doctor, continues to be my favourite student. This week I met him for breakfast churros. Not only did he pay for everything, as usual, but he brought me a book on the history of Spain and a case of white wine.

I also had a couple of new students this week too. I turned up completely drunk to one of them after going out on an impromptu date with an American guy called Mark. I'm such a professional. However, she's booked in for another lesson, so it can't have gone all that badly! The date was good fun though. I had only planned on having one or two nice chilled drinks given I had a lesson, but I'm too easily led astray, and one turned into five or six, or seven.  Mark is not at all my usual type, given he's 5"9 and pretty lean. My initial thoughts were that he was nice, but a bit dull. As it turned out, he was just holding back to make a good impression. By the end of the afternoon he was cursing and swearing and talking about all kinds of inappropriate subjects. He also told me that he'd been arrested three times and was banned from entering a city back home in the States. He became far more interesting to me after that, although his mischievous ways are behind him now. We're seeing each other again on Monday, but I still want to keep my options open. After all, I've only been here just over a week and I can't commit to one man just yet, especially not a yank!

In other news, I finally joined a gym. It's actually pretty decent, with good facilities and a number of classes. The only issue is that the air con is piss poor, and i'm dripping with sweat before I've even filled up my water bottle and started exercising. It's pretty deceptive because after 5 minutes working out I'm drenched and feel like I've done more than enough!

Tonight I'm going to head to the Sunday language exchange and then go to salsa. My flatmate Federico was telling me that the flats directly above and below us are having a big party tonight and apparently we're also going to join in to have one gigantic party. Guess that means I won't be sleeping tonight either then! Good thing i dont have a proper job!

Settling in

So it's only been 4 days but I already feel very at home here I love this city and the Spanish way of lifestyle.

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...

Tiny Hands 2: This time its personal

Well, I said you hadn't heard the last of me, but you probably didn't think it would be this soon! What can I say, I'm a travel whore. I equate my situation to that of cheating on your fiancee before you marry them. You know that you want to be with this person long term, but you also want to see what else is on offer before you commit, and get it out of your system. Basically, I love Edinburgh and I know I want to settle down here. Buuut, I'm not quite done having my fun yet.

When I got back from Asia I immediately knew I wasn't quite ready to be home yet, and I felt that unemployment still had more to offer me! My Spanish is still at a pretty good level, but I know that it has slipped from where it used to be and the best way to get it back is to immerse yourself in the language. So, about two weeks after I got back to Scotland, I booked my flight to Madrid.

This trip is going to be entirely different from Asia. For starter, I'll largely be staying in the one place and actually living there for 3 months, so I won't have to worry about the stress of living out of a backpack. However, the beauty of Madrid is that its slap bang in the middle of Spain, so its the best platform to visit the rest of the country while I'm there. I've already planned lots of road trips and mini breaks. The other difference is that I'll be attempting to find some work out there by advertising private english lessons. That way I can work as little or often as I want to. Plus I'm hoping that if I plaster advertisements with my beautiful face on it throughout the city,  I might get a few dates out of it too. Although I obviously wont charge for those, as that would make me more than just a travel whore...

I've found a great room in a shared apartment in Puerta del Sol, which is as central as you can get. I'll be sharing with four others. From what I'm told its currently one Portuguese, an Italian, a Spaniard and a Colombian girl (any gifts given by the latter to take back to Scotland will be politely refused). I'm hoping they're all friendly like minded people, as I obviously want to make a lot of new friends when I'm out there.

This blog will be weekly as opposed to daily, although if anything particularly interesting or entertaining happens then I'll post an adhoc one here and there. No doubt I'll post one a couple days after I get settled.

About to board my flight now! Hasta pronto!