house hunters madrid... otra vez

Well, I found myself once again in the rat race that is finding housing in Madrid. It's a long story, but for the best and I feel confidant that I found an even better place than where I'm living now (which is hard to beat)! I wanted to share some of the things I've encountered while looking for apartments here in Madrid... which has been 3 times in the past 9 months so I consider myself somewhat of a pro.

1. The "must haves" are much different here than in the US. I remember apartment hunting in California and we were hoping for a washer and dryer, maybe a nice little backyard. Here, the number one priority is a window. I saw at least 10 rooms that resembled small dungeons, with no sunlight. I actually lived in one for almost one month.

2. I no longer have reservations about sleeping on someone else's sheets. Here, most of the apartments I looked at came fully furnished, and almost always included bed linens. And in the spirit of saving a few bucks, I have been happily sleeping on someone else's sheets for the past 9 months.

3. I calculate everything in walking distance. And how close to multiple metro lines I can get. I spend my days walking all over the city, to and from classes and to and from metro stops so it's important that I'm not too far away from things. The last thing I want to do is have to run 10 minutes home in the pouring rain with 5 grocery bags.

4. Roommates are crucial. I had never lived with strangers before moving to Madrid, and I will most definitely not be doing it back in the US. But here there is such a big community of other ex-pats everyone has to live with strangers. It's also been really important to me to live with at least 1 Spanish person so I'm exposed to the language on a daily basis.

5. Ovens are not optional! The first place I lived only had a tiny little hot plate. Even though I wouldn't call myself Julia Childs, I like having the option to cook and bake.

a beautiful sunday rainbow in my beautiful new barrio 

Happy Monday :)