I’m rounding out my first week here in Madrid.
Wow, I’m going to repeat that….my first week here in Madrid.
So, last post’s main emotion was fear….there’s a competition for first place this week. Overwhelm, excitement, joy, overwhelm again, exhilaration, and topping it off with a little sprinkle of sadness. The sadness comes from discomfort, and not quite knowing what will bring me comfort and when that will come. I know it’s silly to expect or even hope for comfort within the 1st week of moving to a new country where I barely know the language, have no permanent housing, no friends, no family, and still building a business.
Just because I realize all of that doesn’t mean emotions behind all of that do not exist.
Anyway, I’ll focus on some logistics instead. We’ve sort of settled in, in that we laid out some clothes (I don’t want to unpack all the luggage because then we have to pack it all up when we find our longer term apartment). Rest assured the blow dryer and diffuser available in the apartment is lovely, I know everyone was very concerned. I found Oatly!!! 🙌 Yay!! And coconut sugar! Yay again!! OMG and the MOST important, I found a gluten free bakery within a 5 minute walk from our place - Leon the Baker. The bread is SO good. So, basics are covered.
Next, we started looking for a permanent apartment. Apparently the rental market is really hot in Madrid, everyone is moving here, go figure. The agent helping us informed us that things move really fast, so if we like something we should grab it. Something that’s different here is the renter pays the leasing agent the rental fee (1 month’s rent plus 20% tax), not the landlord. So as a renter you need at least 1 month deposit, the rental fee, and 1st month’s rent - so at a minimum you need to pay 3 months worth of rent up front. Thank goodness I’m a luxurious saver! 😉
What else can I tell you….? Oh yes! Dmitry had an encounter with a bird, LOL. We’ve been anointed! Luckily that means good luck!! It’s true, Google it.
Separately, yesterday was a really tough day for me. It was my first round of crying. It was a culmination of checking out neighborhoods and being down on myself for not figuring out the layout of the city, realizing this move is like for real and not a 2 month thing like Paris, and just overall overwhelm. I also think being in a constant state of some sort of transition for the past 1.5 doesn’t help, but not sure how much that plays into it.
So there you go. Week 1 is a wrap. I’m sure more happened, but I can’t recall. I think I may start documenting daily for myself like I did in Paris. We shall see….until next time. Thank you for reading. 💖