Life in Madrid...first impressions.

The first few weeks here in Madrid were a blur due to jetlag and the looming start of the TEFL course I was so terrified of. I arrived a week before the course started and did some exploring before it got underway. First impressions were great! I loved my neighborhood and settled in pretty quickly.  However, having to sign the lease in Spanish on the morning I arrived was scary!  I had no idea what exactly I signed until I later used Google Translate to go through it line by line. I was able to figure out the metro (that seemed so intimidating on my first visit here back in 2014) pretty quickly. The washing machine all in Spanish? Not so much. I just put the clothes in and hoped for the best. Going to the grocery store was also an intimidating experience since I could never understand what the total was in Spanish, and couldn't seem to find the screen that showed it. I've now gotten over that fear since I have to eat!

Other than the usual adjustments of moving to another country, things went surprisingly well in those first few weeks. The wine prices here are nuts! I feel like I was totally robbed paying Bay Area prices all those years. I developed an addiction to tinto de veranos, olives and jamon...I started to wonder if there's a limit to how much ham one person can safely consume! I adjusted to the Spanish way of eating...i.e., dinner at around 10 p.m. I enjoyed listening to the people on the street below yell at the TV during soccer games or hearing someone spontaneously start singing flamenco. Next up on the blog...a recap of my awesome experience on a tapas and flamenco tour with Devour Madrid.