Well oops – I wasn’t planning on quite this much lag! Quite a bit of catching up to do now… but it’ll probs be in instalments – or fragments - because with such a gap much has been deleted from my deplete grey matter.
SO I arrived at my apartment after my night in the hostal – actually even getting the key to the apartment was a bit of a saga. Mi habla Espanol en poco, no, MUY en poco! But added to my lack of language is the basic lack of understanding of “placa” the address I had to pick up the key was 7/5 Placa Urquionina. I translated placa to mean Place – a posh street, right. Nup I stood IN the Placa and didn’t know it! Placa means square or mall… and it is numbered all the way around – ie all four sides. The placa was a 5 minutos walk from the hostal but the expedition took 2 horas! I enjoyed it actually until the last 10 minutes when I briefly panaiced that perhaps I’d paid MUCHOS dollars for a course/apartmento that didn’t exist…. But then I found the door – spoke to a lady who knew no English and eventually got the key from her – MEGA FUCKING PHEW.
It all took much patience to communicate … on the behalf of others, bless them!
Anyways mi was still mucho fatigado and had to be out of the hostal by 1pm. One small problem, I called cab and headed to the apartment with all my worldly goods but most of the streets were blocked for a marathon and the traffic was a nightmare. Typico!
Cab drivers mostly seem to be uni students… cute too!
Anyways, I arrived eventually at the apartmento…
DESCRIPTION OF 122 CALLE TAMARIT:
6 people (inc me) lived (currently 5) in an apartment on the 7th floor in a space the size of not even the front half of my house ie menos the kitchen/bathroom area.
To get up you need to catch a clunkety old 60's lift that is er... rather intimate (and awkwardly slow) when 4 people are in it!
When I arrived there were 2 gals from Holland (Melanie and Naomi – who share a room and together they MAY just add up to be my age… maybe!), 2 gals from Germany (Johanna – still here… sleeps A LOT –22ish) and another one who I can’t remember … she moved out that night and a chick from Iceland (moved out the next day)… 3 days ago Ana (from Germany) also moved in) SO in a blur (only exaggerated by my jet-laggy hallucinatory state) this last week makes my previous living situations seem stable (bwaha ha ha) I now live with Melanie, Naomi, Johanna and Ana – one room/closet is empty.
I’ll come back to said housemates but will start with the edificio first:
I HAVE THE BEST ROOM (fucking phew!) It has light, air and space. Though for the first time in viente seis (26) years I am in a singlebed! WHen I arrived I discovered it had only a bottom sheet and no pillow cases (doh) so I am REALLY glad I picked up a coupla mega-size sarongs in Singapore. My pillowcase is a top that it’s too warm to wear here anyway!
The bedroom furniture looks like someone robbed a 1980-90’s seedy accountants office and stuck it in here - fake pine laminate office furniture! But at least I have shelves AND a desk (either/or in other rooms).
Looking across from my window are the backs of other typico apartmentos but when I look straight down I see the construction site that acts as my gentle (yeah right!) wake up call at around 7am.
The lounge-room is gross – small, tacky, unkempt and dark - but it amuses me that in student households internationally (or so it would seem) the fluorescent lights and lamps have all been draped with cheap scarves!
The kitchen is really a hall with a stove, fridge, cupboard and overflowing rubbish bins - it didn't even have a kettle when I moved in (that soon changed as did the sudden increase in the number of herbal tea varieties!... which I have, of course alphabetised... naaa jokes!) the kitchen leads onto the laundry – a tiny balcony with a wash machine and a clothes hanger that juts out over the balcony into the shared central.
But I really love it …because of the LOCATION.
Across the street there is a small park and sitting area - children splash and play in drinking fountains (remember that?!), old people chat on benches with placid dogs beside them and behind the little park is a paved area with eateries ... I came out the other night and an old dude was playing the piano accordian while a group of laughing children danced swinging in a circle… nyaw!
next to the eateries is my school… next to me is a supermarket, bank… within 3 blocks in EVERY direction are Metro stations (2min in any direction!!!!!))))… there’s an asian grocer within a block and a fresh fruit and veg mercado within 2 blocks…
This is an huevo stall ... look in the back they have ostrich and EMU huevos!!! this the beautiful edificio of the mercado (not my pic! I'll talk about the mercado more in another blog)
Anyways I guess the place is a little seedy but it makes for easy living and a “realness” I like!
ABOUT MY HOUSEMATES FROM…
Well Europe at the mo… they’re all young, they’re mainly here as part of their uni holidays. We’re all at the same language school but not in the same class (I’ll tell you all about school real soon!)– they all speak English fluently. Other than Ana the others will be coming to live in Espana to do an internship as part of their studies. They all "party" but not like we did back in the day! (ie I am yet to see anyone passed out in a pool of....)
MELANIE (social work) – lovely, sweet, sings in a church choir, tends to do more housework than anyone else ( 8] ) is sincerely niiiice (actually the ALL seem to be) – phew again
NAOMI (social work) – Melanie's amiga – sings … really well… tends to sing muy daggy 1960-70s easy listening stuff in English – it’s like listening to Gold FM with a Dutch accent!
JOHANNA (psychology?) – sweet but her hours are muy different to mine - she sleeps a lot in the morning, has classes in arvo/evening and then goes out... has the loveliest smile and seems to be a little more cautious then the others.
ANA (graphic design) – the new arrival - has a mystique – she's quieter but I immediately sensed an interesting darker side… like many of my most interesting amigo/as!
She and I have been out on few outings…which I’ll tell you about REAL SOON!
Anyways so I’ve set up the situacion and now that I’ve bored you (well I’ve bored myself at least) all my next posts will be more about stuff I see and do and the musings that go with them
Until then
Adios amigas/os
1 comment:
Am impressed by how much espanol you already have Lisa. Soak it up sister!!!
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