But alas, my first ever apartment hunting process began. And yes, that was said correctly, first ever. I’ve never lived or had to find an apartment before in the US so it was a little more daunting considering that I was really going through this blindly. What was left of my US mindset of timeliness and doing things ahead of time also had a hard time with this process. The laid back feel of Spain, for me at least, is really demonstrated with their housing process. As opposed to in the States where you know, more or less, 5/6 months in advance where you would be living, here I knew about one week beforehand. I looked at one or two places in December before I left for Navidad but pretty much left Spain with no certain place of residence for the next semester. Here, if you were to want to ‘reserve’ the apartment in December but move-in in February, you would have to pay rent for both December and January (even if you weren’t moving in until February). I know, very weird.
Since I had no formal place to live when I returned to Spain, once again my amazing host mom appears and saves me from staying in a hostel for the first few days. We had arranged prior to my departure that I would leave about half my stuff (like books, shower stuff, summer clothes) in a cabinet in her house so that I didn’t need to bring all of it home with me. She also told me (yes, told me. When I told her that I was just planning on getting a hostel, she looked at me appalled and continue to say ‘Claro, quedarte aqui, claro’ aka ‘Yeah, you’re obviously staying here. Obv.’ ) This is one of the many reasons why I loved her so much.
Okay, so back to apartment hunting. I was in Granada for 3 days before leaving for Switzerland entonces I had to find an apartment pretty much before I left so I could move in when I returned from Switzerland. I had met a girl named Subira at the Hannigan’s Christmas dinner back in the beginning of December who happened to be moving to Vienna for a bit starting in the beginning of February. I saw the apartment in December before I left for the States and liked it (as well as the price). When I returned to Spain and before I left for Switzerland, I went over to the apartment again to have some tea. When I was in Switzerland, I got the news that I had gotten the apartment! Talk about relieved—finally a place to stay for the spring semester :)
Now, I live in a different neighborhood than my previous piso but as much as I loved my last ‘barrio’ I love my new one just as much if not more. I’m in more of the student section of Granada and closer to a lot more things. I live in a 4 person apartment and adore my roommates. One’s name is Anna, who is 26 (or 27, I can’t quite remember) and originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. Let that not fool you though, her Spanish is flawless. She also speaks some English and I just found out recently that some French too! She’s studying to become a teacher for ‘extranjeros’ aka people like me. She’s currently working on her masters for that while working so she’s quite busy. Another one of my roommates name is Jesus. He’s 22 and going to school right now at the University of Granada. He’s originally from Ibiza and has been in the apartment for about a year and a half now. This is also his first year on the Granada CF soccer team! He’s on the second string team so he plays in different games than the team you would normally see on TV but very exciting none the less. My third roommates name is Luis. He’s 25 and he’s studying, roughly translated, sports exercise science. He’s also from Ibiza and I think has been in Granada for all his education. They are all super nice, hilarious, and great at helping me with my Spanish. In addition to Anna, Luis knows some English too but we only speak Spanish at home which is awesome. It’s definitely a different language experience with this living arrangement too because, even though everything being Spanish, the language that a 65 year old woman speaks is going to be different from the language that’s used with people around my age. What I love about both of my living situations that I’ve been in is that they don’t slow down for me. If we’re hanging around the house, they’ll be speaking like they would naturally speak. I understand most of it but even when I don’t, I ask them to repeat it with a nice ‘Como?’ aka ‘Huh?’ and they’ll repeat it for me.
Quite side note that as of a mere 2 days ago, my friend Rachel and I decided to head to Morocco for the weekend! We just realized there was a 5 day weekend this weekend because of Dia de Andalucia, celebrating the autonomy of our region of Andalucia. Therefore, we have no class on Tuesday and with what I’ve explained before, we have a great thing called ‘puente’ aka ‘bridge’ so since we have Tuesday off, we get Monday off too! I’m super excited for Morocco. This was always a must see for me while in Granada. We leave on Friday afternoon and come back Sunday night. At first I thought that this might feel rushed because we’re going to 3 cities but all my friends that have done it raved about it and didn’t feel rushed.
Off to go to class! We have no class tomorrow so this is like my Friday J Gotta love Spain <3
Besos a todos
Katie
Quick P.S. I realized something about 2 days ago when I saw one of my best friends, Natalie, visiting from Sevilla. She turned to me while I was giving her a little tour of Granada in between my classes and asked me in a soft voice ‘Katie, how are you going to leave this place?’ I turned to her and I realized I had no answer. I love everything back home but to think about leaving this place is currently unimaginable to me and incomprehensible. I always heard ‘Granada still has my heart and I studied there blank years ago’. Well, I now have no doubt that that is a true statement because Granada really has my heart. I cannot ever imagine my life now without the city and the people in it. I think it’s safe to say that Granada is one of my first loves.
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