"Home"

We've been here in Madrid for about a month now. Crazy how time flies (the rigorous course helped us get lost in the space-time continuum).

In any case, we're starting to feel more at home here in the country's capital. We have our little market for fresh fruits and veggies, we have a metro right by our apartment and we're getting used to not having AC in the apartment. Here's a shot of one of the buildings by our apartment. When I first saw it, it reminded me of another place my family thinks of as home-India. It scared me when I first got here and saw places that looked like India. What do you think?

Now that we feel 'at home' here in Cuatro Caminos we have a new dilemma to face-we need a new home! Our sublet finishes this Saturday and we need to find an apartment in the city! Madrid, like most of the world, is suffering from the economic crisis and it's a renter's market right now. It's been a bit of a struggle for us to find housing because we don't have a work contract yet. The landlords feel better if you have a work contract because they know you're going to be able to pay. Fortunately, it looks like we found a place for after August. I'll post pictures once we move and settle in.

Here's a picture of the traffic circle outside of our apartment. Once again, this reminds me of India (lots of traffic circles in Chandigarh). Well, this is the last week of class and we graduate with our TEFL certificates. We've got a busy week ahead of us, so we'll hopefully be back next weekend!

The Hunt is On

I'm right now in the middle of getting ready for school, so this will be a quick post. We honestly didn't do anything last weekend except stay at home and study. We also couldn't really go out because Saturday was the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, therefore everything was closed Sat. and Sun. It's amazing to me that most of the population is atheist and yet they close for religious holidays.

Anyhoo, A and I have been trying to find an apartment for next month and, hopefully, the whole year. People are saying that it's a renter's market right now because there are lots of decently priced apartments out there right now. We've been looking around online and we decided to go look at an apartment in Sol. It was an ideal location-right outside the metro, in the heart of the bustling business of the city. Plus, you're not far from the Prado. Well, we went to the apartment complex and were greeting by an older woman who was in little clothing and holding her chihuahua named "Blackie." This was quite a strange apartment set-up. She opened the door (the door that I was sure would lead to our apartment) and we had to go through a corridor of doors in order to get to our apartment. At first, it seemed like we would be living in an apartment with her, but we would have our own kitchen and bedroom. However, I was told this was not the case and that it was just the apartment hallway. The apartment did not look too much like the one on the internet. In fact, this one had a lot of old furnishings, which made me think I was in grandma's house. We thanked her and Blackie for their time and left.

And so begins another adventure for us. It's really hard to juggle our training with trying to find housing, but we have to stay optimistic. We only have a week and a half left of classes, but we have to finish some big projects and take an exam on grammar and phonetics. I'll post more soon!

Model UN

It's been one crazy, exhausting yet wonderful week. For most of the day A and I are in school for our TEFL certification. It's a great program, but it's an intensive four weeks. Our class consists of a lot of really awesome people from around the globe. I want to say half of the students are from the UK and the other half are from the US. We also have one from Canada, Ireland and Australia. Even our teachers are from all over-one from the UK, one from Australia and the other from Romania. Of course, this means that certain colloquial phrases are being integrated into our 'Merican vocabulary. For instance, no one here says "I'm on vacation." No, that would be stupid. Instead, it's "I'm on holiday." I wish I would explain the pronunciation issues as well, but that may be for another blogpost.

I really like this international class. We're all pretty laid back and we tease each other about how we pronounce things, etc. At one point, A had to be the teacher and teach us like we were Elementary students. He asked our Irish friend to say "garage," which of course he said with an accent (they accent the first syllable in garage, where we accent the second). Anthony made him repeat it until he said it the US way. We all though it was pretty funny and A said we could berate him on his accent as well.

We also have observed some classes where Spaniards take English classes. We observed an Elementary English class and one woman came in drunk. She was very animated for class, but she had a hard time staying focused. I couldn't believe it. In addition, she works in Spain as-I kid you not-an English teacher!

Anyway, the last week has been filled with all-day courses, large amounts of reading and attempting to make our own lessons. After a difficult first week, it is quite nice to have a safe haven where people speak English! When we leave for the day, it's like we're walking into another dimension. When we walk home, we pick up some food items at the market or grocery store for a quick meal in order to finish doing more homework in the evening. One of our teachers said this is harder than Australian military camp.

We attempted to relax this weekend for one evening. On Friday, we met up with some classfolk to see the sights. We got to see the palace pictured below.
I would not mind living in that place. Apparently, the king doesn't live there now and it's a museum open to the public. Around the palace is a line of statues of ancient kings. Pretty sweet.

We then went walking toward an indoor market that all the locals go to. It was packed. We were able to get some good sangria and start to vent about the course. Here's a picture of us wandering towards more drinking fun.

During the evening, we found out that one of our classmates went to high school with our friend who sang at our wedding! She knew our friend very well. Quite a small world!

A and I headed home a bit early. We were so exhausted from the week and we needed to be comatose for several days. Unfortunately, the metro closes at 1am, which doesn't give us much incentive to stay out late.



On Saturday, we went out in the afternoon to check out the only English bookstore in Madrid. It's pretty cool. A couple decided to buy a bunch of second hard books in LA and then move to Madrid to start up this store. It's really nice. Here's a shot from the inside.

I'm relieved there is some kind of bookstore here. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to read (and I would slowly die). I hope to post more soon, but it might not be until next weekend again. This week, we begin trying to teach. A and I are feeling ready, but you never know what can happen in a classroom. Wish us luck!

Our Neighborhood

I think I can safely say we are now settled in our apartment (though being settled in Madrid will take much more time). We're ready to begin our training tomorrow to earn our TEFL certificates. There was a temperature drop this weekend and we were able to explore our part of town without the extensive heat.

As we explored more of the areas in the vicinity of our apartment, we saw some great apartments and small side streets. Even at night, you feel pretty safe around here. There's always people around, except for in the afternoon when everyone's taking a nap. Here's one of my favorite shots of an apartment complex in one of the side streets.

We finally headed on over to a HipoEuro. It's basically a shady Chinese store that sells goods really cheap. It's a great place to get most of your household goods. Anyway, we came across this shirt and felt it needed to be shared with the world.

We probably won't be able to blog as frequently for the next few weeks because we will be in class from 9am to 7pm. You might see some posts venting about long classes:P.