Life on Fish Street (Calle del pez, pronounced like Peth) in Spain is great. My new apartment is right in the heart of downtown Madrid and there are plenty of things to do (even though I have little time to do any of those things). I have 5 other roommates. Their names are Ilona (From France), Nabil (Morocco), Michael (Rhode Island, US), and Sacheis (Barcelona, Spain) Not so sure on the spelling on a couple of the names. Everyone is really cool and we are all students/teachers. We don't actually really even see each other that much, because when we are here we are all in our rooms working or sleeping. We all speak to each other in Spanish (if Michael and I are talking separately we will speak in English). Its actually kind of funny to hear the accents in Spanish, we have to speak slowly and clearly to each other so we can understand each other. Even Sacheis (who is the only one from Spain here) talks to us, he has a funny accent because where he is from in Barcelona, they speak Catalan. So Spanish for him is a second language.
The apartment has 7 rooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and some big entrance room that no one uses. I'm the first room when you walk in and there is a long hallway to the
other rooms and the kitchen and bathrooms hold up the back of the
apartment. We don't have a living room! Which is why its so hard to see the other roommates! The kitchen is really big, has a table in there for eating, but does not have an oven, so I have to watch what I buy, because I accidentally bought a frozen pizza to put in my oven I don't have. Good thing we have a toaster oven, so I cut up the frozen pizza and wedged it in the toaster oven! Wasn't going to just throw that away. We haven't had any conflicts with the bathroom situation because everyone wakes up at different times, so I haven't yet needed a bathroom when one wasn't available.
I'll be home from Dec 23rd (around 8pm in Dulles) - and I fly back Jan 5th (10pm ish from Dulles).
Here are pictures of my room here.
So it came with all the furniture and girly curtains and bedspread, the non working fire place and school chairs from 1970. I'm also not sure, but I think my bed used to be bunk beds or someone had a canopy around it, but I use it to dry clothes that don't fit on my drying rack. Its great! The two last pictures are the view from my balcony. I get a lot of conversation from the street sometimes, but I've adjusted quickly and can sleep through just about anything now.
Yep this is life on Fish Street in Madrid. Its a one way street to Calle San Bernardo. Bernardo actually connects to the Gran Vía (or Grand View St) one of the major streets through the center of Madrid. So, its really a great location to experience all the culture.
