Day One, Part Two - The Search

I arrived at the Best Western Los Condes just before noon and after checking in had to wait about thirty minutes for my room to be ready - a time I passed by reading El Pais ("The Country," the most important Spanish paper) and occasionally and subtly giving dirty looks at the hotel staff.

Finally my room was ready and upon going upstairs to find it, I noticed a major oddity. In Spain, apparently, the ground floor and the first floor are not the same thing. The floors are numbered by how many stories *off* the ground floor they are. So my room, 303, was on what would be in an English-Speaking country the 4th floor.

Entering the hotel room, there were a lot of very strange things:

1. There was no electricity in the room. Until, that is, I saw a little card slot near the front door that had glowing lights on it. I inserted my card and, like something out of a movie, the light flickered on one-by-one, accompanied by mysterious magical twinkling sounds. I'm really not sure if it was an intended sound or merely the result of the glass expanding as a result of the heat from the light bulbs, but either way I felt like my room was guarded by fairies. **EDIT** I forgot to mention that this contraption serves an awesome purpose. You have to stick in your room card to turn on the electricity in the room. Thus when you leave the room, all the lights go off. Forced electricity conservation, anyone?
   
   
2. There was a button above the bed with a music note on it. I pushed it nothing happened. But lo and behold, after 5 minutes, I heard Maroon 5 slowly getting louder in my ceiling. I turned it off but it was a weird discovery.
   
   
3. The toilet didn't have a handle on the side, but rather one on the top that I had to pull straight up in order to flush. It seems like a minor difference but it's much more difficult to reach when seated than a side handle.

I also discovered upon trying to take a shower that Spain has, like the US, not figured out how to make hotel showers that don't somehow soak the entire floor.

Anyway, I set to work on my search for an apartment. It was very boring and going nowhere and the only place which seemed promising required an hour commute every day. I sent out a bunch of inquiry emails to a new batch of places, and decided to take a nap while I waited for replies to pile up.

I awoke after 3 hours of what only insomniacs would call sleep to find a few responses, but one stuck out. 300 euro a room month for an apartment with 2 free beds. It was also right next to the Metro line I would take to the embassy. The guy in the email, named Miguel, said that I could come by to look at it after calling. I called twice and got no response. Deflated, I sat for a while. And I decided to go by anyway.

I made my way through the ever-navigable Metro lines to the nearest station to the flat in question - Oporto Station. I made my way to the address on Caille del Doctor Espina, "Spine Doctor Street" (ಠ_ಠ ). After accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell I found the right one - on the so-called 4th (but actually 5th) floor. I went up to see Miguel.

After walking in the slightly-too-hot sun and up 4 flights of stairs I was quite worn out, breathing somewhat heavily, but the door opened to reveal Miguel. He was young, of fairly dark complexion, dark hair, and generally more Latin American-looking than Spanish. He let me in, showed me around, and I in my tiredness, sleepiness and nervousness screwed up a lot of Spanish. He led-off with English, so I continued in English, and at one point he asked "Do you...not aspeak any eSpanish?" at which point I scraped together what little could come to mind. He introduced me to a few of the other renters: a French guy, a Polish girl. After looking over the place I said I had to look at a few more apartments but that I would send him an email. I returned to my hotel knowing that I probably wouldn't need to look at any more apartments.

When I returned to the hotel I reviewed the offers, found most of them to be with old women, and made my decision to move in with Miguel. **EDIT**One slight hitch though: the room wouldn't be available until the 15th, the day my internship starts, and I only had my hotel for one night...