City for Sale (or Rent)

SE ALQUILA... Everywhere! (Photo by www.aluvionpopular.com.ar/)

A week prior to landing in Madrid I was freaking out... mostly because I had not been issued my student visa (and true enough, I only got my visa 5 hours before my flight... but that's another story). The other half bugging me internally was that I have yet to find a flat to live in. But that said, I should be fine~ there should be cheap hotels / hostels nearby I can find myself in regardless.

I had heard stories that due to the recession that Madrid was technically for sale. And true enough, it was something I noticed while walking down the chilly alleys and streets near my school. Every building I saw had this sign. It would've been tempting to actually call each of these numbers in order to secure my flat... but then, my command of Spanish is close to nil. And so, I would resort instead to online searches and offers made by IE students on the Housing & Rentals FB page.

Just by the entrance is where they'll be (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

The other thing that caught my eye here was the abundance of beggars on the street. The Philippines actually has a lot... and I haven't seen any since I had moved to Singapore. In my mind, I was expecting beggars in Spain to be... well, Spanish. Turns out... it's not the case (well, from my observation in the Salamanca area, a week into my stay here). I've noticed that beggars fall into 2 categories: nomad gypsies or African migrants. Amazingly, they all speak the local language. They usually strategically station themselves outside grocery stores. Sooner or later, because I'll likely frequent these stores, they'll likely recognize me as I pass through each time. I haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet (it's like seeing a person over and over in school but never talking to them outside school. I dunno, I get that feeling). Well, we'll see~

I wanted to talk about my short-lived incident that happened during lunch earlier today. For some reason, after walking 10 minutes I suddenly felt dizzy (like in a hungry-kinda-way). And so, I went to the nearest cafe in sight to order lunch. My hands shaked as I ate. I wanted to show a Google Maps photo of the place I had my lunch... but I realized it was a different restaurant on Google Maps. The same applied to this cafe at the intersection of Calle Serrano and Calle Lopez de Hoyos I've been frequenting the past few days (I've eaten there 3 times in total). On Google Maps it's a different place altogether. I suppose the economy had to do with it.

Alimentacion (Photo by Roberto Rocco)

But on another note, there is something that I've found amusing. As the Philippines has these sari-sari stores that you'd find in every corner, Madrid has these chinos or alimentacions (mini-thrift / convenience stores) run by... you guessed it, the Chinese! I say amusing because I've always believed in the entrepreneurial & risk-taking nature of the Chinese... no matter where they are in the world. And surely, this seems to be a niche they've managed to create here in Spain. I've bought my Orange SIM card from one of these stores. And likewise, water, snacks and even these recharge cards.

My Chinese is quite limited... but it's way better than my Spanish. I've found using Chinese much more useful here coz they all understand Mandarin (with exception to one store I ran into... where the owners were actually Cantonese-speaking. But as it goes~ they speak Mandarin too).