Hey! I noticed quite a few folks mentioning that they were moving to Madrid in or near January 2003--I am one of them...January 6th, just over a month away!!!

Would any of you soon to be Madrid expats be interested in hooking up once there? Maybe starting a little regular meeting thing to explore the city as well as explore our expat issues. I did live in Madrid before and the first four months or so after moving were really hard--struggling with the language, the culture, finding work, dealing with roommates, Telefonica nightmares, knowing few people, plain ole missing home, and wondering if I had crossed over into insanity when I made the move.

Of course, now I am doing it all again and this time I think it would be great to get together with others going through the same thing.

Let me know if you are interested by posting here.

Candela

Hey Candela, not many issues for me after almost 7 years logged Spain time but count me in for your get togethers.

I am sure I can help newcomers and always love to meet new friends.

I would recommend a weekly or bi-weekly gathering at a caf� somewhere, would be lots of fun!!! :cheers:

January is a great month to start too, the cold temps make a nice hot cup-o-chocolate or caf� con leche really hit the spot

Will be nice to get a group together for ex-pats here. I know there are already quite a few but they are usually run by people interested in making money off of the idea via a membership fee and/or commissions from caf� owners on drinks and stuff consumed at the meetings

I will scout out a few good, local caf�s and make some suggestions. Maybe the "Caf� Comercial" in the Glorieta de Bilbao", it is big, nice and well situated.

I think a weeknight gathering would be best, say Wednesdays at 8 or 9pm? I am up for other ideas.

Let's do it!!!

Saludos,
jer...

Sounds great Jer! I used to go to Cafe Comercial for a Writer's Group, there is a big upstairs room they used to let us use--however the waiters were always so rude!

And by the way (though this could get me into trouble) I am an event planner by trade. Even in Madrid I was the one my Spanish friends came to when they wanted to throw a shindig, sooooo....if there is enough interest, I am happy to do the planning bits!

Of course having expats who have beentheredonethat involved would be super great! :cheers:

Candela

Hey Candela...

quote:

the waiters were always so rude!

Typical Spanish customer service

I saw a few writers groups in the clubs sections of MY & INMADRID's CLASSIFIEDS, maybe they are still around.

quote:

And by the way (though this could get me into trouble) I am an event planner by trade

You kidding me, we love you event planners. Member "Chica" was also an event planner back in the U.S.A. and thanks to her, our BarBQs are such a huge success

I think with your planning and multimadrid to bring together interested ex-pats we will get a great group together

Saludos,
jer...`

p.d. I guess Spaniards could come as well as long as they do not use the gatherings as a "tool" to learn English and turn them into English classes. Nothing against the Spaniards at all but those learning and wanting to practice their English would feast on an opportunity like this. I don't think an "intercambio" is what we want to start here althought some could stem off from the gatherings.

Hi again! I have three folks signed up from expatriatecafe, 0 from madridman, and of course I am hoping for a great turnout from multimadrid. I'll try to plan it all for mid to late January and will return her to post details. In the meantime...Happy Holidays to everyone!
Candela

Hi Candela, sounds great!!!

I think I am going to whip up a page for the group here at multimadrid. Maybe call it "ExPatMadrid". Hey, the URL expatmadrid.org is available

We can use it to let people know about our gatherings at the Caf� and whoever shows, shows

Glad to see some exp�triatecafe folks joining in Maybe Tracy herself will join up as I think she still plans to come for a few months this Spring but am not sure. I do not think you will get many sign-ups from that OTHER Madrid site since the idea started on my board and that other guy is not big on anyone finding out about my site, much less a social group formed here.

Whay can't we all just get along

I am sure we will be able to count on a great # of multimadridians at the gatherings.

I will let you all know when I put up the page and where it is.

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. Candela, contact me with ideas so I can put together a web page for this.

jer, you are too funny! i first visited the OTHER site before ever finding yours and the thing i noticed is almost no one ever responded to any of my posts there! it gave me a inferiority cyber complex! No worries like that here!

Thanks for coming up with the board idea. This will be fun!

Hi Candela.

Well, from your posts one can tell that you are a writer and are very into moving over here and living in Spain. Some websites are very negative and pesimistic about this idea and it is hard enough for Americans to make it here without all those negative vibes around . You seem like such a go-getter and a positive person that I think other members here see that in you and feel the desire to answer your posts

Looking forward to the ExPatMadrdid group gatherings

Saludos,
jer...

Hi, This is a great idea. I'll be moving to Madrid in the beginning of March - count me in.
I would love to meet some new friends and have somebody to share experiences with

Hey Jer and Candela, this sounds like a super idea. I will make sure to see you all at a meeting when we visit in April. Our little visit is now turning into a job search. Juan, mi esposo, is talking more and more about moving back there. And with the way things are here in San Diego, (housing prices, lack of teacher jobs for me, my contract expires in June) being broke in Madrid sounds better than being broke in San Diego.

:cheers:

Hi there!

I've been here for 10 wonderful years now! My husband, Carlos is Spanish and I'm from Chicago, as some of you know already. My son Sam is 6 and we have a parents and kids club going if any parents are planning to move here!

Also, whenever there's a "kids are welcome" event, count us in! We can, occasionally get a babysitter, but only on the weekends. I'm looking forward to meeting new expats!
Goodluck

Count me in for September of 2003. I always think ahead and will be there this time with silver bells on. My job hunt is slow, but PATIENCE is the key for me.

Shawn

OOOOH, this is getting very exciting!!! Can't wait to hash out the details and get the gig going!

Happy Holidays to you all and see you in
:jeje: :l: 22 Days :cheers:
Candela

Candela,great idea! I won't be moving to Madrid until late summer but I am already excited to meet with you all! If you need any ideas or help, etc., I know the city pretty well, let me know!

Hi all. You can count me and my website in on the expat get together thing.
By the way, there are now several other notable Madrid websites: www.multimadrid.com madridman.com, www.madridinsider.com welcometomadrid.org, etc. So please be more careful when making inuendos about the other guy.
Madrid Man is not in Spain, so I do not think he would be very interested in helping put these meetings together.
Welcome to Madrid / Spain has his own meetings with his own agenda, sometimes profit making and sometimes taking advantage of them to recruit volunteers to work for free at his business operation, but always forced, with the leader interrupting the natural conversations and flow of things which are working well on their own to try and force people to mix and participate in ice breaking activities in an assbackwards attempt to fix things that are not broken. Counterproductive is the one word that sums him and his input up.
Through these newly proposed weekly or biweekly meetings, I am all for finding people to hang out with in Madrid and do things with during all of this extra free time living in Spain gives you. Going to the movies / theater, traveling, meeting for lunch, etc. Whatever happens naturally.
What do you think?