Howdy,

I think it's been a few years since my last post! But, as Jer always says, "Keep the dream alive!" And now, I'M HERE! I'm getting my Masters at the Complutense in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. It's a year-long program.

I have already opened up a bank account (at La Caixa on Arenal, thanks to Jer's advice - and btw, the only thing needed was a passport and an address) and they were very nice. I also already have my Spanish mobile (thanks to Jer four months ago) but I forgot the SIM in Seattle (it's being sent over, too much $$$ on it still to get another).

Anyway, my only problem now is finding a place to live. I've been looking on segundamano.es but there hasn't been much (I'm assuming due to the fact that Spaniards are all on vacation). I went to the university and found a bunch of ads on the bulletin boards...it's taking a lot of work. =) I would like to live near the university (I don't necessarily consider changing metro lines more than once or twice "near") but I also want the "romanticism" that can be provided by the area around Sol - small cute streets, balconies, etc. I'd like a place with charm, I would not like to live in "bloque 4" - because it feels like that, "prison cell 10, block 4." Suggestions on areas to look?

Thanks! I look forward to meeting you guys soon!

Ryan

Welcome! Doing a board search will reveal a lot of places to look. One I like is Loquo. But, we ended up finding our apt by wandering around neighborhoods we liked and calling numbers on For Rent signs. Things should pick up a lot shortly...you'll have lots of choices.

Good luck!

Juliette

Hey Rbell--
That's great! I think you are smart to try to find a place that is somewhat close to Complutense or on an accessible bus or metro line. I also go to la Complu and have one of those commutes from the Centro where I have to take three trains and then walk 15 minutes or take a bus (to Filología Edificio B--is that where you will be?). It gets really old, even though it only takes about 40 minutes door to door...

There's a bus that goes straight from the uni to Cuatro Caminos. A lot of students live around there or up a bit further toward Tetuan (which is cheaper).

Students are going to start registering in September, so there will be more and more pisos compartidos notices going up on Avenida Complutense on the bus shelters around the Ciuadad Universitaria metro stop.

I'm going back in October... PM me if you want to get together for a cafecito one day.

Juliette - I'm going to walk around a bit tomorrow but I need to find areas I like near the university. I like Centro around Sol but it took me 30 minutes door to door and I walked down to the R at Opera (instead of getting on at Sol and transferring).

Mariposita - I know I'm in the Facultad Filologia, so I assume it's the same. I don't even know when classes start yet! =)

Unfortunately, I don't have much time to look this week because I'm going to a friend's wedding in Switzerland for a week on Wednesday (lucky me!). I'm assuming there'll still be a lot of apartments available around the 7th or the 12th of September (I may go straight to Nice to visit another friend - the Euro life!).

I don't want to sound like a pijo but the price of the piso is less important to me than the location/charm. Thankfully, everything here is MUCH cheaper than Los Angeles. =)

rbell,

Congrats on making it!! I agree with Juliette's post, do a walk about to find you're place. Don't know if you've been to Madrid before, but it sounds like it cause you seem to know you're way around a bit.

Saludos,


Tony

Hey rbell,

One of my coworkers (young, single Spanish woman. Speaks English) is looking for someone to live with. If you're still looking, send me a message and I can give your her info.

Rebecca

Thanks everyone for your responses and suggestions. I have been walking around and found a bunch of nice barrios but unfortunately and having NO luck with a piso. I've been doing all I can but to no avail. If anyone knows any Spaniards who need a roommate, I'm interested. I'd prefer to live in: Alonso Martinez, Bilbao, Tribunal, Arguelles, or Salamanca area, even in La Latina if it's nice enough. I'd also prefer to live with people around my age (26), so anywhere from 20-30 or so.

Please let me know, as I've decided that if I don't have a place to live by the time school starts...me marcho de Madrid.

Thanks!
Ryan

PS - Thanks Jer for forwarding my info to Rocco...he helped a bit but they had nothing anywhere near where I'm looking.

hey Ryan...

quote:

Please let me know, as I've decided that if I don't have a place to live by the time school starts...me marcho de Madrid.

i think that is a bit drastic, don't you.
you have been planning this move to madrid for years as far as i can tell from when you registered on this board (20 May 2004) and now you want to give up and pack it in after 3 weeks. sorry but that is not the old college try as far as i am concerned

stick to it and you will find a nice place.

did you send binkx a message about her co-worker?

also, you wrote...

quote:

I've been doing all I can but to no avail.

can you be more specific as to what you have done so far to find a room? give us more info so we can help you.

have you looked at the "pisos compartidos" section of segundamano? it is online at http://inmobiliaria.segundamano.es/subseccion.cfm?categ...subcategoria_id=6300 and also in the actual paper which you can pick up at newsstands.

in my humble opinion, it is the best way to find a place with spaniards. i just did a test search for madrid and came up with 3,585 ads that was for all of madrid but you can limit your search to certain areas. for example, if you search in "madrid capital", 2,769 ads come up

doing all you can would include looking through those ads and contacting the ones that interest you.

saludos,
jer...

Jer,

I have been pouring over segundamano, loquo, and idealista (which is not so good) and contacting the ones I'm interested in. Loquo seems to have the best because not as many people check it, however, I went to look at a place that I wasn't terribly interested in and there were 10 other people there who were all very interested. It seems a little ridiculous to fight for a place that I'm not too excited about.

And, as I appreciate your encouragement to stay in Madrid, as I said before, I've been here for 5 weeks and have gone through hell getting here (not just visa stuff like everyone else, other stuff in the US), and have been going through hell since arriving here. My happiest time since being here was when I left and was in Switzerland for a week. That's not necessarily a good sign.

I do not think that it is drastic because I believe that there are reasons for everything. I know that even if I do end up leaving, my time here was not wasted (I know several big lessons I'll take away already).

As much as I'd like to find a place to live and hopefully stay here for the year, I will be content knowing what I've done and been through if I have to leave.

Anyway, so aside from checking the papers (online), walking around looking for anouncements, and putting up announcements online, any ideas?

Thanks,
Ryan

I don't understand. This should not be so difficult. I see you said you have been checking sources and went to look at "A" place...how many have you actually seen? You should be calling and actually looking at 2 or 3 places a day. At one or maybe two, no one will show up, but you should see something every day, and if you see one you like a least a little, take it right then. If it's a shared piso, you probably won't have to sign a contract and you can move later. We've all done it. Our first place was found in 5 days. We decided we hated it later; no biggie, we moved.

I've never heard of such troubles, in the 3.5 years we've been here and seen people come through, and even less so in September. I feel like there's something we don't know about your standards, your strategy, or a drastic change in the housing market in Madrid this year...?

hey Ryan.

i agree with Jules, when i think back, 8 years + ago when i moved here to stay, i spent about 2 weeks looking for a place. it was my only chore in those 2 weeks so i really hit the pavement. it was hard for me as i was staying outside of madrid with some friends and had to take a bus and the metro (1 hour +) to get to the city. i must have seen about 20 places before i took a studio apt. on calle leganitos between plaza de españa and plaza de santo domingo. i found it as i was walking back to sol from plaza de españa one day, just saw the sign out of the blue. i lived there for 2 years and then i moved into my apt. in the plaza mayor where i have lived for the past 6.

are you juggling other things as you look for a place to live or is it your only task at hand?

and did you check out the bus stops all along the university bus routes? as mariposita wrote...

quote:

Students are going to start registering in September, so there will be more and more pisos compartidos notices going up on Avenida Complutense on the bus shelters around the Ciuadad Universitaria metro stop.

i'll keep my eyes peeled for ya!

as for...

quote:

My happiest time since being here was when I left and was in Switzerland for a week. That's not necessarily a good sign.

first of all, imho (and just my opinion), you should not have left for a week if you have only been here for 5. no, i am NOT telling you what to do nor where to go nor am i saying you cannot travel but your priority is FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE, not heading off to switzerland for a vacation.

from your frustrated attitude shown here, it is no surprise that the week in switzerland was so very happy but it is not a sign of anything. if you were down here about not being able to find a place and blew off to switlerland for a weeks vacation, of course that was great since it took your mind off of the problems you were having here in madrid.

by the same right, if you had moved to geneva instead of to madrid and had problems finding a place to live so decided to take a vacation to spain for a week, SPAIN would have been that "happiest time since being here" (the here being switzerland of course).

saludos & stick with it.
jer...

I am sorry Ryan, that you are feeling frustrated about not finding anywhere to live. I can't find it posted anywhere, where you are living at the moment? Can you not just stay there until you find what you are looking for? Or, you said in an earlier post that price wasn't so important, so why not find a hostel room in the area you prefer, for a while? Also, I would agree with others, it seems a bit daft to leave before you start school, perhaps you will meet other students when you get there who are also looking for accommodation, or sharers, in the areas you want?

It seems such a shame to give up the dream at the very first hurdle.

You know Sunny gave me some great advice when I was looking for a flat last year. I had also wanted to be in the areas you've mentioned and he said to try Chamberí, and I have to say I love it!

The apartments are cheaper, which I know isn't a priority for you, but the area has a certain charm that the barrios more centrally located seem to lack. Sorry to those of you attatched to your central neighborhoods, I'm not intending to offend. I live right down the street (three minutes) from the Plaza Olavide which I think is one of the nicest plazas in the city. If it was any more centrally located it would be swarming with tourists, but as it is, it has a nice neighborhood feel. We have tons of very Spanish bars and discos that are filled with Spanairds, not extranjeros. I'm well connected by metro (lines 1-Iglesia,2 & 7-Canal are with-in a five minute walk), Bilbao is only a ten minute walk away, and Alonzo Martinez and Cuatros Caminos are only 15. I know Gregorio Marinion isn't far either, but I've never walked there so not sure how long it would take. I'm actually becoming a bit neigborcentric (is that even a word?) in the sense that I hate leaving my neighborhood. I just don't see the point as we have everything. Fabulous cafes and restaurants. An original language cinema, as well as Spanish ones too. Two supermarkets with-in five minutes walking, and we're not far from the Lidl by Cuatros Caminos. In the summer we have a public pool close by as well. I won't even get into how well connected we are by bus, but it's fabulous!

Might be worthwile to broaden your search a bit.

Hi,

I'll answer some of the posed questins below. First, I have to say that one of the biggest problems I've run into is the many (read: 75%) of the pisos in the areas I'm looking at are for GIRLS ONLY. That pisses me off for many reasons aside from it being gender-discrimination. Another thing I've run into: many people don't want students - even Masters students. I understand undergrads who can be irresponsible and party too much - but that's not me. Another thing: lots of people also don't want to live with Americans. I find that one a little baffling too - there are drunken morons from every country, not just the US. But places that say "Spanish or European ONLY" or "ERASMUS ONLY" are basically denying Asians, Australians, and Americans (North, Central, and South) access to these pisos. Factor this in with the following information, and it will begin to make sense why it's been so hard for me to find a place:

quote:

(has there been) a drastic change in the housing market in Madrid this year...?

As a matter of fact, there has been. I read in one of the papers (el mundo or el pais) about how Madrid has become one of the hardest cities to find a room in because of the severe influx of students, both nationals and internationals. They accredit this to the fact that Madrid is the best place to study Spanish because of the purity of the language and the big city attraction. And, according to every source I've spoken with, September and October are the hardest months to find places.

Juliette67 - I am calling anywhere from 2-10 places a day and going to see the ones I can (sometimes they are already taken, other times, like the one I just called, I can't see it for a week). As for my standards, as I mentioned, they aren't very demanding: a nice location, living with Spaniards around my age (we are in Spain, after all), not too many people total, clean. I looked at a nice place yesterday with really buena gente and even though the room was SUPER tiny, I would've taken it because they were really nice, but they had a list of 15 people, all of whom were interested. They emailed me last nite and chose to go with a Spaniard. Anyway, I don't think I'm asking too much. If this were the US or Northern Europe, I'd be MUCH more demanding.

quote:

I can't find it posted anywhere, where you are living at the moment? Can you not just stay there until you find what you are looking for?

I'm staying right next to Sol in a hostal that also rents out pisos. I would love to stay here (I'd even live in one of their pisos) if it weren't so expensive - 1200 euros a month. In LA, that's a nice place, in Spain, that should be a castle! What I'm paying per week in a habitacion here is about what I'd pay all over the city so there's really no point in switching temporary housing.

And yes, The Nanny, I am looking in Chamberi too.

quote:

It seems such a shame to give up the dream at the very first hurdle.

As I already said, this is probably somewhere close to the 200th hurdle, if you consider the many times I've tried to get over here before this. If you're just counting this time, then it's at least the 20th.

And as for me going to Switzerland, that was something that I had planned on for about 6 months because one of my best friends was getting married to a Swiss girl. I also am a photographer so I hope to make a bit of money off my pictures. Yes, Jer, I agree that I got away from the stress of finding a place in Madrid, however, there are other things I like about Northern European countries that Spain doesn't have (no need to get into it...too far off topic).

Ciao for now,
Ryan

PS - Does anyone know the king? I would be fine living in the Palacio Real.

quote:

I'm staying right next to Sol in a hostal that also rents out pisos. I would love to stay here (I'd even live in one of their pisos) if it weren't so expensive - 1200 euros a month.

sounds like "hostal madrid"(?)

quote:

however, there are other things I like about Northern European countries that Spain doesn't have (no need to get into it...too far off topic).

there will always be some things you like more about one place and others you like more about the other. that is totally normal and NO PLACE is perfect but you decided to move to madrid for a reason so should not let something like the difficulty of finding a place to live drive you away.

saludos,
jer...