Living in Spain: Starting from Scratch

Chapter 1: Starting from Scratch

It has been an amazing experience thus far. We have seen strange and wonderful places and met many good-hearted people. But for the first few weeks after leaving the US, Andrea and I found ourselves living not in one of the bacchanalian capitals of the world, but in sPain. Daily costs were quickly draining our resources – one US dollar is only worth about 60 cents here – and we were having little to no luck finding a habitable habitation. We had done (well, Andrea had done) some advance research, but it was of only marginal use, as it turned out…it’s hard to plan what 60 meters² you’ll call home when you’re 6000 miles away.

But eventually we saw a place Andrea really liked. I think it was the lime green en-mirrored foyer dresser and the IKEA furnishings. That and the neighborhood. This particular apartment was in a neighborhood whose quality sounded with the voices of children playing in the nearby park and content Spaniards living with spirit.

But there’s always a catch. Although we had immediately let the landlord – a zesty Argentinean woman named Liliana, prone to both smiles and cigarettes – know of our interest, we were informed that a couple who could outstay us was also interested, and, hence, by the dictates of the $ bottom line, would get the apartment. Andrea, especially, was saddened. After seeing a bunch of places every day for a grueling week, we took a breather and braced ourselves for square one. All the other apartments had been insufficient in one way or another.

A number of them were little more than the size of very large US closets (not an exaggeration). One of them required a security deposit of almost $4000 (US). A bunch of them received little or no sunlight; one place in particular was, quite literally, a dungeon. Not only were there bars on the windows, the windows looked out to the dim interior of the building. Trying to find an apartment we could afford was certainly demoralizing.

And then we had our break. We were down and out, our money dwindling, and we were told that the couple that was going to take the apartment might back out. We held our breath.I thought Andrea was going to pass out more than once those days. We got a call. It was available!

But, sometimes, there’s another catch, like at the beginning of the third act of a film when, just at the point when the major hurdle has been (somehow) overcome, a new challenge - unexpected, and as bad as the previous – invites itself to dinner. Liliana needed three months rent (which included two months as a security deposit) the next day. The money wasn’t the problem. I transferred the money from my US account to our Spanish account that day. But when we went to take out the money, the bankers told us that not only had they not received our money, they had no trace of it, and, even if the transfer were working, they wouldn’t know about it, or be able to give us the funds, for 5 to 10 working days.

Andrea, who had bravely translated through all these crises, reached her limit during this catastrophe – with our appointment for the apartment looming in an hour – and began crying.

I asked, in very broken Spanish, if the bank couldn’t call my bank to ascertain the transfer, and then loan us the amount we needed until the transfer cleared. A few bankers discussed things while we sat there, feeling profoundly helpless. I wondered how so many people manage to change countries with so little money. Life is just resilient, I guess.

And then we got a second break. After numerous conversations to which we were not privy, the bank director – a handsome man in his mid 40s who had taken an immediate shine to Andrea when we opened our account – emerged and informed us he was going to give us the money. Just give it to us in good faith. We were dumbstruck with relief and joy. It actually felt funny letting smiles spread across our faces; after feeling so much frustration, it had begun to have an inertia of its own. They were just going to give us almost $3000 (US) and let us walk out of the bank. And they did. Wow. Redemption. Humanity redeemed.

We got our apartment. J