House Hunting International

Sorry about the lateness of this most recent post.  I started this blog 2 weeks after I arrived, so I have to play some catch-up.  Basically, we arrived in Bilbao around 2pm on the 23rd.  Needless to say we were both exhausted.  We found the nearest ATM and made our first of many withdrawal.  Even though I called ahead and told my bank that I would be in Spain on the 22nd of September, my transaction was declined...thank God I was traveling with a bona fide sugar-mama (OK a bit of an exaggeration)!

Originally we booked our hostel for 2 nights, with obviously an optimistic outlook on finding a flat.  Unfortunately, we took a couple of days longer, which should have been expected.  We spent the first day sleeping off our jet-lag and the next couple looking for apartments. All in all, we spent 5 exhausting days and nights at the wonderful, however dodgy, Hotel Bilbi.

Previously to arriving in Bilbao, Liz and I had found a roommate from England, Amy.  Even after dozens of emails and phone calls, Liz and I could only catch the attention of realtors (which coincidently charge you to find an apartment).  On the other hand, Amy had lined up two showings from England.  Of course, due to France's incompetence as a nation, her flight was cancelled and was unable to rebook her flight until 3 days later.  This is the first of two things that the French screwed us on.  Anyway, Amy put her trust in Liz and I to select one of the two apartments.  The first one we looked at we were almost certain was going to be ours, but we had to check the other one out just to say that we shopped around.  We were right.  We choose the first one and moved in, went through the legalities, and paid our deposit and first month (Rosa, our landlord, allowed us to stay the rest of September for free!!).

Finally, a place to call home for the next month!!  Once again, I settled into a place with 3 girls and 1 guy, me.  The housemates consist of Liz, our british friend Amy, Elvira, a girl born and raised in this very flat ( also the daughter of the landlord), and me.  Interestingly enough, our lease came with some added perks in the form of our landlord Rosa.  When we first met her and she showed us the place a vaguely recall her mentioning something about a maid service that we got with our lease, but we just assumed that it was something lost in translation.  After the first couple of days we realized that it wasn't a maid, but Rosa that was coming to clean every couple of days.  Its similar to having a host mom again. She sweeps and vacuums the floor, makes our bed, and does our laundry if we leave it by the door.  She buys us hangers, olive oil, eggs, and cold medicine.  Then again, Spanish parents are used to taking care of their children until they're in their late 20's.  Well thats all for today, until tomorrow...