Flat Hunting #1

We were woken by the cleaning ladies pushing the beds around in the rooms next door, which made the loudest noises ever!! The walls here are just as thin as in the Netherlands and it was impossible to continue to sleep. Dawe decided to go for a run, while I turned on the laptop, sorting out the visits of apartments for the day. We had arranged four visits in total, all located around the Campus Gran Via, which is around 15 minutes walk from our hotel. We still had some time before our first visit, so we decided to have a coffee. Unfortunately, the guy did not have a latte macchiato, instead we simply received a café con leche (yes almost the same, just more coffee than milk), which only costs us 2.80€ !!!!
The first visit was the Erasmus Apartment with a total of 15 rooms, we still had the rental car so we drove to the place. While Dawe was parking, we were just talking about how Spanish people easily ditch other cars when they park, simply drive off and nobody cares. Only 5 minutes later, when we were standing at the parking ticket machine, I was watching a Spanish lady trying to park and hitting the car behind her, she saw I was watching and she got out of the car, checked the other car, decided it was not too bad, parked, got a ticket and walked off. Welcome to Spain! Dawe and me walked to the Erasmus place, where already another student was waiting outside. After 5 minutes in the cold, somebody finally opened the door and we walked in. Hugo, who is also working for the ESN Zaragoza, was greeting us at the door. We soon discovered he could only speak Spanish, which was a little shock, as he was speaking really fast and it was difficult to understand sometimes. Dawe and me combined our knowledge and tried to understand as much as we could, also when asking questions about the room we put together our vocabulary and asked as much as we could. After 10 minutes the first visit was over and outside we were really proud of our first "real" Spanish conversation with Hugo. We returned the tiny tiny car to the airport in Zaragoza, before going on the next visits. At the airport was absolutely no one, the Hertz office was closed so we walked to the information stand. There a really really nice Spanish man was sitting, who we asked if he could speak English, but he told us to try in Spanish. He was very patient and in the end said he would return the key and GPS for us to Hertz. *HIGH FIVE* second conversation in Spanish survived.

Snow, rain, sun, ... what else?

Back in the city, we visited the second apartment on our list, where two Spanish and two Italian guys are living, one Italian guy is going back to Italy and thus they are looking for a new roommate. We immediately connected with the boys, the apartment was nice, and we had a great conversation with them (in English this time). Nevertheless, they ensured us they always speak Spanish with each other.  The next visit was at a place with two girls, one French and one Polish, they only wanted to have live with another girl, but for me it was soon clear that I wouldn't like to live with them, as one of them couldn't speak any Spanish, thus we would always communicate in English. The final visit was with Juan, a Spanish guy, who was offering two rooms in his apartment. He was very nice and the rooms looked fine, however he spoke fluent English and seemed like he was not really interested in having roommates and talking to them in Spanish.

In the end, this room became the living space of Dawe for the next few months

So, we walked back to the hotel, after a very long day and lots of walking! Soon it was clear that Dawe would move into the apartment with the boys, while I was still looking for a place. We made new appointments for the next day and Dawe ensured me he would come with me for mental support.
In the evening, we celebrated a successful flat hunting day with another drink at the Irish Pub and a small very delicious Pizza, which you needed to cut with some sort of hammer.