A Scam and an Apartment

Unexpectedly, we have an apartment!

We went to look at a place with Luke's (new flatmate) girlfriend's mum who works in the Senate and she managed to convince the landlord to let us move in today, so we went for it, despite it being a bit of a grandma flat. Old mahogany panelled cabinet thing all down one wall, chandellier things on the ceiling and all of it. I reckon we can make it wicked though, I've got a couple of ideas to supe it up a treat. Its just south of La Latina, near Puerta del Toledo, the old city gate to Toledo, just outside old Madrid. We'd been manically looking for a place since Friday but most of the places we looked at wanted 3 months up front - 1st months rent, 1 month as deposit and 1 month in agency fees - and we just couldn't afford it. Then we found what seemed like too good a deal to be true on the internet, 300 Euros a month, great looking flat, being rented by a guy who had to move to London urgently and wanted to get the money quick. And then he started talking about transferring money through Western Union... hmmm. Soon enough we found another 300 Euro a month flat from a guy who had to move to London urgently and needed the money quick... yeah, massive scam. But when your desperate for a flat in a country where you don't know the score, I can see how a lot of people must fall for it, so potential ex-pats beware!

In the end though, we've decided to get this place, for 700 a month between 3, for a month or two while we find somewhere better. I start work tomorrow, and the thought of getting up in that hostel again was just not really an option! Its not bad though, and only a couple of minutes walk from La Latina which I look forward to exploring more thoroughly. We only had to pay 2 months up front as well, apparently pretty much all the flats advertised on the internet are through agencies that charge fees but ones with the day-glo orange 'aquilar' signs that you see in the street everywhere are just private lets so no fees.

I've had to run around getting my NIE number today so I can work, and I've got more to do tomorrow, going to the Hacienda (the equivalent of a City Council Centre Point, not a Manchester nightclub) to properly register as self-employed. If you didn't have a company sorting it out for you, I don't know how you'd get one, apparently it takes months. After that, I'm off to this company to teach some execs. Had two weeks practicing and got my lessons planned and so on so should be alright but I'm still a bit nervous.

I had a surprising moment in one of my practice classes which I forgot to mention actually. Doing a simple question and answer exercise, one student mentioned the new Health Minister. Before I knew it, I was facilitating a discussion (in English, advanced class) about the politics of the Spanish Health Department! Now, I follow British politics pretty closely, but I don't think I could even tell you who our Health Minister is, let alone get worked up about them! Subsequent conversations have confirmed that most people in Spain are incredibly clued up about politics and keep a very close eye on (apparently all of) their politicians. Since then we got told very clearly, in class: no politics, no football and no relationships. Apparently there have been fights over each...