Falling Into (A) Place

I promised myself I would use this blog only for my writing and not a 'News About Brandon' site, but this morning I'm so excited I could explode.

A few months ago I was trying desperately to get some sort of contact with people in Madrid, especially those teaching English. I had decided that there's only so much I could learn from general information websites and pamphlets; I needed to hear some real life stories. I wanted someone on the inside, so to speak.

Unfortunately, getting in touch with someone in Spain carried with it the same problem life has often given me: I don't know how to do it, and there's no guidebook or how-to for this sort of thing. I just sat down at a computer and said to myself, "Get in touch with a Spaniard. Ready? Go!" What I ended up doing was going to a kind of Spanish Craig's List site and skimming through ads for apartments and rooms for rent, and then sending out a dozen emails randomly- in both English and Spanish- to prospective helpers. English teachers, young students, etc. Crazy thing is, it worked.

Only one person responded, an engineer in Madrid. His roommate, Cheli, was an English teacher and had spent some time in the States. He put me in touch with her and we shot a few emails back and forth. The two of them have been very helpful and encouraging and have definitely allayed some of my fears and filled in the blanks for me.

This would have been help enough, but here's the exciting part: today's email informed me that Juan, the engineer, will be getting married and moving out, leaving Cheli looking for a roommate! She's offered the room if I need it and if I take her up on it I would have a place on Day 1 in Madrid! The price is right and Cheli would be a big help finding work. It's all still pretty early on, but if this works it's just one more piece falling into place.