Gràcia | 
06 23rd, 2008| 
Well, in case you were wondering, we haven’t moved in yet. Obviously, we didn’t have the party on June 13th. Actually, I celebrated my birthday that day. We didn’t hear from the constructors (the company paying for the building and renting us our appartment, I don’t really know the word in English) until last Friday. They called and told me that everything was ready, we just had to bring the endorsement papers and get our keys. This endorsement thing is a paper signed by someone with money (since we don’t have enough) taking responsibiilty for our rent. And Eric’s parents were going to do it. But they are in England until Wednesday evening, so… we have to wait an extra week! Anyway, we’re more optimistic now, everything seems to be working!
We still don’ t know about when will we be able to move in. I want my keys!!
So, right after a huge hug and s big “congratulations” and some tears, the first thing everybody asked when we said we were moving in together was “so, when’s the party?”We chose a day. June 13th. Friday 13th. Yes. And now, less than a month away, there’s still no electricity in the building, and until that’s solved we don’t get to sign the papers. I hate it. I just hate seeing all my beautiful things piling up in boxes. It’s just sad. For now, we spend our time drawing funny schemes of how could our home look. We’ve been doing some copy-paste from ikea’s website, since many things we’re getting are not from there but we ca’t find a picture. Otherwise, we just draw away. I looks so silly yet it helps to imagine it!
The appartment is almost ours. We’ve chosen the 7th floor (the building has got 8 floors) facing the south-west. We know, it’s hot in summer. But the south east option had just 1 bathroom and faces the other building, not our campus. Maybe we’ll regret this. Maybe not. It has A/C and heating in every room, and comes with a parking space and a storage room of about 80 sq ft. The appartment itself has 750 sq ft, and there are 2 built in closets. Both bathrooms are fully equiped, the one in the master bedroom with a large shower and the other one with bath tube. We’ve already got a Nespresso machine, this one:
Eric’s parents gave us their sofas (2 pretty blue ones) a brand new bed they have at their house in Xàbia and used only twice and by Eric a few lamps and a bunch of kitchen utensils. Also from his family we’re getting a TV, microwave, iron & board and a lot of money. His parents are also paying for the washing machine. My parents have bought us a fridge, this one:
But Titanium-finished. We feel luxurious not having a white fridge. Call us lame.Also, we’re getting all sheets, pillows, towels, tablecloth, etc from my parents (we already bought some!) and the glassware (we got Bohemian glass!!) and from my grandma’s house we’ve got some really pretty white breakfast mugs, many many serving dishes, jars, snack bowls, etc, good kives (kitchen and table), some vintage dishes and a few other things I can’t remember now despite the fact we spent a whole morning wrapping up things in newspapers.Here are some of them:
We expect to have all the paperwork done by tuesday and get the contract signed and the keys by May 23rd. Cross you fingers!
We’ve seen it, we love it, it’s cheap, it’s just big enough… Could this be our brand new (yay, we’re the first people ever living there) rental appartment? We’re so excited! We can’t stop talking about furniture! We saw it just 1 day before our 10 months anniversary. Are we crazy? Probably. Are we enjoying this? More than anything we’ve ever done.
Well, yes I do. And I’m in full sunbathe mode after a sweet conversation Eric and I had last night about what kind of future we want. I’m still not getting a wedding or a dozen kids, but I have the best boyfriend ever!
So, this is how the story goes. My grandma, now living with us, used to live in Alicante. She happened to refuse to sell her home when she moved in here with us, so there it is, empty. Alicante is where I want to do my Phd. Great plan: I move there with Eric so we don’t have to spend that much money on rent (my grandma wouldn’t charge us at all) and everybody is happy. Not really.
I have a cousin, flight attendant, who owns an appartment in Madrid and is waiting for her new house to be finished here in Valencia. Her boyfriend is unemployed. They’ve decided to move in together to my grandma’s house. I’m guessing they want to sell the flat in Madrid so they can pay easily for the new house and save a couple of years worth of rent. Now, she has a brother who is currently living in England. He wants to come back to Spain but not to his parents home, so… hey, free housing in Alicante! So yes, if Eric and I happen to move there, we’ll be living with my cousins.
The worst part is that their choice of city was determined only by being too lazy to find a proper job or having gone into too much debt or wanting to have a place for free and spend their salary on whatever. My choice was made because Alicante is the only University in Spain offering the doctorate program I’m interested in.
I’m not living with them. By any means. No way. So do I have to renounce to my Phd? Do I find another place, while they get that one for free? I’m just so so angry and upset.
And yet again, who cares? On Sunday is Eric’s birthday, and since I’m still in the mood for shopping for him after the iPod (mutual present) I’ve been choosing wrapping paper, cards and oh, yes, presents, for weeks. Since there’s no way I’m showing here anything before the day, I’ll just post a photo of some of the pretty gifts so he can put the neurones to work and try to guess what’s hiding inside…
And no, that’s not a book’s corner.
Ok so after a week of living together with Eric (couldn’t help it, it was a holiday week full of party time) and a week of several disgusting stomach viruses or whatever, here I am.
So, chronologically:
1. Magdalena.
It was a great week. I was sick most of the time, and now so is Eric. Anyway, we managed to spend almost all the time together (despite an unsuccessful visit to the dentist and a catastrophic visit to the TS for my car) and well, it was almost all of it couch time. But hey, I love falling asleep on his shoulder while he watches the remaining 95% of a movie.
2. Job interview.
During that week, I had THE job interview. It was so successful that we started lloking for a place. We found these amazing rental appartments. 2 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom, kitchen, living/dining room, balcony, parking space plus storage room, not furnished but with washing machine and fridge, all brand new, about 400€/month. 750 sq ft for about 600dollars and completely new… not bad. We were so excited! Also, his parents have lots of things (among which, a sofa, table, chairs, etc) stored that we could easily manage without buying much more than a couple desks. And then I realized that I’d have to work 10h/day, and that, plus lunch and coffee break time would mean more than 12 hours out of the house and make less money than a 16 yo teaching kids in her free time. No way I was making less money/hour than at McDonalds. Eric was extremely supportive, he said he wouldn’t be happy seeing me collapse on the couch everyday back from a job that has nothing to do with my degree and for so little money. So yeah, searching again.
3. Sick week.
Ok, disgusting time. I spent the first half of this week… getting to know my WC, you know. The second half, translating (and re-translating) a couple programs about the women in Desperate housewives. Retranslating means here discovering that iWork does not have auto-save. Suuuuuuuuuuuucks!
4. Weekend.
4.1 Friday
We got our iPods. I’m in love with that thing, and I’m gradually growing to love its dead pixel. It gives it personality. More on the iPod some other day.
4.2 Saturday
I was meeting Paloma to go to class. She was taking her car (carpooling! I can be green too!). Off we go. Ten minutes later, a funny noise comes up to us. We decide to stop at the next gas station so we can take a look. Not that we would be able to repair anything, but it feels better to take a look at things. Two and a half seconds later, the car goes crazy. We stop. This is the narrowest highway ever, and the huge trucks zoom by at like 3 milimiters from the car. We call her father. Her father can’t do anything, he’s busy. We call the assistance. It takes them 45 minutes. Yay. Then, they pull us to the gas station where they help us change what by now is a completely destroyed wheel. Not the tyre. We’ve gone to the point of damaging the rim inside. Yay us. Then Eric comes to the rescue and takes me with him. He’s my super hero.
So, we decide to go to Roca Cúper, a teeny tiny microscopical village where we would like to, some day, buy a house. We go there and see THE house. Such a pretty place! We took a few pics with the phone of the house and of us goofing aroud the train sign…
Anyway, after that, we went to Eric’s home (his parents were away for the day) and had lunch. Aaahhh those yummy stuffed mushrooms. I was sick all day after that. Now I have something to add to the list of foods my stomach can’t cope with. First it was broccoli. Now, mushrooms. Then we fell asleep on his bed (fully dressed!) for an hour and then came to my home to sync our ipods with my iMac and, theoretically, for me to stay there and sleep through my mushroom pain. We ended up picking up his parents from were the bus left them, then meeting some of Eric’s friends for dinner (not that I ate much, anyway) and then went for a drink (herbal tea for me, obviously) with my friends. Yeah, busy.
4.3 Sunday
Election day. I gave my vote to the socialist party. 4 years ago I did it just to get rid of the goverment we had back then, but over the time they’ve proved to be the right ones, they’ve worked so so much in improving everybody’s life! I got a tax and interest free loan from the goverment to buy my computer. I could get one to pay for my masters and pay it, interest free as well, only when I’m earning enough money, and if I don’t get to the point of earning enough in the 15 years after finishing my masters, I don’t have to pay it back at all. And the list of advantages goes on forever, not to mention the ban on smoking in public spaces, the legalization of gay marriages, and a million laws promoting gender equity.
So, anyway, I voted for them. And waited for Eric to wake up and give me a call, because we wanted to be at 2.00pm in València for the mascletà. He showed up online at 1pm. Yay. No mascletà. Then we talked about meeting later before he left for Castelló and about the possibility of me going with him. He wanted to visit a friend, and I was really tired, so he went without me… coming back at 7.30pm. I also wanted to watch the first motogp of the season, but there was no way I could squeeze some time with him AND watch it. So I ended up having a coffee with him, being very distracted all the time and having him leave with a bitter-sweet goodbye. Things went to worse later, and even worse this morning.
It doesn’t help that I will be on my own during fallas, because he has to work, and that the only day he doesn’t have to is his father’s birthday, so he’ll be there, and that night he’ll be with his best friend, so again, not with him. Oh, yes, and the very next day he’s leaving with some friends on a trip. We had a day planned of cooking all the special traditional Easter food since like before Christmas, but that will have to wait for next year. We also had a trip to Andalucia and the Jerez gp, but that will also have to wait. Yeah, great times.
Now, photos:
Well, it mainly sucks. You’re doing something you like, but there’s no way you’re doing it the way you like it. You translate in your PJs at 3AM with a caffeine overdose that is likely to kill you. It’d be nice to get an office job! Or to be rich and not need to work! Ok, stop ranting. Back to business.