I have a bank account!!!

Monday August 28

Great to have colleagues who think about the 'new ones' . We went to a concert in a small village 80 kilometers south of Madrid. I'm sure we were the only ones who were not born and raised in the village, and we spoke another language, so I think the people there considered us as aliens, but..... the drinks were very cheap!! And it was very nice that one of the colleagues was performing there.
I shared a room with Piret and we had a lot to talk about after many of the cheap drinks, so we didn't sleep before 6 in the morning.

Always nice to have a sightseeing trip planned the 'day after'!
It was the first time I actually saw Roman ruins, realy impressive!!
I hope my camera was more focussed then I was.


Roman Ruins in Segobriga



Look! I'm an Roman statue... with sunglasses

In case you may wonder why this story is called 'I have a bank account', just because I have! I'm very happy with my first stap in becoming a Spanish resident.

Sounds like a plan

saterday August 26

Back from a few days in Frankfurt (Germany). The training course was ok, it cleared up a lot of things for me about the computer system we use.


I want to point out just a few differences between the job in the Dutch Air Force I used to have and the job at Group EAD I have now. In case somebody doesn't understand why I changed jobs... you will now:

Time to got to bed in the Air Force........ And at Group EAD

Business trip in the Air Force.... And at Group EAD( yes it's business class)

Surroundings......


ok, ok, enough.....


Since I told my colleague Hugo from Belgium yesterday I'd like to go to the Retiro park this weekend, he didn't hesitate to knock on my door this morning at 10 o'clock to ask me if I would like to join him there... Ok Hugo, just a sec, I think I need a shower first....
The Retiro park is a very big and beautifull park located right next to the always crowded city center. From the place I live now it's about half an hour by foot. The appartment I'll move to next week is just 10 minutes away from this nice big city park.
Hugo wanted to go somewhere else after an hour, so I had some time to relax and read my book at a nice spot in the park at the water-side. I had a nice chat with a guy from Nicaragua who invited me to go to the world-famous Prado museum with him tomorrow. Perfect! Just like I planned, a nice quiet and relaxing weekend....
Then... Rita, a colleague from Estonia, called me.She asked me if I would like to join her and Piret, also from Estonia, to a concert tonight. "Ohhh, and, it's about 80 kilometers from Madrid so bring you toothbrush, we will stay overnight!"

Sometimes plans can change in a minute, especially when it's so easy to convince somebody of having a party instead of a quiet weekend..hmmm

Retiro park Madrid

Weekend

saturday August 19

Saturday night in Madrid. I'm amazed by the quantity of people on the streets everywhere.
My colleague Shuki knows some people in Madrid and they invited me to join them for a night out. We went to the Chueca and Malasana district, very crowded, everybody is gay, great nightclubs, amazing people. And I thought Holland was the only country that tolerated people smoking joints everywhere.... obviously not!
I learned getting a taxi at 5 in the morning is impossible. All are occupied. The first taxi with the green lite on (free) was 100 meters from my house.. I'm getting used to the walking!

Goodyear take me home, or ..... anywhere!

friday August 18

I worked for three days, and it's weekend allready. The 'bad' thing is, I have to get used to it. When I'll start working according to the roster, I 'll work for three days, 2 day-shifts and 1 night-shift, and than I'll have three days off!

Since I have to manage without a car I do a lot of walking, so I went shopping for shoes... (good excuse, don't you think.)
I bought a nice pair of Adidas sneakers. I've never been so happy with shoes in my live...... well...... maybe..... no, I was very happy with my cute pink shoes, they even have Goodyear soles!!

Be impressed, (if not pretent) hahaha

Little inconvenience

wednesday August 16

The excitement to start my new job hides pretty good my tired body and mind this morning.
I'm not the only one starting today and I arrived before him, so that automatically makes him the newest one at the job and not me ... I think ;) . His name is Shuki and he is from Israel.
Our teacher for today is called Piret, she's from Estonia. Very nice girl with good teaching skills. To bad she will be leaving for our office in Frankfurt in October. This week our lessons will be about International NOTAM Operation (INO), which is the easy part for me, cause it resembles the work I did in the Air Force a lot.
Just before leaving with one of the three Carlos-es working with us, I printed the papers for my rental car. Carlos called the office the rental-company has at the central station (Atocha) for me, and it should be allright now.
Should be... but of course it was not. The papers contain the rental dates, which in my case was 14-21 August. The man at the desk was kind enough to inform me, that it is not the 14th today but the 16th, which of course I was perfectly aware of, and there was nothing I could say or do to convince him to give me a car. Wrong is wrong, 14 is not 16 .....
Accepting this 'little inconvenience' ,I think, is the only thing you can do in situations like this, which I did after a few minutes when I was in the metro again. This time to Goya station, to check out an appartment.
After the guys showed out some other potential flat-mates, I had a look at the flat and a nice chat with the people living there. I felt good about everything there, and I think they did about me as well, because after 10 minutes one of them called me to tell me they want me to take the room. I have to dicide before the weekend.

La Assumption

tuesday August 15

What should have been my first day on the job, is my first day off now.
I never heard of La Asuncion (feast of the Assumption), but I like it allready.
When I opened my mailbox at an internet cafe down the street (internet at my appartment somehow doesn't work) I was happy to find the right papers for collecting my car. The only problem... this internet cafe doesn't make prints!!!! What can I do, maybe it's better to wait till tomorrow and print the papers at work!! Something tells me this whole car issue is not gonna work.

Metro station La Latina, 200 meters from my appartment on Calle Toledo, is my gateway to the city. I'm carrying my map of the cities underground with me all the time, and picked a random station from the map; Serrano station in Salamanca area will be my destination for today!
Nice area, but because of the public holiday everything, except for bars, is closed today. I decided a bar isn't a bad destination for a day off...

Why does my street seems to be the centre of all ongoing parties for this public holiday? Even with the earplugs my Belgian colleague Hugo bought for me it was impossible to sleep before 3, which is not so bad, if it was not that I have get up tomorrow at 6 to start my new job...


my street: La Assumption

Arrival

monday August 14

The big day, moving-day. After a nice goodbye at Schiphol Airport I arrived in Madrid around noon with a beautifull welcome. My first new experience: someone is actually waiting for me at the airport exit with a paper with my name on it! So far so good. Collecting the car I rented at the airport is a complete different story. Even though I allready payed for it, the problem seems to be, I don't have the right papers so I've sent an email to the rental company to obtain the right papers. No car for now :(
A good chance to get to know the metro system, cause I had to go to the other end of the city in the evening. (Metros go everywhere, except to my work..... )
I met one of my new colleagues later, he's from Belgium and obviously likes walking, because we went out for diner at 9, and actually ate at 11...
Well.. this is another way of exploring the city when you don't have a car, I just wish I would have wore other shoes......

finally

thursday august 17

finally, i'm connected to the internet!! just some photo's for now, i'll tell my story later.... i promise!


my small appartment - i love blue skies