I lived out my sidereal sagittarius dream and dropped everything in my life to move out of the country. It was tough and easily one of the most difficult life experiences I’ve had so far (for full transparency) but also one of the most rewarding and exciting. Let’s paint a quick picture:
It was 2019 – the same year I graduated from uni. A friend of mine who had a Spanish professor at the time invited me to come listen in on some program being presented on campus that had to do with English speakers teaching at grade school in Spain. I was interested and accompanied her, but the both of us kind of kept the idea at the back of our minds. It was a professional and well-prepared presentation, which went over the basics of the program. €1,000 a month to live in a select area of Spain, become an English assistant at a bilingual school, and live your best life. Easy and fun, right?
For the most part, it definitely was. Fast-forward to the end of the next year. Not to be melodramatic, but everything in my life seemed to be falling apart. I’ll spare you the sob story, but essentially, I felt trapped, or that I couldn’t advance no matter how much I pushed. For the astro cuties who’ll get it, I didn’t know whether to blame it on my 3H Saturn placement (4H in whole sign), or just a crisis that lots of people experience in that they need to get away from it all.
So I did! Luckily I already had a passport and spoke lots of Spanish at home already, so I didn’t feel too intimidated by the process at all. I took an impulsive 4-hour drive to Miami with my mom the day I remembered all about this program. I was sitting on the beach, trying to enjoy my time and quit stressing, when it all just clicked. I didn’t have anything holding me back here, so I figured, “why don’t I go? Just for a bit.” I hit up my good friend letting her know I was interested in actually pursuing this, and asked for her former professors contact so I could ask him a bit more about the program (that pamphlet I received the year prior had been long gone and I had forgotten practically everything about it.) My bestie wished me luck and from there, I embarked on this solo journey.
There’s lots of details about getting to Spain that I won’t really get into (such as applications, getting a visa, finding a place to stay, etc.) but feel free to comment and let me know if you’d want a blog post about that as well!
I wasn’t scared at all about living on my own in a country I’ve never been to, with no one I know to lean on. Not until I finally landed and had to call an uber. Keep in mind, the closest I got to living on my own prior to this was living at a dorm for one semester. I was practically new to all of this. I thought to myself, “do I make him take me to my landlord for the keys? Do I go to my apartment and hope a roommate will be there to open the door for me?” To this day I don’t know how to explain to someone that I had to walk around in the city of Madrid with 3 extra large suitcases, but luckily people were very friendly and helpful, and they could definitely tell I was not from there.
There is SO much to say about Spain that I don’t even know where to begin, but I will say that it is such a beautiful country with amazing views, amazing people, and overall such a relaxing environment. Once I was settled in, I didn’t ever want to return home. People took leisurely time seriously, and everyone seemed relaxed for the most part. On the weekends where I just wandered the city with friends (going to El Rastro, a flea market open every Sunday, was one of my favorite things to do), eating good food, enjoying wine and each other’s company on the grass of Retiro Park, I was secretly STRESSED. Stressed because I wasn’t doing anything “productive”. I wasn’t preparing for the week ahead or worried about money (things were generally cheap at the time I was living there). I had never learned to live in the moment until my time in Madrid. And not doing this until the age of 24ish really hindered my attempts at struggling a work-life relationship in the years prior, and sometimes even today.
Let’s go back to the cheap aspect of Madrid. If you budget accordingly and decide to live just a littleeee outside of the city center, you could easily afford a happy life for yourself. I was only getting paid €1,000 a month and that was more than enough for rent, utilities, meal prep, and maybe some traveling every other month. Keep in mind, things are a lot worse now overall no matter where you live, and I was in Spain up until there was a price influx, so I’m not sure of the current situation. However, I saved a lot of money when I grocery shopped, because panaderias y fruterias (bakeries and fruit/veggie markets) are generally cheap and available in large quantities throughout the city. 5 euros got me more than enough fruits and veggies for the week, which helped my pockets A LOT.
My work load was simple overall; I got to interact with tons of students from primary school and even tutored after the work day was over. I was lucky to get placed in a school where the children were eager to learn, and I loved my coworkers as well. The only complaint I had about work was that most schools are located in a different region of Madrid and not so much in the city, so traveling to work each day could have taken anywhere from an hour to an hour and 30 minutes. However, I loved my job and felt that it was meaningful work. I highly recommend this job if you’re looking to get experience with in the education field!
Public transportation is readily available in the city and is usually reliable. I don’t know if the rules have changed, but while I was living there, a metro card is about €20 a month if you’re under 25 years old. This was super helpful to me, as someone who didn’t own a car and couldn’t rely on public transportation back home.
I met so many amazing people during my time in Madrid, and a lot of them were people who were a part of my same program. I became friends with another performer and through her, my love for music came back. I actually worked on my debut single over there (blog about that coming soon!) and interacted with so many other people interested in the arts. While living here, I started to find myself again.
There were many ups and downs with living abroad. Homesickness was a daily battle in my first couple months of moving abroad, and the feeling crept its way back towards me every so often, but by the time I had to buy a plane ticket home, I didn’t want to leave Europe at all. I was going to miss going to a doctors office and not shaking while I hand over hundreds of dollars, unlike the scam I deal with here. I actually remember once in Italy when I had a stye, and the pharmacist prescribed the same eye drops I had back home for a little less than €15, which costs more than triple the price here in the states. And that was after I dished out $60 to see an eye doctor for 5 minutes. As I type this through tears, I’m still recovering from the pain of paying $200 for a dental consultation this morning.
So…do I recommend living in Madrid? Absolutely! If there’s one thing I’d warn you about, it’d be to watch out for pick-pocketers, as they’re found pretty much in every popular city in Europe. Keep your belongings close to you and stay focused on your destination. That has to be my biggest complaint, but there are so many aspects to Spain that outweigh that problem. There’s so many aesthetic bars and restaurants, and the Jamon Iberico (Iberian Ham) was enough for me to give up my Pescatarian diet for good. It’s so nice taking a 1-2 hour plane ride to other places in Europe, as opposed to a ~9 hour flight. Usually people are very friendly and warm. The sights are jaw-dropping, and it was hard having a bad day there. There were so many moments when I was walking around, either after work or early in the morning on the weekends, where I’d think to myself “oh my goodness, I’m so lucky to be living in the most beautiful place EVER”. Needless to say, I will see Spain again very soon. </3
And now to our tarot card of the week!
Five of Cups reversed- I honestly feel a bit called out by this one. There may be a recent setback that has caused someone to feel a bit stuck in the mud, or at the very least, disappointed. With the current moon in Libra forming an opposition to Jupiter in Aries, our current thought cycles and patterns might get disrupted. This feeling of not being where you want to be in life won’t last forever-there are better days ahead. Make sure to give yourself some extra love as Mercury forms a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn. It’s no use to cry over spilled milk-allow yourself to feel your range of emotions, but remember to pick yourself up and remember who you are at the end of the day. The Chiron opposing Moon transit might make you want to crawl into bed and never leave when things don’t go your way, but slow and steady really does win the race! As long as you stay focused, you will achieve anything you set your mind to.
Take what resonates, and release what doesn’t! What do you all think? Let me know in the comments!
P.s. – I have a new cover song out on SoundCloud you can listen to here. Enjoy! 🙂
These adventures are so beautiful!
Ahh thank you!
This was such an amazing way to experience your time there! More Spain stories pls <3
Aw I’m so glad you read and enjoyed! I’ll be posting more Spain content for sure!!
This one was my favorite read yet! Oh the nostalgia and memories came rushing in like a river. Living in Spain was a top 5 moment of my lifetime. Wouldn’t change a thing. Hearing you talk about it makes me want to go back again!
I miss working with you! Spain was such a dream!