So I am beginning my third year abroad - my Erasmus year - tomorrow!! I will be spending September to Jan/Feb in the wonderful city of Madrid, before switching to a completely different way of life in Palermo, Sicily.
I am going to be studying at university in both cities (UAM in Madrid) and I'm ridiculously excited for what I keep being told is going to be the best year of my life!
I'm the sort of person who likes to leave packing (and everything else in my life) until the very last minute, just so I can cause myself the most amount of stress possible. So with roughly 18 hours until my flight I have yet to pack anything...apart from the 20 kilo bag that I packed and handed over to my boyfriend this morning (for when he comes out at the end of the week) full of shoes, books and a few of those ridiculously heavy beaded tops that I feel compelled to buy everytime Topshop or Miss Selfridge have a sale (you know the ones I mean, the ones that feel like you're wearing chainmail). So I am doing better than usual.
I have also already bought some Euros for when I land, which is a huge achievement for me as I usually arrive in foreign countries in a rather sticky situation, with no local currency and an automatic travel blocker on my debit card due to failing to inform my bank once again that I was going abroad.
But all this organising and ticking things off my list (so many things) has called for a tea break and my first blog post.
I have spent the past few days online looking at flats on idealista, enalquier and easypiso and have managed to create a small shortlist of around 100 apartments I would like to go and see when I arrive in Madrid.... obviously this is a little ridiculous and so I have booked myself into a cheap hotel near the centre with free wifi, and I plan on narrowing this list down to a much more manageable number tomorrow night and seeing how many viewings I can get in this week.
I'm looking to live around the Moncloa/Arguelles area as this seems to be a large student area and its also within walking distance of the centre and well connected by metros to the rest of the city. Fingers crossed I'll find something by the weekend as I've booked myself into the hotel until Saturday, but as I'm going out pretty early I'm fairly confident I will have it all sorted by then and will be free to do some sightseeing with my boyfriend over the weekend (making lists of things to do has also been prioritised over packing).
But at some point I am actually going to have to pack and if I don't want to still be doing it at 4am tomorrow morning (I am very, very easily distracted) then I should probably get a move on now. There are so many little things to remember like actually finding out my insurance details (I know the uni sent me an email about it somewhere...), finding my erasmus grant card (pretty important), making sure my passport is still somewhere in the house (I'm kidding mum), so I am going to go and write the packing list of doom - the one that I have to write everytime that contains every single thing that is to be put in my case/hand luggage so as not to forget every single thing I needed/wanted. The packing list is more of a chore than the actual packing itself.
Ok, maybe just one more tea before I start...
¡Hasta Luego!
