A Brief Update - I'm Still Alive”

Having now worked in my job for the best part of 2 months, and having been in Madrid for about 4 months (with a break in August) I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide a little update of my year, journey, life, whatever you wish to label it.

Can I speak Spanish?

First thing’s first, I’m glad to report I can in fact speak a decent amount of Spanish, albeit there is still a long way to go in the process of fluency. I work in an 8 person real estate firm (una inmobiliaria) who specialize in guiding their clients in investments, sale transactions, managing assets etc. Therefore, I obviously speak a fair bit of Spanish every day in the office, and from working between 9:30-7:30, the majority of my week is spent in a Spanish speaking environment, although my flat mate is English. It is nice to unwind in your own language at the end of a long working day. Despite the fact that I am only an intern nor have I had any proper kind of real estate experience in my life, I am still working on some interesting projects for the firm in the form of making informative brochures to give to their international investors, and soon I will be going along to some visits to understand the process of how the process of a purchase/sale works. This is almost s foreign to me as I am to Madrid.

Additionally, for those who are working now, or will be working in the future either on your Year Abroad or in general life, it is likely that you will come across one or two people in the workplace who you may not get on with, and sure enough, this has happened in my first long term internship. Between 2 partners, and 5 backroom staff,(excluding myself) almost everyone is perfectly pleasant, almost being the key word. Don’t get me wrong, we exchange pleasantries in the morning and occasionally when I leave the office, but he fails to understand that despite working in the same company, I simply do not have the same level of experience and expertise in this industry as you do (he looks extremely old but is probably about 45-50). He believes that everything is easy, and yes everything is easy to him when you’ve been doing it 25+ years. Ironically, he is the only one who speaks a good level of English so if I am stuck I have to ask him, and I can tell he is not impressed when I do, but it happens and I’m not afraid to ask. Fortunately, the actual boss of the backroom staff is much more understanding and he explains things in a much more simple manner, whereby it is much easier to understand, and even if he explains it a few times, he makes sure I understand it. I would extend this sentiment to anyone working. It is ok to ask again.

I have learned that it is more important to ask 10 times rather than think you understand the first time and make a mistake. Rather naively, this occurred on my first day and sure enough, I made a mistake. Now, even if I have to ask 10 or 20 times (over exaggeration) I don’t care, and they appreciate that I take extra time to double check. There was one occasion, where the man who I don’t get on with, asked me to deliver an envelope with cash inside as well as an invoice, which I had to get stamped and bring back to the office, which is exactly what I did. I sent a text to one of my other colleagues on my way just to double check. On return, I was greeted by an angry man (the colleague I don’t get on with) because despite the fact that I had done everything asked of me, I failed to bring back an empty envelope, yes an EMPTY envelope to the office, which was not mentioned in our previous conversation prior to my departure. I quickly realized that he was just looking for things to pick up on to basically ‘tell me off’. As a result, it prompted me to stand up for myself because why should I be made to look like a fool for doing exactly what was asked of me. I politely stood up for myself, and further to this, my other colleagues also leapt to my defense. Point proven.

Enough about work. I do enjoy being in Madrid, as its fairly similar to London in many ways. I am probably guilty of not seeing enough of the city on the weekends, however after a long working week, my flat mate and I are the type of people who love to lie in and watch the football all weekend, with a trip to the supermarket included in order to make sure that we see daylight. It is now the end of October and it is still 20 degrees, although the forecast is due to drop dramatically next week, and having been in constant sunshine for the best part of 6 months, I am unsure how my body will cope with the change back to UK weather.

I am coming back to the UK briefly in a couple of weeks, because I am craving some home comforts so that will help me adjust my body back to the cold as well. But for now, it’s goodbye to the heat (still sunshine) and hello to the warm winter jackets, and more work.