Another month of living here in Madrid is almost over and I am still absolutely loving it! November has been a particularly busy month for me and here are a few reasons as to why…
Getting legal documents:
One of the last things on my to-do list from moving here was to apply for the appropriate legal documents I needed in order to spend my year studying in Spain. As I am staying here for longer than three months, this consisted of getting two – an NIE and an Empadronamiento.
The Empadronamiento is a document which makes you a citizen of the city; this was advised to get by CityLifeMadrid. They said it can act as extra proof of my time spent living here; that this could potentially help my case if I ever wanted to move here permanently or if I wanted to get married here etc. I also think it could be useful for future employers to see, as proof I spent a whole year in Madrid, showing I am culturally aware.
The NIE document is a mandatory one to get as it allows you to reside legally in Spain for longer than three months as an EU citizen.
After booking appointments online to collect these documents and after filling in some forms and gathering all the correct data needed for the appointments, I finally got my NIE document on the 7thNovember and will get my Empadronamiento one this coming Friday.
Learning the Spanish language:
Ever since I knew I was coming to live here in Madrid I knew I wanted to improve my Spanish language knowledge. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a beginners’ class in Spanish in my first year at Coventry University through the Linguae Mundi programme, so it was lucky when I ended up coming to Spain for my Erasmus year! I practiced my Spanish using the DuoLingo app over my summer holidays before moving here, but found it was not that helpful as it had limiting practice constraints before you had to pay some money for using it.
For my Erasmus year, Coventry University has come to my rescue again with this issue by inviting me to the Erasmus+ OLS online language course programme for Spanish. It is an online forum which teaches you the language in every sense of the word, for free! Firstly, you take a test to determine which level you are at and then they assign you the challenges and tasks to suit your ability. They also offer live tutoring sessions and it is available until I finish my study year here! I have found this to be very useful as an in-between activity to pass the time and help improve my Spanish whilst living here. Since having visitors come, I have realised just how much I have improved and how much I know just from living in Madrid every day, too.
I have ended up being too busy this semester, however, I am planning to have proper Spanish tutoring lessons after Christmas as I would like to be at a moderate level before I leave, as it is such a valuable life skill to have and the language is fairly widely spoken internationally. Additionally, I believe it is important to make an effort to learn the native language of your environment if you move to a new place, not only to be able to operate within it but also to appreciate the culture and I would like to believe this skill will benefit me in the creative industries and my future career.
A visit from my family meant new experiences:
I have had a considerable amount of visitors this month including my family which was really lovely. It was very reassuring when they commented on how much Spanish I had picked up on since living here and how much I knew. They said how I was able to communicate with others, understand what people were saying and what the written language often meant (for example, on menus and street signs). To touch on what I was discussing above, it goes to show that my effort of learning the language is working, partially simply by just living in the country!
When my family visited, they were all very clear that they wanted me to have new experiences and see new places within Madrid as well as me showing them the must-see aspects of the city. I really appreciated this and rightly took full advantage of it!
Here’s a little list of the new places and experiences we had:
1. San Jerónimo el Real church
This church was on my to-see list before moving to Madrid, it is a beautiful Roman Catholic church from the early sixteenth century. It’s definitely a magnificent form of architecture to go and admire.
2. The Tabacalera
This is an art museum and exhibition space located in Lavapies. When we went it was full of very modern and quirky art, as well as some decent photography, which I was interested in. The above photos show some of the work I saw there; I particularly admired how the film prints had been displayed in the sinks to give the impression as though they were still developing in a darkroom. This is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a while and will definitely go back to, it was very inspiring and motivating to go to such an environment, provoking me to think about my own future photographic works.
3. Teleférico de Madrid
We chose as a family, despite my Mum’s dismay, to brave the gondola lift which runs through Madrid. My brother found the activity online as a ‘must-do’ event, it looked like it took a beautiful route through the city (which it did), so we decided to go for it! Opened in nineteen sixty-nine, the line is two thousand, four hundred and fifty-seven metres long and links the Parque del Oeste with the Casa de Campo park; each ride taking roughly eleven minutes. Both parks are beautiful in themselves so it was wonderful to be able to admire the views on both sides. The views from the cable car on each journey were amazing and very different to others I have seen, for example, to a rooftop bar – the river and greenery of the city all looked very picturesque. Like many things in Madrid, this was very reasonably priced at only €6 per person return trip!
4. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
My Mum was particularly keen to visit the Reina Sofia, being an artist herself. She was especially interested in seeing a lot of Picasso’s work and his Guernica painting. We went on a Sunday so that all our admissions were free (some museums have this policy here in Madrid). There is a lot of very impressive art to go and see in there including Picasso’s; it was amazing to see so much of his work up close and the vastness and scale that is his Guernica. The museum itself is a magnificent building with modern construction design.
5. Temple of Debod
This ancient Egyptian temple imported and rebuilt in Madrid might not be the most exciting thing to go and see but the views are definitely worth going for! Overlooking The Royal Palace, it is the perfect place to come and see the sunset as my family and I did.
University tasks:
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am still finding that the university modules are not stimulating academically but they are technically and I am using this to my advantage. I have used the past two tasks as opportunities to improve and add to my portfolio. I have done this by fully planning and executing fashion/portrait shoots with models to complete the tasks within the realms of my own independent shoots. I am happy that I am able to do this to improve my technical skills set for the tasks, e.g: depth of field, make new friends and contacts within the university and advance on my skills in fashion and portraiture photography. Although the technical aspects can be challenging, this is definitely benefiting me and improving my photography skills. Also, the fact that the university course is less academic than Coventry means there are no tutorials, so I have to think and develop my ideas independently a lot more too which is also a beneficial challenge for me. This is very different and a refreshing change to me from the structure and way of working on my Coventry course – I would not normally have time to be experimental and conduct my own fashion/portrait shoots alongside developing a project whereas here I am able to.
Here are some final edits from recent shoots I have done, alongside completing the university tasks:
1. Studio shoot
2. On location shoot
As you can see, I have had a pretty manic November but I wouldn’t swap it for anything. I feel so lucky to be doing this Erasmus year; some friends and I have made the most of living in the European continent too by booking a Christmas-themed trip to Berlin in December!