My transition to Spain has been tough. I know, my transition was rocky to Costa Rica, Poland and even to Milano, but Madrid has been exceptionally difficult. I blame COVID.

That’s so easy to say this year, let’s just blame it all on COVID. But seriously.

My Spanish classes are online… my English classes are online… and though restaurants and bars are open, it’s not fun sitting outside in the cold drinking a beer alone. I took my life into my own hands a few weeks ago and went to a Spanish-English language exchange Meetup, where we followed COVID guidelines of max 6 people per table. I met some nice folks, one of whom contacted me to practice her English. We’ve been meeting regularly for a hot beverage and Spanglish in the early evenings, but then we both had a sore throat on the same day and I got the fear of God right fast. So now I’m back to being paralyzed to go out, even though people here are militant and even hall-monitor-esque about wearing masks.

My visa is good through Sept and all my official activities are online, so I actually almost packed up my bags and moved to Milan to stay with my friend and travel buddy. But the travel and socializing regulations are much more stringent in Italy and my friend lives in a studio, so we would be unable to get away from each other except in the bathroom. So I stayed in Madrid.

Now I’m toying with the idea of leaving Madrid for a Mediterranean beach. It’s 10F warmer and the rent is half the price of Madrid for twice the space. I have a friend and her dog who might also want to spend COVID in a beach town, so that could be the next big idea.