Dando de comer a los aves

I've never walked so much in my life! I decided to walk from my airbnb apartment in Hortaleza in northeastern Madrid all the way to El Parque de Buen Retiro in the south. It took me about three hours to get there. Although the walk was long, I was able to see Madrid from a pedestrian's perspective and catch some pretty neat views of the city. As my adventure continues, I'll post more pictures of Madrid.

Ok, so why did I go all the way to Retiro? I'm looking for a closer apartment to my school while at the same time living in the urban area. After looking at apartments on idealista.com, I mustered up some courage and called some people. I wrote down a script and then dialed away.

Call #1 went something like this...
Me: Hola.
Native Spanish Speaker (NSS): Hola.
Me: Estoy interesado a la habitación libre en su apartamento.
NSS: Lo siento... blah blah blah ya blah blah alquilado... blah blah blah
Me: Oh ok, muchas gracias.
NSS: Hasta luego.

So... yeah... Smiling and nodding doesn't quite work in this situation. With calls I really have to pay attention. Some people I spoke with talked so fast I could only catch the beginning or end of what they said.

Despite my lack of aural comprehension, the second apartment I saw is owned by a young Spanish guy who is also an English teacher. The apartment was pretty nice, it's close to public transit, seems fairly quite, and much better than the first apartment I saw.

I'm going to take a look at maybe 1 or 2 more apartments tomorrow. But I'm pretty sure I want apartment number 2.