Moving from Germany to Spain is one of the best things I have ever done for myself and it is a decision I will never and could never regret. However there are a lot of little cultural things that I did not expect or think about before stepping foot on Spanish soil. So here is a compiled list of things that I wish I knew before moving to hopefully make the move easier for anyone else:
- The Pace of Life is very different
Everything starts and ends later. That goes for anything from social life to work life. The work or university schedule is set up entirely differently to the way it works in Germany. In Germany university will start in the morning, mostly around 10 am and then goes until the afternoon, around 4 pm. If it is a practice heavy class it may start at 8 am and go until 6 pm at the latest. In Spain classes rarely start before 2 pm. And they are usually longer, at least with the masters program.
Social Life is very spontaneous. Routines form easily and that’s what restaurants and cafes cater to. There is literally something for anyone, which makes it easy to have a good work-life-balance.
- Bureaucracy will test your patience
I really did not expect how uptight the Spanish are about paperwork and forms. This obviously doesn’t go hand in hand with anything I just said in 1) but that’s what makes any bureaucratic experience so horrifying. They are slow and it is almost impossible to get appointments. If you don’t have an appointment nothing is going to happen though. Then there is very conflicting information online that confuses newcomers. My biggest tip is to go through an agency. Yes, It is an extra expense but at least they can help you and know what you need. This is especially good if you don’t speak much Spanish because the agency will send someone to take you to your appointment.
Also another thing that can get frustrating is that everything depends on each other, you can’t open a bank account without a NIE and it’s a lot easier to get a NIE with a Spanish phone number, but you need a Spanish Bank account to get a phone number…. Yeah, Good luck.
- Finding a flat is a full on competition
The rental market is fast-paced here and you need to be very honest with yourself about what you can and cannot live without, because it’s very unlikely that you will find the perfect place on the first try. Priorities location over size, metro stations and public transportation connections and neighbourhood feeling. I moved to Sol due to the metro connections and its centrality but now I have to deal with huge crowds every single day and whilst there are many lines connecting both to Sol station and Opera station, the ones I actually need are not among them. If I were to move now I would probably try to move into the Salamanca neighbourhood. I would definitely recommend for masters students to try and move somewhere on line 10. That’s the perfect metro line because it goes to the Stadium, it goes to Cuatro Vientos and Colonial Jardin, which is the metro station you go to to get to university, and it goes to Charmartin which you will need if you are going to Ciudad Real Madrid.
*this post will be updated along the way
