BEDA Program Archives -

How We Get Around In Madrid

Before we left the United States to come to Madrid, I can’t tell you how many people asked me what I was going to do with my van, and if I was going to either rent or purchase a vehicle when we arrive in Spain.

The short answer to this question is that my middle son is currently driving/taking care of my van (at least I hope he is taking care of it), and we of course are not renting or purchasing a vehicle. Since Europe is notorious for their fabulous public transportation system, I knew that we would be utilizing this form of transport in Madrid.

Taxis and Uber: I have only taken a taxi once so far since our arrival in Madrid, and that was from the airport. I downloaded the Uber app (no, I had never used Uber in the states) when I wanted a slightly less expensive option of transportation after we left our AirBnb for our apartment. I didn’t want to take the Metro when we had heavy bags with us, and at this time I was still fairly green when trying to get around the city.

The Metro: We are on the Metro almost two hours a day five days a week with our commute to work and school. This has taken some getting used to, but for the most part it is the cheapest and most convenient way to travel around Madrid if you don’t have a personal vehicle.

There are mornings when I get fairly aggravated with taking the Metro everyday. The morning rush hour is typically the worst. During the morning rush hour, we are literally bumping into strangers and getting bumped into while trying to find a post to grab onto. Since I typically like my space, this caused me some slight anxiety at first. I figured I needed to just suck it up and deal, and that is what I do. 🙂 It is almost impossible to get a seat in the morning for the first seven stops. After we switch trains, we can usually find a seat because this particular train isn’t usually as crowded for some reason. You take the good with the bad, and there are times when the Metro can even be fun!

Public Transport Card (Abono): Scarlett and I were able to get a public transport card or Abono, for the Metro. The process for getting the card was fairly simple. I went to the website and made an appointment at the nearest Metro station that offers this service. We had to bring a copy of our passports plus the original. They asked a few questions, and we were on our way. Scarlett’s card is only 20 Euros a month, and mine is about 54 Euros a month since I am over the age of 26. I suppose 74 Euros a month isn’t that bad for transportation fees. I usually paid more than that for gas in the United States, and that didn’t include any maintenance on the vehicle.

Buses: There is also the option to take the bus, and the public transportation card can be used for this as well. We haven’t taken the bus yet, but I have spoken to people who like the bus better. We may try the bus one of these days, but at the moment we have our route down and it is working for us.

Walking: We definitely walk more here in Madrid compared to when we were in America. Personally, I think this is a wonderful thing. When we get off of a stop, we typically have to walk anywhere from five to ten minutes to reach the final destination. Of course there are times when we opt to take the “scenic route” and skip the train altogether!

Do I Miss Driving?: Yes! We have been here for two and a half months, and this is the longest I have gone without driving in a very long time! I don’t miss sitting in rush hour traffic, but I do miss driving. In fact, that is one of the main things I miss about the U.S. However, I think that the Metro is a very efficient way to travel, and I think that it would be worthwhile for most metropolitan cities in the U.S. to implement such a system.

Keeping Up With Your Favorite TV Shows While Abroad!

One of the thrills of traveling overseas is immersing yourself in a completely different culture. However, there are times when you just want to curl up on the couch or in bed and watch a familiar television series from home.

Before we left, I purchased a VPN called Ipvanish for 10 dollars a month, but discontinued it after only being in Madrid for two weeks. The main reason for discontinuing my VPN subscription was because it didn’t always work. There were several times in the first two weeks when I would try to log into my Netflix account using a U.S. server that the VPN had provided, only to receive a lovely message stating that “It looks as though you are using a proxy server to view this program. Please correct this in order to continue viewing this particular program.” This was beyond frustrating, but luckily Netflix in Madrid has several television shows and movies to choose from. While I may not be able to get my dose of “The Office” humor every now and then, I am still able to enjoy “The Gilmore Girls,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Modern Family,” “Stranger Things,”and several others. I use the same Netflix login I use in America. The difference is that the internet server tracks the location as Madrid and we have a different line up of shows in our queue.

I’m unsure why there are different shows available to stream in Madrid, but we have become accustomed to it. The American shows and movies that are available are all in English. “Zootopia” is available, and it is in English, but the title is changed to “Zootropolis.” There are a few small differences that we noticed while watching it in Spain such as the printing on the mayor’s coffee mug. In America it is in English, and the print is in Spanish here in Madrid. I found that interesting especially since the dialogue is still in English. 🙂

Here are two photos to show the differences in the coffee mugs in the movie “Zootopia.” The English text is from a YouTube clip, and the Spanish text is from my Netflix account here in Madrid.

These differences are so interesting to me because both movies are shown in English, but they have these subtle differences. You have to admit, this is kind of cool!

I am a member of Amazon Prime, and although I am unable to stream the free Prime television shows that are offered due to my “geographical location,” I am able to purchase episodes of television shows that are currently airing in America. I also have the option to purchase the full series should I choose to do so.

We have caught up on our guilty pleasure show “Survivor” and the current season was only around $25. It is actually pretty cool because once you purchase the season, you can watch the latest episode the day after it airs. This is very similar to how Hulu works in the states, but unfortunately it is a bit more expensive. There is also an option to purchase individual episodes for about $1.99 to $2.99 an episode. The next series I plan to purchase is the newest season of “The Walking Dead,” but I have not yet done so since it is priced at around $42 for the season. I love the show, and I’m looking forward to seeing it, but that seems a bit pricey to me. I may wait until it the newest season comes out on Netflix, but who knows?

Between Netflix and Amazon we have our Television basics covered. Although we don’t binge watch shows 24/7, it is comforting to have that option. After all, it is getting colder and cuddling up underneath a blanket and watching something familiar is sometimes needed after a long day.

I am Exhausted – Getting Used to My New Teaching Role

As you may have guessed, these past two weeks have been incredibly busy as I have been getting acclimated into my new role as a Language Assistant/English Teacher here in Madrid.

School Hours: In Madrid, the children begin school in September, but they don’t have full days until October. They begin the day at 9 a.m. and get out between 1 and 1:15 p.m.

In October, the hours are 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Lunch is from 1 p.m. until 2:30, then classes re-convene from 2:30 until 4:15 p.m. This is my schedule in October, and Scarlett’s is slightly different with a 30 minute difference in her lunch schedule. Her school gets out at 12:30, so I will walk over and pick her up as soon as I am finished. This makes it a bit inconvenient, but at least we will be able to eat lunch together everyday and get a nice break.

Taking the Train: The subway, or Metro as it is called here in Spain, is a very efficient form a transportation. However, it does get old when it takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to get to your destination each morning. It took us a few times taking the route to figure out exactly when we needed to leave each morning, but if we leave by 8 a.m. we can usually get there on time. We live in the area called La Latina in Madrid, which is close to the city center, and our schools are in a town outside of the center. We have about 14 stops we have to go through each morning to arrive at our destination, and this includes switching trains for a different line.

Teaching: I teach at a bilingual school, and grades first through fifth have bilingual classes. They have both English and Science classes taught completely in English.

Since my title is a language assistant, I need to have a teacher in the room with me although I am teaching most of the classes on my own during my scheduled hours. The first week I mainly observed, and showed the classes a Power Point presentation about myself. I had a few photos of me and my children, and a couple of theatre photos, etc. to show my hobbies and talents.

Since this is my first time teaching in a formal teaching environment, I am getting used to planning lessons. Since I am teaching via the BEDA program, I have to attend a certain amount of classes during my time in Madrid. So far, I have found these to be extremely helpful since the classes are all about how to teach and plan lessons. This program is a wonderful way to gain teaching experience while living abroad while also getting paid.

Blessings Among Chaos: There is definitely a learning curve to being an English teacher overseas, and there have been a few frustrations during my first two weeks of teaching. There are a couple of classes that just don’t seem interested, or even respectful, but when I see the children in the hall and I am greeted with a smiling, “Hello Amie!” it warms my heart. When the children randomly come up to give me a hug, I think that perhaps I am doing something right.

My teaching goal this year is to help the children enjoy learning English. I don’t want them to hate it. As I continue learning Spanish, I know very well how frustrating it can be when it is difficult to communicate.

Scarlett seems happy so far with her school although she is in a class with students who don’t speak Spanish, and only one other student speaks English. Her class is a welcome class that is basically only teaching her Spanish. She said that everyone has been nice and friendly so far, and that thrills me to hear.

We have both had a few ups and downs since our move to Madrid, and we are still getting settled after living here for one month. I remember thinking that it probably won’t be until November before we feel completely settled here in Madrid, and that seems to be the case. Moving anywhere can be daunting, but packing up and completely moving to a different country and culture can be both frustrating and exciting. Both have proven to be accurate! There are days when I am thrilled to be here and wake up feeling blessed that I have this opportunity. There are other mornings when I find myself questioning the sanity of my choice to move here for the umpteenth time. All in all, we are happy with the decision and looking forward to the learning experience this next year brings.

3 Weeks In Madrid! Apartment Hunts, School and More!

Finding Our Apartment: I have been promising a blog with the details about our apartment hunt, and here it is.

Apparently finding an apartment in Madrid is very similar to finding an apartment while living in New York City. While I have personally never lived in NYC, I have a few friends who have shared their experiences, and there are a couple of people here in Madrid from NYC who have agreed that the Madrid apartment hunt is very similar. Yikes!

When I applied for the Beda program, I knew that I would have to find living accommodations for both myself and Scarlett on my own, and was told that it would be rather easy upon arrival. I was told to “just use the several apartment listing services such as idealista.com, fotocasa.com, etc,, and you will have no problem!” While there are several listings, I found that it is virtually impossible to get anyone to get back in touch with you.

Let me back up a bit. We arrived in Madrid on August 28th and had an Airbnb for a week. When I first rented the Airbnb while we were still in Nashville, I was told that if we liked the room we would be able to extend our rental. After only being in Madrid for one day, and virtually no contact from any of the landlords I had contacted, I contacted the owner of the Airbnb via the message app, and told her we would probably need to extend for at least a week. Her reply, “We have clients checking in the day you check out.” Okay….so much for seeing if I like the room. It was time to get serious. Since I had my daughter with me, I didn’t really feel up to going from one Airbnb to the next for nine months, not knowing who the hell is going to be coming and going. Yes, the title of my blog is titled Free Spirited Single Mom, but free-spirited or not, I am a very responsible and good mother.

My contact at the school was helping by calling some of the apartments since she speaks both English and Spanish, but she was finding a lot of people who weren’t answering. I decided to try a different route and put search for “apartments in Madrid” on Google. A few Craigslist ads came up. I figured I would give it a try, and I saw one in the city center that was beautifully decorated with the colors that Scarlett and I adore! It didn’t have a bathtub or an extra bedroom; it was a studio with a sectioned off area. At this point I was thinking a beautifully decorated studio in the city center was much better than a random room somewhere every other week, so I messaged the landlord. She got back to me within a day, and as luck would have it, she spoke English! She was very apprehensive about Scarlett and I sharing a studio, but I told her the same thing about it being much better than sharing ONE ROOM in some random place with strangers coming and going every couple of weeks. To make a long story short, we went to see the place, LOVED it, and have been living here for two weeks! Studio or not, it is actually very comfortable, and we are getting very used to living in the city! It is kind of a nuisance taking the metro about 35 to 40 minutes to our schools in the mornings, but we are adapting.

Enrolling my daughter in school: Once we got the apartment situation worked out, I was feeling a bit of relief. Perhaps this wasn’t some horrible idea to move to Europe after all. We have a place to live and Scarlett will be going to the same school where I will be teaching. WRONG! The moment I started to feel more relaxed, I received a message from my contact at the school asking for Scarlett’s birthdate. I gave her the information, (I am certain I conveyed her age when we were contacting one another when I was still in Nashville, but whatever.) She got back to me and told me that Scarlett wouldn’t be able to go to the school that I am going to be teaching because she is “too old to go into 6th grade in Spain.” I have mentioned the pain of bureaucracy here in Spain before, right? We were getting schooled on it big time within our first two weeks. I was ready to scream and cry, but I am happy to say, I didn’t do either. I was told that I might have to enroll her in a public high school. Yeah, I wasn’t going to do that. For starters, she is not ready for high school. She would be going into the 6th grade in the United States. In Spain, High School, or Secondary School starts with 7th grade. If it were a bilingual school, and they thought she was ready for 7th grade, I might consider it, but I was not going to enroll her in a public high school in Spain that had no bilingual program at all. I was ready to use my round trip ticket and fly back to the U.S. I wanted to begin a life in Europe, but not at the expense of my daughter’s well-being.

I decided to see what was offered before making any rash decisions: I had to go to a place called the SAE Instituto Simancas which is a school that has a government building next door. This is where you have to go if you change residency, want to change your child’s school, etc. Since I don’t speak fluent Spanish, and apparently have forgotten everything I thought I knew upon arriving here, trying to follow directions when you have no idea what you are doing is pretty daunting.

As luck would have it, the assistant head mistress of the school connected to the SAE speaks fluent English and was a wonderful help. I was told that since Scarlett doesn’t speak any Spanish, she would need to enroll in a school that has a “welcoming class.” From what I have gathered, this type of class is similar to those in the United States that assist non-English speaking students. Yes, it is interesting being on the other side of the spectrum. I was told that I could ask for her to be placed near my work, but it is not guaranteed.

After waiting in line at the SAE office with several other parents, I found out I was able to bypass this line since I had a paper with an appointment time on it. There were several angry parents that didn’t like to wait in line, but the gentleman in charge explained that anyone that has an appointment needs to come inside. Apparently most people dislike waiting in lines no matter what culture you happen to find yourself in.

She was assigned a school: We finally got a school officially assigned to her, and I am so grateful that it is literally about a two to three minute walk from where I will be teaching! It is a semi-private Catholic school, and she seems happy with it so far. Interestingly enough, after she tested, they are keeping her in 6th grade (I know what is best for my child), and it is another school that participates in the BEDA program as well.

This three weeks has proven a bit challenging, but I think we are finally getting settled. I start my job this week. Stay tuned for updates on my teaching adventures!

We Got Our Visas! (A Step By Step Guide to the Visa Application Process)

After receiving the news that I was accepted as a language assistant in Madrid, I knew that both my daughter and I would have to apply for visas. Thinking that this would be about as painless as obtaining a United States Passport, I soon realized that this was not the case.

Tip: If you are planning on traveling to Europe, a passport will only suffice for the first 90 days. After that, you will need to obtain a visa. Since we will be in Madrid for at least nine months, we had to go through the entire visa application process.

The Visa Application Process: Since I had to get several documents together for both myself and my daughter, this ended up turning into quite the endeavor. Hopefully this step by step process will help those who have questions about obtaining a dependent visa for their children.

When applying for a visa for Spain, it is important to first find out which particular consulate you will need to visit for the state in which you reside. Since I am in Tennessee, I had to go to Houston, Texas. Yep, you read that correctly. I had to drive 12 hours from Nashville, TN to Houston, TX in order to get my visa. (I checked into flying, but since I had to bring Scarlett with me in order to apply for her dependent visa, it was more cost efficient to drive.) The Spanish Consulate in Houston services the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

I was fairly salty that Chicago is only an eight our drive from me, yet I couldn’t go there to apply for our visa. Oh well, bureaucracy is everywhere I suppose.

Getting the Paperwork In Order: There are several items you will need in order to apply for a visa. Depending on the type of visa you need, these items can vary slightly. The two visas that Scarlett and I applied for were a student and a dependent visa.

Student Visa: First, I had to get a state background check and get it apostille sealed from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office. You will also need to show a valid passport, driver’s license or state ID, two recent, passport sized photos, an acceptance letter from your program, proof that you will be getting paid, proof of medical insurance in Spain, and a medical certificate from your doctor stating that you are free and clear of all contagious and communicable diseases.

Your medical certificate must include the following: The patient has been examined and found free of any contagious or infectious diseases according to the International Health Regulation 2005. Otherwise it will not be accepted. Getting the correct medical certificate was one of the biggest headaches I ran into, which was surprising since I have a clean bill of health. However, when I realized the wording wasn’t exact on the first certificate I received, I got a lot of push back from the doctor to edit the letter. I’m still not certain why she was so weird about it, but to make a long story short, I ended up going to an entirely different doctor and getting my medical records transferred. Luckily, they expedited this process, but what a headache!

Dependent Visa: If you are bringing children with you on your move overseas, you will need to get a dependent visa for them. If you are traveling solo with your child, there are a few extra documents you will need in order to get everything organized. If both parents are going to accompany the child, then it will be a bit easier, but it isn’t unthinkable if you are a single parent household.

Since I’m divorced, I had to get a power of attorney that both my ex-husband and I signed while in front of a notary public. This basically stated the country we will be living in, along with the dates, and any other countries we might be traveling to. It is essentially a “permission slip” from her dad stating that I have permission to take her out of the country. This sounds a little inconvenient, but it is a good thing to have even if you are only traveling out of the country alone with your child for a short period of time.

I also had to apply for a new birth certificate for my daughter since it has to be dated within three months of the visa appointment, and I had to get this apostille sealed. Along with these documents, I also had to get a letter from the insurance company stating that she will be covered while in Spain, and she had to get a medical certificate clearing her of all infectious diseases with the same wording listed above. Along with all of these documents, I also had to get her birth certificate with the apostille seal and the power of attorney translated in Spanish by a certified translator. I used The Spanish Group, and they were fast, courteous, and got me the certified translations I needed.

The Appointment: The Houston Consulate doesn’t accept walk in appointments, so it is imperative that you make an appointment on their website. I had to make two separate appointments for myself and my daughter. The payment for the student visa is $160, and the dependent visa for a child is $140. They don’t accept debit or credit cards, so you will need a money order to process this payment.

Everything seemed to go well until we were called back up to the window and I was informed that my daughter’s proof of medical insurance wasn’t going to be sufficient. The letter stated that she would be covered “overseas,” but they wanted it to clearly state that she will be covered “in Spain.” Remember that part I mentioned before about bureaucracy? My heart sunk knowing that I wouldn’t be able to complete this trip to Houston again due to financial restraints and timing. Luckily, if you need to amend a document, they give you about 10 days and the option to fax it. After several dead end phone calls to get this corrected, I was finally able to get in touch with someone who was able to get me the correct wording on the proof of insurance letter!

Visa Arrival: If you are not able to physically go back to the Consulate to pick up your visas when they are ready, you will need to bring a pre-paid, self addressed, stamped, priority or express USPS mail flat envelope and take it with you to your appointment. They will use this envelope to mail the visas back to you. They will keep your passport, and attach the visa to the passport.

Leaving our passports in Houston was a little disconcerting, but we didn’t have a choice if we wanted to get our visas. I received an email on Monday from the consulate letting me know that the visas had been approved, and we received them in the mail along with all of our original documentation, on Thursday. Now that we have them in hand, I can breathe a little easier and concentrate on finishing up all of this packing!

Nice to Meet You!

Hello: My name is Amie, and it is my hope that my experiences will not only entertain in some fashion, but will also serve to compel those who may feel stuck in some way to realize that it is possible to live life and be happy. My daughter and I will be moving to Madrid, Spain in a few weeks, and it has been a stressful and exciting process, but one that I hope to share with you.

A Little Family Background: I have three children, two that are now legal adults, and one that is always by my side. My relationship with my daughter, age 12, is synonymous to that of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore of “The Gilmore Girls.” Honestly, that is usually the best similarity I can come up with when it comes to describing our mother/daughter bond.

As many before me have done, I got pregnant at 19, married to my son’s father at 20, got pregnant with his brother three years later, had our baby girl six years after that, had a whole lot happen in between, and got divorced in 2010 after 13 years of marriage. Whew! Say that ten times! Without going into too much detail in my intro blog, let me just say that it was my choice, and it was something that needed to occur. My ex and I are completely opposite people, with opposite views on virtually everything under the sun. With that being said, our working relationship regarding the legalities and custody arrangement of the children has always been stellar for the most part, and I consider myself very fortunate.

Work and School: I went to college later in life and graduated in 2013 with my Bachelor’s degree in journalism. Thinking that since I free-lanced for a couple of news publications and a foodie magazine in Austin, TX before graduation, plus reporting for the criminal courts in Middle Tenn., I just “knew” I was going to get flooded with job offers. Flash forward to today, and well, here I am, and I am still not reporting for a newspaper on my way to winning a Pulitzer!

After graduating, I worked for the State of Tennessee for almost a year, then took a job working from home as a customer service agent, and within that year and a half got a promotion as an escalations supervisor. I decided to apply to law school as this is something I had been working towards for a while now after having taken the LSAT a couple of years before. I got accepted, and went for a year, but the tuition got the best of me, and student loans weren’t an option this time around. During one of my summer breaks, I took a job at a law office that did eviction law, and that was hands down one of the most awful jobs that I have ever had. I thought that having a job at any law office would be great experience, but I was sadly mistaken. That wasn’t the type of law I wanted to practice at all. I wanted to be a criminal defense attorney, and after leaving that job, I started thinking long and hard about how I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

Embracing My Free-Spirited Nature: My first instinct as I was looking for another place of employment was to start packing and put our belongings in storage when our lease was up so that we can move to Europe. However, after doing more research I soon found out that you need a visa and can’t just move to Europe without a plan.

The light bulbs began flashing as a more realistic approach to traveling on a budget began to take form in my thought process. How do I obtain an ESL teaching certificate? There are several ways, and I opted to try the online course. I will go into this more later, and explain the pros and cons of both, but so far it has been positive and I was even offered a teaching position in Vietnam but I turned it down. My heart and spirit have been yearning to visit to Europe, but it is much harder to get a job in Europe if you aren’t an EU citizen.

I was, however, able to find out how to apply to become a teaching assistant in Spain. My next few posts will delve into the application process and interview as well as all of the excitement and stress of this process of moving to Madrid.

Stay tuned for our crazy, non-traditional lifestyle!