Mi Bodeguita del Medio

While my blog is named after a restaurant in Havana I hope to someday visit, here you will find musings, rants, political incorrectness, thoughts on Indian Nationalism, and some straight-forward opinions.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Bon dia in Barcelona

I am back in Spain after 16 months and its a lot of mixed emotions. Best of all was to see my close friend and soul sister Mireia at the airport, along with her husband Nigel (bear hugs to you both if you are reading this!) More recently though, I was a bit overcome with sadness and lonliness, which I guess is normal when you find yourself alone at night in a hotel in a city you dont know your way around, and everything around you is new.

However the feeling of vulnerability disappeared this morning when I paid a visit to what will be my workplace starting Monday. I felt good and people from my department seemed nice and helpful. I was briefed about the kind of work I can expect to take on, and I think I will be learning a LOT here. Another good thing is that we are a very close knit department and managers work hands-on with staff, something that wasn't done at my previous workplace. After this morning's visit, I'm looking forward to my first day at work.

My apartment hunting process turned out to be so different from what I had anticipated. In a city like Barcelona, it can be a tough thing finding a suitable place to live, specially if you are going to share with someone. I am not sure if it was a stroke of luck; I found a place to live the same day I got here. This is so whacked that my conclusion is that this cannot be anything else but destiny. I'll explain why. I hadn't decided to meet this girl before getting here, rather I had another appointment to see another place a bit far out from where my targeted area was (close to work). Well, we (Nigel, Mireia and I) were walking down the street a few hours after I landed in town and left my stuff at the hotel, and I remembered to call another girl who'd written to me, just to see if it would be ok to see the place sometime that day, or maybe later. She told me the street and we decided to meet later on in the day. Then we noticed her street was round the corner. I called her back and said we were right there and if we could come by then. She said that worked even better, so we were at her place in 10 mins. Its a tiny little flat, like most flats in Spain, 20 minutes from my work place walking. All through our little meeting the vibes were positive and after talking to her for a while, the three of us left the flat with a unanimous consensus - YES!

My new flatmate is a 27 year old French girl who works as a journalist for a fashion magazine. She has been living in Barcelona for four years. In her free time she learns Bollywood dance (didn't know such a thing existed?) and has put in a request to her editor for a transfer to Mumbai. The living room is decorated with little Lord Ganesh images and her wallpaper had Aishwarya sitting in front of the Taj Mahal. She wants to learn Hindi and I want to get back into French (one of my projects for 2007). I cannot believe my luck. Or is it destiny?

1 comment:

  1. Of course it's destiny.. you know.. "Maktub"! :o)

    You're obviously reading all the signs well.. right from the time you've reached spain... and I hope you continue to do so..

    Read the signs and follow your heart. Then the Universe will give you what you need and want. :)

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