57 | Living vs Travelling Abroad
Hey Friends,
This week, I released a video -> Is MADRID Europe's GREENEST City? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 👂 👀
All admin stuff has been sorted in the UK, so I’m now officially living in Madrid so from now on you’ll start seeing more and more content about Spain, not just from the lens of a tourist but from somebody who’s actually living there. In a way similar to what I was doing while living in London.
On Friday I had my appointment at the Police station for the NIE (Foreigners' Identity Number). This is the single most important thing when coming to live in Spain as without it, you won't be able to open a bank account, getting a mobile number (with a plan) and a bunch of other things such as internet and utilities. Of course, you can still use your passport for some of these things but tax changes and it's a longer process if you don't have the NIE. Bottom line, if you ever plan to live in Madrid or anywhere in Spain, just get your NIE first and life will be easier.
As you know, I travelled many times to Madrid in the past but I always have the same experience with other trips. Living is completely different. I like to think of it as a video game where we keep unlocking different levels.
Travelling is about being in a foreign place for an extended period of time (days, weeks or even months). Personally when travelling I'm a bit in a rush, because you know you’re only going to be in a certain place for a short period of time so you wan't to maximise by eating in the “best” place, experiencing the “best” places, do the “must” things and so on. It ends up being a to-do list that you need to complete across multiple trips “one day”.
Living abroad is different as at some point you start thinking like a local. You start paying taxes, working in that system, seeing other things on a day-to-day basis that we miss when being tourists… even if we visited that same town/city multiple times. There's a point in time that there's no more “this is good or bad" and it becomes “this is it”.
So at what point are you a foreigner, and at what point are you a local? Is it time, ethnicity, being born there? What is it? I don't really know. But my approach is to treat the place where I live as if it was my own city. In other words, living abroad as if it was “home”. But what is really home? Let's leave that for another time as moving countries activated my hidden philosophy haha.
Have a great week!
Alejandro
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🎯 This Week’s Quote
“I have never been to a city where there are fewer reasons to go to bed and if I did go to bed, to sleep.”
By Ernest Hemingway about Madrid
🐦 This Week’s Tweet
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🎙️ This Week’s Podcast
How We Got our Grid and How We Get a Better One
By How To Save A Planet
You can listen to the full episode here.
Wind and solar are now some of the cheapest ways to make electricity. So, what’s standing in the way of using more of these renewable energies? One of the biggest barriers is something all around us that we rarely notice – our electricity grid. Not just the wires and technology that make up the grid, but also the people and institutions that run it.
✍️ This Week's Blog Post
Upon entering the station, I was surprised to find a tropical garden surrounded by iron and glass. So I wanted to talk about this crazy experience in Atocha Station in Madrid, Spain.
Read more: An Indoor Jungle in Madrid
🎥 This Week's Video
I needed to make a video about the beautiful green Atocha station in Madrid. Is this the greenest train station in the world? Here's the video.
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