Isay Says:My Personal Tales: I love Madrid. I love Spain.. My second home..

By now, it is already a known fact that I am an Asian living here in Madrid, Spain. In my previous blog posts, I have talked about my adjustments. It was not a bed of roses but it has been a blessed, beautiful and challenging experience.

This blogpost is lovingly dedicated to my second home, Madrid, Spain who has openly accepted/adopted me as its own child. Though I maintain dual citizenship, I can say spending the last decade here in Madrid has been an eye opener and I am very grateful for this experience.

Madrid is the capital of Spain. It is huge, enormous city and I will only talk about my daily lifestyle and the beauty of being a Madrileño :) living in the city centre. :)

1. Madrid as Spain´s capital and as one of the biggest cities in Spain, provides professional opportunities. Many multinational companies have their satellite offices here in Madrid or in Barcelona. This is good because it provides options for us, skilles foreigners.

2. Although Madrid is also a melting pot as you can see a wide variety of races and nationalities and more and more people are inclined to speaking in English, it is still imperative to learn and speak Castellano. Madrileños/Spanish in general are very accommodating and helpful to foreigners learning Castellano.

3. The Madrid Community offers a wide variety of services to the citizens. We have bilingual public school system for pre-school, primary and middle school. From what I heard, university education is still affordable. Our taxes are still properly managed :) as we can still avail of public medical services through our social security. I would like to commend the public health system for the newborns, infants and children. Even if my son has a private insurance, we still go to the public health system because of its impeccable attention, service and protocol to childcare. The same applies to adults however, there is a longer queue. :) There are also public residences and services for older people. For younger adults, below 26 years old, they have discounts in their public transport cards.

4. The Madrid school system also offers services for families below a certain income bracket providing them financial assistance so that the children can avail of lunch in the school (this way, the parents´work schedule will not be disrupted) and discounts for the school supplies and materials.

5. Madrid has invested a lot in its public transport system. We have a very, mega efficient public bus, train (inter city, intracity and long trips), metro/subway transport systems. Prices are very reasonable compared to Italy and France. :) Schedules are usually complied to. This is very convenient for us, the working class who move around a lot using the public transport system.

6. Madrid is a clean, orderly, safe and secured city. We have our special numbers to call should there be cases of emergencies and the response rate is immediate. The Madrid city administration makes sure that the roadsweepers regularly clean the streets and that the public waste system is very reliable.

7. Although we do not have a beach here in Madrid, unlike in Barcelona, it is compensated with the parks that enable the people to enjoy picnics/sunbathing during the hot summer. We have the Retiro Park and Madrid Rio as two of our biggest and well maintained parks. Retiro Park can be the equivalent of Central Park of New York. Madrid Rio boasts of its man made water spring (chorros de agua) where the people can stay up all day and simply enjoy getting wet and refreshed with the water.

8. Department stores, Police stations, churches, medical clinics, hospitals, groceries, drugstores, schools, museums and other entertainment places (bars/resturants) are accesible in Madrid!!!

9. Madrid has its own brand/trademark for its nightlife. When my husband and I were younger and prior to our mortgage jajajaja, we did our fair share of the Madrid nightlife! Jejejejeje

10. Every Christmas season, people go crazy, jolly, cheery and all participative with the Loteria de Natividad (Christmas lottery) where a hefty amount of money is awarded to the winners!!!

11. Madrid is home to the well known Prado Museum, Templo de Debod, Royal Palace and Almudena Church, Plaza Mayor, Escorial, Las Rozas Shopping Village,  MAN: Museo Arqueologico Nacional Madrid to name a few. We also have the Gran Via which is equivalent to the Time Square/Fifth avenue of New York.

12. Madrid is a kid friendly city to raise your children. Aside from the quality education and reliable protocol for child care, Madrid has a big theme park (Parque de Atracciones), Madrid Zoo, Faunia, Museo de Ferrocaril and other treats to the children! There are so many educational options for children. During summer, summer camps are also available to enable the parents to continue working, manage their holidays and at the same time keep the children entertained and busy.

13. Madrid winter is light compared to other European countries! Certainly, we need to wear our winter coat, boots, etc but the sun is always up! On good winter nights, we are fortunate to have the sun still up until 630pm. There are days that we have sunny winter!! This is a big bonus for a tropical animal like me. Hehehehehe.

I am always proud to be a Filipino and my Filipino blood is always with me. But I will always be grateful to Madrid for all of the opportunities and new experiences that it is giving me and my family. I continue to hope and pray that in spite of the economic crisis (high rate of unemployment), corruption within the royal family and the public servants and other political issues surrounding the government, we will continue to enjoy our social and public services and that Spain will continue to be a great country especially for the next generations. So help us God!!

Here are some snapshots of the beautiful Madrid!!!