La Loca Landlady

Well, folks I 've done it again. I've moved for the second time (3rd apartment) since I've been in Spain. As you may remember, I moved in December to an apartment right across the street from one of my elementary schools and quite close to the other. At the time, it seemed like a great decision. Sure, I was once again paying a lot to share a house (300 euros) but I thought to be close, since I dont have a car here, to my 2 schools and to my private classes would make my life much easier. I also liked that the apartment seemed very clean, the kitchen was well stocked with all the utensils a self-proclaimed chef would need and my room had a leather couch in it. I pictured having all the privacy in the world, where me and Jesus could watch movies as we snuggled on the couch in my room and we could cook our fun international dinners that we like to prepare together while drinking beer or wine. But all in a respectful, mature manner of course. That was the fantasy. Now let's move on to how it really unfolded.

When I answered the add for the new apartment on easypiso.com, the add said "shared bedrooms for rent". This struck me as odd considering that she was asking the steep price of 300 euros. She answered back saying that "No, I only rent individual rooms to one person at a time." Okay, so that was settled. Just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be bunking with someone else for 300 euros.

When I went to look at the place, I should have known something was odd because she brought it up to me that she doesn't rent to couples and that if someone wanted to rent a room from her and wanted their partner to be staying there on the weekends from out of town that she would charge them more rent. She told me that she had had that situation before and she plans on charging more money for that sort of thing. I said "Oh, thats okay, I dont plan on living with my boyfriend at this point. We are not at that point yet in our relationship. He lives with his parents in a nice house and is still finishing school and is where he needs to be. BUT, I do have to be honest that YES, my boyfriend would come over and watch movies with me and sometimes spend the night. But not all the time because he is busy with kickboxing and school and goes out of town a lot for kickboxing. But I just want you to know that yes, I do have a boyfriend here in town and he will be with me sometimes etc, etc. " She responded with "Or in exchange for letting your boyfriend stay here, you could give me english classes. I used to go to the English academy here and had a really high level of English. But after all these years of not speaking, I have lost a lot of it." I said "Okay, we could do a conversation class once a week, every Friday where we have coffee and we can speak in English." Done deal. In my mind that meant, that I could live normally and every once in awhile Jesus could spend the night and could come over when he pleases to have dinner with me or watch a movie and if he was beginning to stay a lot, then I would have to either pay or give her classes. Although I planned on doing this conversation class once a week just to keep her happy and quiet.

So, for Christmas break all the roomates left town to go spend the holidays with their families in other parts of Spain. So Isabel, the landlady who also happens to live there, comes up to me and says, "If you want Jesus to come over and stay with you, now is the time. Now that everyone is gone, you should take advantage of it and I dont mind if he is here at all." I still didn't want to take advantage exactly of the situation but then again, she said it. Anyhow, we spent my birthday picnicking in the countryside, then Jesus took me to the physical therapists that evening and we ended up back at my place for dinner and a movie. And of course, he stayed the night...it was my birthday and I had the go-ahead. Christmas Eve we spent at his aunt's house until midnight, then slept at my place and he got up in the morning and left. The 26th I went to Barcelona and Jesus went to Granada. We got back on New Year's Eve and spent that night at his parents house. I was sick with what turned out to be a 3 week sinus infection, so Jesus brought me home, tucked me in and went out like he had planned with his friends.

A week or so after the break ended and everyone was back home, Jesus spent the night but Isabel had no way of seeing him. He came late and my room is the first bedroom as you enter the house and Isabel's room, living room and bathroom are at the back of the house. He never left my room and left before anyone was awake to be respectful. That morning Isabel tells me "Has Jesus left? He has spent the night 4 nights now (in a month's period of time mind you). I am thinking about charging you 10 euros a night for every night that he sleeps here. And when are you gonna give me my English lessons? If the others see that you have someone over, they are going to think that they can have someone over and I dont want a house full of people. So I am not going to charge you but I am going to tell the other roomates that you are paying me more money to have Jesus here." I said "But, you told me it was okay for him to come during Christmas break and we can do the English classes whenever. I told you Fridays work good for me but you always have something else going on." She said, "If you want to have your boyfriend over you need to ask permission from the other roomates." Huh? I said "Well, what if he is just coming to eat dinner?" She said "Well, then you need to give us a day's notice." Wow!! Okay. "And what if I am hanging out with my friend Juliana and we are far from her house and we get hungry and decide to come to my place to eat something, then what?" She says "Well, if you do it very descreatly and you guys stay in your room, it would be okay." I started to get the feeling that she may like to just make up the rules as she goes along while contradicting herself and trying to control every move in the household.

Every week I would ask her if she was ready for her English lesson and every week was a different excuse like "I dont feel good or I dont feel like it. Can we do it tomorrow?" We ended up only following through with one lesson the entire time but I tried every week to set it up.

She got mad when I took all the blankets off the furniture that she had put on because she said the furniture cost her lots of money and if I scratched ANYTHING, I would have to pay her. Although when I first looked at the room these florescent, felt blankets were non-existent. I explained that that is what the deposit is for and if I ruin something, she can take it out of that money and that when I first saw the room and decided to take it, those blankets were not there and part of the reason I chose the room was because I liked the furniture.

She would interrupt me when I was cooking, acting all frantic about which burner or lid I was or wasn't using. One night after watching a movie in my room with Jesus, I was hungry and nobody was home but Isabel so I made a hamburger. I looked at the clock at it was exactly 11pm when I FINISHED. You must remember that this is not exactly a late time in Spain to be having dinner. In fact, Jesus' parents usually eat dinner at around 10 or 11pm. And keep in mind that Isabel's room/apartment is on the other side of the house at the farthest point from the kitchen. Well, the next morning, you guessed it, she confronted me with "You started cooking at midnight last night. When the others are here you cannot do that." I said "No, it was 11pm when I finished but yeah, okay, it was a little late." She says, "No it was 12 when you started and you can't be doing that." I can completely understand that, IF it wasn't for the fact that I am in SPAIN for crying out loud and that is when many people, including her, eat their dinner. Basically she was trying to control my every move. Not only that, every 3 or 4 nights I would hear her barfing in her bathroom during the middle of the night. Not sure if she was borracha or bulemic on these frequent occasions..I am thinking bulemic(control issues, right?).

Also, soon after I moved in, although we never signed a lease/contract, which is quite common here, she started bringing up signing a contract for a specified length of time...AFTER I had already moved in and given her my deposit. She then said, "well, you said you would be in Cordoba until July, so if you leave before that, you will lose your deposit (300 euros). Then she would say "so, do you want a contract?" I kept asking "what do you mean a contract? I said I would be in Cordoba until then but I never signed a contract or said I would be staying in this apartment that whole time. In fact my job ends in May, so I will be unemployed here for 2 months and may stay somewhere else for less money." She got mad and said that "How am I supposed to find someone to rent in the middle of summer when all the college kids leave to go back home?" I said "I dont know, but I never said I would be here in this apartment until then. I have a lot of bills to pay and cannot be spending that much on rent in the summer when I have no income." She snapped back "Well, everyone has bills. That's no excuse." Does, her line of reasoning make any sense at all though? Why was she asking me if I wanted a contract but yet telling me that I have no choice but to stay until July or else I lose my deposit. Ahhhh!!! Me vuelve loca esta mujer!!

Then not last Friday but the one before, la loca crossed the line. Not only was she irritating me and acting like the second reign of a female Franco around the apartment but the bitch done screwed up big time. I stepped out for a little while with Jesus and while I was gone, at 10 pm(which is not considered late in Spain), Juliana stopped by. She had tried to call me but my phone had gotten wet and wasn't working. So, she rang the apartment bell like any normal person would do. Isabel saw her from the window above and that she had two friends with her. But for all Isabel knew, she could have just wanted to ask me something. She knew that my phone wasn't working. But instead of answering the door, she yells down from the window "Jessey's not here" with a rude tone. And that next morning when I was making my coffee, Isabel corners me in the kitchen by closing the door and saying she needs to talk to me in private. She says "You can't be having friends come to the house. If the others see that you are having friends over, they will think that they can have friends over and then I will have a house full of people that I dont know." I explained the situation, that Juliana didn't know I was gone and that my cell isn't working and that she only wanted to ask me something, yada yada yada. Well, then she started with "and you haven't followed through on your end of the deal. Jesus spent the entire Christmas break here (really? 3 weeks? or do you mean 3 nights? and because you told me it was okay) and you haven't been giving me my English classes. And I have been trying to be nice because you are far away from your family and you can't just catch a bus and go see them whenever you want. So I have been telling the others that you are paying me more money so that you can have Jesus over (mind you he hardly EVER came over to avoid situations like this). I am making an exception for you because you guys are in love and I am not going to say no to love." OMG. These "tonterias"(or nonsense) may work with the 18 year old boy who lives there or the new girl who just moved in and hasn't gotten to know her yet. But at my age, I am not too keen on manipulators OR hypocrites. And besides, is she really trying to manipulate a psychology major? hehe. Nice try lady.

At that point I done had enough of her shananigans. What I have mentioned so far were the major points, not to mention all the other little lies and inconsistencies. She said no smoking was allowed because it turned all the walls yellow, yet she smoked in the house all the time and besides the smell there were burn marks to prove it all over the shelf in the kitchen and shells for ashtrays everywhere. AND she would have friends and family over ALL THE TIME. Also, she would lie about cleaning things. And I would walk into the bathroom and see a dirty, toothpaste encrusted sink and faucet. She failed to tell me the first day that I went to look at the apartment that the living room and t.v. were ONLY for her. I dont think I would have paid 300 to live in a house where I didn't have a living room. She also said I would have a landline in my room but took the phone after I looked at the place and before I moved in.

So, after the straw that broke the camel's back, I decided it was time to start looking at other options and one opened up just at the right moment. I told Isabel that we both just want different things from a living situation and I can't live in a place where my friends aren't allowed to even ring the doorbell. I tried to be politically correct/diplomatic or whatever and put the blame on myself, saying that I just didn't understand her in the beginning because I was under the impression that she just didn't want a boyfriend always hangin around the house but that I had no idea that I couldn't even have friends over...EVER. I explained that I am social and like to invite friends over to have dinner with me from time to time. Anyhow, she said "its better that you go then. I tried to stay really nice and mature about the whole thing and when I left I said "give me hug, no hard feelings (basically)" and she refused to give me a hug, saying "I just want you to know that what you did was wrong. You have to give notice before moving out." I said " I understand that, but thats why you get to keep the deposit... because I am leaving without a notice." She said "That has nothing to do with the deposit" , although many times before she had always said that if someone leaves without notice, she keeps the deposit. And this common practice in Spain just like in the U.S.

So to make a long story a tiny bit shorter, I have moved across town, far from my schools into an apartment for 1/2 the price (150 euros) that is bigger and where I have a living room, tv,etc. and can do whatever THE HELL I want. Jk. But at least I can breath. Damn!! Only problem is that its in the same apartment as Juliana. Now we have to have the discipline to not hang out with each other all the time, speaking in English and isolating ourselves from the Spanish world. I think we are at a point now to where we are strong enough in our Spanish to stay in character most of the time and not resort to that. So there you have it!! I think I am finally in the right place where I will stay for the rest of my stint in Spain. Hasta Julio!!