Hola chic@s,

Espero que estén bien.

One of the biggest milestones in my Spanish journey wasn’t ordering my first coffee.

It was, strangely, getting kicked out of my flat in Madrid.

Allow me to explain…

A few years before Covid, I was living in a tiny apartment in the centre of Madrid.

It wasn’t glamorous. Old furniture, clothes hanging out of the windows and an elevator that hadn’t been serviced in over a decade.

The rent was pretty cheap, so I wasn’t complaining.

Until I discovered one small detail I hadn’t been told before signing the contract.

The landlord sometimes lived there too.

Fernando.

An old man who could find a problem with absolutely anything.

Leaving the light on.

The dishes.

Noise.

You name it. Fernando had something to say.

And the one thing he absolutely couldn’t stand?

Guests

Unfortunately for Fernando, I had a steady stream of visitors scheduled throughout my six months in Spain.

I managed to get away with the first few visits, but after catching a friend from Portugal staying over, he warned me that if he saw one more guest staying over, I would be evicted instantly.

Two months before my contract officially ended, my younger brother was due to visit.

I took the risk, gambling on the fact Fernando wouldn’t be there that weekend.

But when I walked into the kitchen with my little brother, Fernando was there waiting.

I still remember the vein sticking out of his neck as he started shouting (gritando) at me in Spanish.

I shouted back and called him

‘Un gilipollas’ [🗣️ hee-lee-POH-yas] - which means p*** in Spanish Spanish.

He called the police (policía).

And just like that…

I’d been kicked out.

As I lay on the wooden floor of my friend’s apartment, apologising to my brother for being such a terrible host, he turned to me and said something:

“It’s pretty cool that you had a full blown argument in Spanish.”

What a f****** achievement.

Years earlier, I would have celebrated finishing another chapter of a Spanish textbook.

But here I was, smiling because I’d just had my first proper argument in Spanish.

It ended with me getting kicked out of my flat.

Somehow, it still felt like progress.

Living Spanish isn’t always tapas and sangria.

Sometimes it’s landlords.

And that’s part of living the language too.

Keep getting out there, chic@s, collecting stories over streaks.

Un abrazo,
Harrison

Spanish for living, not just learning



P.S - By the way, if you want to say ‘to argue’ in Spanish, you want to use the verb ‘discutir’, not ‘argumentar’. ‘Discutir’ doesn’t mean ‘to discuss'. e.j Discutí con el dueño del piso. I argued with my landlord.


P.P.S - When mentioning my younger brother in Spanish I could have used the word ‘El Benjamín’. It’s the word Spaniards use to talk about the youngest sibling in a family. You can find 30+ other words and phrases the locals use in the Chat Spanish Insider Handbook.