After a technologically enforced gap, Niamh Lynch returns with an update on her translation work in Madrid. Longer in the sun Hello my public, I'm back! Well, after two months on a borrowed PC and one month with no computer at all, my lovely new laptop has arrived. Luckily, you haven't missed much in my absence – summer in Madrid is fairly quiet, and between my holidays and everybody else's, nothing much has happened.
One significant development, however, is that I have decided to stay in Madrid for at least a year longer. For those of you who can remember back, my stay in Madrid was first meant to be a six-month internship, and then a one-year stay. I knew in my heart some time ago that I wasn't coming back to Dublin in September as I had originally said I would, but hadn't quite worked up the courage to break it to the only person who actually minded – my boyfriend. To make a long story short, he wasn't impressed (it turns out he found the long-distance thing much harder than I did), but we have agreed to keep going on the same terms for the time being. A place to liveWanting to stay isn’t too hard to fathom. My job is great, and I don’t think I would be able to find one like it in Ireland. I am making progress with my freelance translation and writing, and my ‘proper’ job hours allow me to fit it in. Life is cheap, and the Spanish pace suits me. I like the climate, especially in winter (cold and sunny – I hate mild winters), and I feel there is lots more I want to discover here. Of course, I miss my family and friends, and really wish I could be with my boyfriend, but when I compare the pros and the cons, Madrid wins every time. If all those reasons aren’t enough, there’s a very good chance one of my best friends from home will be moving over soon, and we are planning on sharing a flat! It has been pointed out that the last time we shared a space (a room in a house belonging to a chronically shy biologist in the smallest village in Spain), we came as close to killing each other as friends really should. We have discussed this, and decided that as we are older and wiser, there won't be a problem. I hope that’s true.... Continental timeMy hours in work have also changed. I am now working a very continental 7am to 2pm, but it suits me fine. I have to admit, getting up early isn’t pleasant, and it’s dangerous walking around the house with my eyes glued shut for the first half hour, but there is always a seat on the metro, and for the first two hours I am pretty much on my own in the office, which, being the solitude loving, anti-social type that I am, I love. The early start is needed because a large part of my job involves translating newspaper articles, and clients need those articles at the start of the day so that they can act on them if needed. 7am is the time we need to start at to get articles to London by 9am, for example. For the USA, we have a little more time. The change in hours was provoked by the arrival of a big, important company which, much to my relief, made the standard eight-hour day that was being discussed earlier very impractical – even though I work a seven-hour day now, I have no lunch hour (or two), allowing me to get home and be done for the day at 14.30. If the original eight-hour day had gone ahead, I wouldn’t get home until 19.30. Not cool – where would I fit the siesta?! Read Niamh's previous blogs Share your comments about Niamh's blog |
