Except my situation didn't exactly go like that.
It took my visa 5 weeks to get into my hands.
Why 5 weeks you may ask? Remember how I said to cross your T's and dot your i's? I clearly did not do that and messed up on my email address.
So to make a long frantic and overdramatic story short - while I was busy worrying about not arriving in Spain on time - my visa was sitting in the consulate office waiting for me to pick it up. Apparently they processed my visa in about a week but due to my possibly not so neat handwriting they didn't send it to the correct email address.
The technacalities are debatable but at least I was able to retrieve my visa two days before departure.
So once visa is in hand (hopefully not in a dramatic worry inducing way such as my experience). The next question will probably be "what's next?" The TIE? The empadronamiento (which people fail to write about) - but actually the next phase should be apartment hunting.
This can be tricky.
It makes sense to start sending out request or even submitting a downpayment on a place as soon as one is found. Except it is extremely advisable not to do such a thing until the place has been seen in person. This can make it hard - especially if you arrive pretty late to Spain. In my case I arrived 4ish days before my first day of "class." The best way to describe the housing in Spain is saturated. It's saturated with Auxiliares like me, college students, people who've decided to retire to Spain, people on long term vacation. Then there are those people who have decided to just up and move here BUT the WORST are inmobilaries and AirBnB host.
Inmobiliaries (possibly spelled wrong) - are apartment hunting agents who charge an astronomically huge fee and clog up the housing
Airbnb host - are people and agencies who buy up wonderfully located rooms/apartments/houses etc and rent them out on a short term basis. Also clogging up housing.
My best advice is to use online social sites like: Facebook, Ideasta, Milanuncios, and EASYPISO - for easypiso you can upgrade and pay a monthly fee that I think you can cancel at anytime. It offers a lot of pluses and seems valid - I didn't use it but a person is able to connect with you and vice versa so it's not just you doing all the work. All the other one's are free.
However even using those sites no one really wanted to talk with me until I arrived in Spain (unless of course they were a inmobiliarie). There was one nice landlord who corresponded with me but she only offered a contract for 10-11 months which at the time was not what I was looking for so I didn't take her up on the offer.
Long advice short - start connecting with people as soon as possible. Even if they don't respond some will remember your countless emails/texts and actually favor you over others - you never know.
Also book your Airbnb/hostel stay for a long but flexible time. When I realized that after seven days I still needed a place all the Airbnbs were rented out and the hotel prices were crazy high.
It's better to overbook than under-book.
So in review:
Overbook for your hostel/Airbnb stay
Be prepared to wait and hunt
Meet as many people as you can to start connections
Always trust the vibe you get on a place
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
It took my visa 5 weeks to get into my hands.
Why 5 weeks you may ask? Remember how I said to cross your T's and dot your i's? I clearly did not do that and messed up on my email address.
So to make a long frantic and overdramatic story short - while I was busy worrying about not arriving in Spain on time - my visa was sitting in the consulate office waiting for me to pick it up. Apparently they processed my visa in about a week but due to my possibly not so neat handwriting they didn't send it to the correct email address.
The technacalities are debatable but at least I was able to retrieve my visa two days before departure.
So once visa is in hand (hopefully not in a dramatic worry inducing way such as my experience). The next question will probably be "what's next?" The TIE? The empadronamiento (which people fail to write about) - but actually the next phase should be apartment hunting.
This can be tricky.
It makes sense to start sending out request or even submitting a downpayment on a place as soon as one is found. Except it is extremely advisable not to do such a thing until the place has been seen in person. This can make it hard - especially if you arrive pretty late to Spain. In my case I arrived 4ish days before my first day of "class." The best way to describe the housing in Spain is saturated. It's saturated with Auxiliares like me, college students, people who've decided to retire to Spain, people on long term vacation. Then there are those people who have decided to just up and move here BUT the WORST are inmobilaries and AirBnB host.
Inmobiliaries (possibly spelled wrong) - are apartment hunting agents who charge an astronomically huge fee and clog up the housing
Airbnb host - are people and agencies who buy up wonderfully located rooms/apartments/houses etc and rent them out on a short term basis. Also clogging up housing.
My best advice is to use online social sites like: Facebook, Ideasta, Milanuncios, and EASYPISO - for easypiso you can upgrade and pay a monthly fee that I think you can cancel at anytime. It offers a lot of pluses and seems valid - I didn't use it but a person is able to connect with you and vice versa so it's not just you doing all the work. All the other one's are free.
However even using those sites no one really wanted to talk with me until I arrived in Spain (unless of course they were a inmobiliarie). There was one nice landlord who corresponded with me but she only offered a contract for 10-11 months which at the time was not what I was looking for so I didn't take her up on the offer.
Long advice short - start connecting with people as soon as possible. Even if they don't respond some will remember your countless emails/texts and actually favor you over others - you never know.
Also book your Airbnb/hostel stay for a long but flexible time. When I realized that after seven days I still needed a place all the Airbnbs were rented out and the hotel prices were crazy high.
It's better to overbook than under-book.
So in review:
Overbook for your hostel/Airbnb stay
Be prepared to wait and hunt
Meet as many people as you can to start connections
Always trust the vibe you get on a place
Don't put all your eggs in one basket