Hola! My name is Daniel and I'm a front end developer here at Wild Dog Design. This summer I had the opportunity to live in Madrid whilst working remotely for Wild Dog as a sort of "digital nomad". Contrary to popular belief, the digital nomad lifestyle isn't all about sipping lattes and doing graphic design on a MacBook. Rather, it's a way of working which has become increasingly popular since the pandemic, and which many agencies are now offering as a benefit. So I was excited to try it out.
As a foreign visitor to Madrid my goals were to explore the city, language, and culture; to work remotely; and hopefully make some friends along the way.
Foreign influence
I have always been fascinated by foreign languages. I studied French at university, lived in France for many years, and started learning Spanish about two years ago. Most people find languages difficult since the brain is conditioned to reject what it sees as “lies”, but my brain isn’t very discriminating so I’ve never had that problem. And the more languages you learn, the more qualified you are to speak with authority about whatever culture you are visiting…. you invent stereotypes and then fully believe in them. None of them are strictly true of course, but they sound true and therefore they are.
In Spain, every shop assistant is sent to a special school where they learn to say the phrase “do you want a bag” in ever more elaborate and confusing ways, in order to harm the self-esteem of intermediate Spanish speakers. Routine transactions are interrupted by inscrutable questions about unrelated matters; people speak in regional accents; everything is played at 2x speed.
The problem is not that I’m not bad at Spanish (I’m actually good) but it does seem like I’m bad sometimes.
Travel styles
My travel style is much more innovative than people who want to fill their holidays with inspiring nature and exquisite beaches. What if you just went to a place and tried to live there like you actually lived there ? Character development, side quests, unlocking new parts of the map…. think Grand Theft Auto rather than Tomb Raider. And the most important side quest of all: finding a supermarket that sells British tea (it does exist).
Madrid is a very impressive city when you first arrive. My apartment is close to the main tourist area which contains Gran Via (Oxford Street), Callao (Times Square) and Plaza Mayor (hellish cauldron of doom) where buildings are big, advertising hoardings are shiny, and tourists are touristy. The Instituto Cervantes language school (where I’ve been learning Spanish in the UK) has its global headquarters here, and it’s an impressive imperial edifice, but Madrid’s vibe is definitely not imperial — it has the warmth and intimacy of a Mediterranean city, combined with the scale of something like Paris.
Trabaja dura, juega dura
The metro here is very pleasant and quick, which is good cos I commute to work every morning. Our agency has access to a co-working space so I work from there most days. Every morning I walk 400 metres to the Tribunal metro station & emerge 15 minutes later at the Atocha metro station, unrobbed and unharassed. I go to my favourite Starbucks and order “un americano grande para llevar por favor”, which is my favourite thing to order cos it gives me a chance to practice my R’s. The coworking space has amazing views of Retiro Park and I’m surrounded by Spanish people having business meetings — totally incomprehensible, but the professional managerial class here seems very similar to the French people that I’ve worked with in the past…. long hours, informal but very smartly-dressed, work-hard play-hard kind of thing.
At 2pm it’s siesta time so I put on my straw hat, climb into my coworking hammock, and turn off notifications for a couple of hours. Take the metro back home, then off to Parque de la Montaña for a spot of sunbathing. The 6pm sun is too weak to give me the Mediterranean tan that I desire, but it relaxes me before going out and that’s the main thing. My intention was to go out every night to immerse myself in the Spanish culture, but I met someone from Peru who I find particularly interesting so I mostly just hang out with them. There is a large community of Latin Americans in Madrid and the cultures are very different — in my opinion the Latin American culture is better but maybe I’ve just been fed too much propaganda. Either way, Madrid is a city of contrasts. It’s hot in summer and cold in winter; life is relaxed but they talk very fast; and my favourite dish is Ensaladilla Rusa which means “Russian Salad” so it’s not even from here! Someone should really look into that.
Anyway, Madrid was fun. I’m off to Valencia to eat some Paella.