Today turned out to be much more productive than I expected when I first awoke. One big TO-DO item has been crossed off the list – I now have an abono! This is the card that allows me to take public transportation regularly without overspending. It was a bit difficult to figure out the process, because it’s different for everyone depending on what ‘zone’ you will mostly be traveling in.
Many of my friends travel in different zones from me due to work, and their process included visiting an Estanco (tobacco shop) to fill out the form for an abono there. I, on the other hand, had to make an appointment and then show up straight to one of the metro stations that has abono-card services. After a failed attempt yesterday, I finally made it through today. I now have the card which I can load money onto for 30 days at a time. I’m probably more excited about this than is warranted. Story of my life.
After that I took care of some paperwork I had been putting off before joining some friends for dinner (Indian!). I even got in a dose of Starbucks – just the taste of home I needed. Actually some deep dish pizza would have been ideal but that’s just unrealistic outside of Chicago.
Hopefully, at some point this week I will find out what my daily schedule looks like. Until then, I’ll be hitting the gym, running some light errands and exploring Madrid solo for a bit as most of my other friends have already started working!