Job Discussion Forums

[taramisu]

I could google it a thousand times, but I'm not going as a tourist.
What I'd like to know is about the town itself. Has anyone here spent a considerable amount of time in Granada? Any details you care to share?

Thanks!

[melody131]

Hey there. I�ve visited Granada six times but never lived there. I�m moving there in a couple weeks though. If you have any info about apartments or English teaching positions, please pass it along! Thanks so much!

[cjathomp]

Hi!

I lived in Granada for eight months working as an English Language Assistant in an elementary school in Maracena, a small town just outside of Granada. Granada is AMAZING. The city is a huge 'university' city. It is busy during the fall and winter semester and there is a great student population in the city (which disappears in the summer when the city turns quiet, so I've been told by my friends there) There are tons of things to do, seriously, you'll never be bored!!! I could talk forever so if there is something you want to know that I don't mention here write back and I'll respond asap!

As for apartments, if you're going now (or within the next month) there will be TONS for rent. You have two options, you can rent without a rental agency or rent through an agency. Apartments for rent will have signs hanging from their windows (both private and with rental agencies) or you can go directly to a rental office. If you choose to go through a rental agency be prepared to pay more. The one that I used required three months worth of rent up front. One month for the first month living there, one for the agency fee and another for a 'damage' deposit. I put damage in quotes because it doubles as your last month of rent. If there is nothing wrong with your apartment then you don't get it back but you simply don't have to pay rent for the last month. The other thing with agency's is that you have to sign a contract. The length will vary. My first apartment we requested an eight month contract (we ended up with a nine month one) and they may vary up to a year long depending on who you're renting from. (My landlords lived in Cordoba and they were willing to bend the year contract down to nine months) My second apartment however was private and done 'under the table'. I signed no contract and really could have left whenever I wanted. Again though I had to pay a deposit which doubled as my last month of rent. So in short it really is up to you what you're looking for and how much you're willing to spend. My advice on finding a place is to look at LOTS. I saw some dumps and some really nice ones. Just don't get discouraged if it takes longer than you think and don't take one out of panic to find a place to live.

If you're not a European passport holder I think it would be difficult to find a job. There were some I saw, although not teaching that I could have done. Of course, that then depends on your fluency in Spanish. I held a student visa while I was there so legally I wasn't able to work but could have tutored English if I wanted to. (By putting up flyers, word of mouth, etc.) I heard of people doing the same thing as myself who were able to find jobs in English centers but I wouldn't know how to go about doing that. I suppose you could just go and present your resume and then talk to them after that.

And now that I've wrote a book ... I hope this helps or if it's confused you any more more ... sorry! Granada is amazing. I've visited several cities within Spain and I would choose Granada in two seconds to go back to ... and hope to, sooner rather than later!

[robertokun]

Granada . . . will ruin you

After you live there, you'll never want to live anywhere else again.

[lorrie]

This is useful information, thanks for the tips! I do not have a teaching job in Granada yet but I am looking into it (I have a European passport so I'm guessing it shouldn't be a problem). It's good to know about the apartment situation if something works out for me there. I have heard such good things about Granada, so I'm really looking forward to visiting it. I will be going there in a few weeks time to follow up with contacts and visit some schools, so I'm not looking for temporary housing yet. Would anyone happen to know if I could just rent an apartment short-term, like just for a week or two? I just want something basic and simple to live in while I'm checking things out. I've looked into some sites like:

http://www.only-apartments.com/apartments-granada.html

which has decent prices. I also liked this site, which lists nice apartments as well:

http://www.casamundo.co.uk/spain/andalusia/granada.htm

But I don't know if there are better options out there (cheaper or more central, etc). If anyone has any other ideas let me know. Also, how good would my Spanish have to be if I would move there? I plan on improving my Spanish in any case but I'd just like to know how much I would need to be able to get around

[strictly_nicky]