Newsletter #2

Newsletter #2
Moving to Barcelona was a significant change for me. For the first time, I was truly alone, and I was entirely responsible for arranging everything, from housing to insurance, in a language I did not speak. I had been on my own before. At 23, I went on a six-month internship in Houston, Texas. This gave a boost to my development and made me independent. Moving for an extended period had a greater impact on me compared to the short internship.

I started in a shared apartment with one other guy. I was pleased to find this place quickly, as the housing market was already challenging in 2018. After about five months, I moved to a different place. This was an “illegal” apartment, and I found out about this later. Due to the unusual addresses in Spain, I did not report the correct mailbox to the Dutch government. This resulted in a small fine from the Fiscus (tax services) because I was late in paying, as I had not received the letter. I only found out about this after I called them.

I discovered that it was an “illegal” apartment after a break-in. I woke up in the middle of the night to loud noises. The noises were coming from downstairs, where the landlord had her real estate business. When I realized what was happening, I panicked, and I saw the burglar the moment I was opening the front door to get out. Luckily, he saw me as well and left. After he was gone, I called my landlord, and she came quickly. I also called the police, but they never showed up. I’m sure that I gave them the correct address. After this incident, I no longer wanted to live in that apartment, and within a few months, I had found a real apartment. I had a pleasant time there and stayed in this apartment for the rest of my time in Barcelona.

This was my first break-in, but not the first time a stranger was in my home. It reminds me of the time when a stranger entered my shared apartment in the Netherlands. Only after he left did we realize that he was an intruder. We called the police after a flatmate reported that a bag of his with old clothes had been stolen, and they did show up. This was maybe an hour after the fact, and the police complained that we should have called them immediately.

The break-in had, until quite recently, an impact on me. Nearly seven years later, I no longer wake up with a racing heart when I hear loud noises in the middle of the night. This was one of the first issues I was able to resolve with IFS (Internal Family Systems). My sleep has also improved a lot thanks to IFS.