No rats in Madrid subway / Homesickness(less)

For being someone who has never really lived in a city other than Madrid, the truth is I don't feel especially attached to it.
Don't get me wrong, I like having my family and friends around, and I also recognize it's a nice city to live in. It offers a lot of different leisure activities, restaurants where you can find any kind of food, bars that open till late, public libraries, theaters, shopping centers... It has a few quite good hospitals and museums. I don't know why I put hospitals together with museums, I'm just writing as things come... You can also find a lot of very good schools, private and public, as well as good universities with a very wide range of degrees. And you can go practically everywhere using only public transport, which is great.

What's the problem, then? Doesn't it sound like it's the perfect city? The city where you have absolutely everything you need?

Indeed. And that, precisely, is the problem. If you don't want to leave the city in your whole life, you don't need to (assuming, of course, that you're one of the lucky ones who have a job in Madrid..., but let's assume that). If it's not the case that you specifically do not want to leave the city but, meh, you really don't care too much..., then dude, you'll never leave. Except maybe a few days in holidays, when you'll visit some other european country (if you're ambitious enough not to limit your holidays to a relaxing stay in a hotel on the seafront with free buffet) and you'll compare every city you visit to Madrid.

So yep, Madrid will give you all sorts of amenities and comfort, it will allow you to enjoy many experiences that would not be equally accesible if you lived, say, in Murcia..., but it will also keep you from experiencing a lot of things that you can only experience if you leave. Like, for example, leaving.

This comes from one who hasn't lived abroad for longer than 2 months or more than 2 times, both of them with a return ticket. And to be fair, the second time I wasn't really living, but staying. But after my first breakout to London (at the age of 28..., lame!) I think leaving is something everybody should try, at least for a while.

Now you might be thinking, oh, so after all that crap you said about that "you can leave, but not become" commercial, now you´re saying leaving is great, let´s leave everybody?
Well, yes. But I´m not talking about leaving by necessity, or being almost kicked out of your country because of the government´s awful administration. I´m talking about voluntarily leaving just for the experience of leaving. And, of course, I admit, not everybody can do that. You, once more, have to be among the lucky ones.
But if you are, and you leave, you will certainly get some perspective. You will get to know other people, other ways of living, other ways of working, other ways of thinking. You will realize that your way is not the only one... and, more importantly, it´s probably not even the best one.

But anyways, that said, this was gonna be a post about homesickness. Or the lack of it. Or homesickness for a country that is not your country (rather, a city that is not your city).

Two months are probably not enough time to be homesick, but the truth is, used as I am to live in my city, there´s nothing I have missed. Except olive oil.
Of course I miss my family and friends but that is not part of the city and, to be honest..., come on, there´s whatsapp. I have talked to them more often while I was abroad than I do when I´m here.
So, there´s nothing I miss from my city when living (or staying) in another city... but, when I come back, there are a lot of things that I miss from there. Things that, in many cases, won´t really make my life better.
If you take the subway here and look at the people around you, you will probably see about 45% south americans, 45% spanish, 9% asian (I´d even say chinese) and 1% people from somewhere else. That, compared to what you find in London or NYC, is almost homogeneity. And, most of the times, races don´t mix ones to the others. That is something missable.
I also miss the language (yes, english). It happens to me that, after coming back, I keep saying "hey" to my neighbours when we meet at the elevator, or to the bus drivers. I said "thankias" to a woman yesterday! And I catch myself thinking in english, and getting surprised when I pass by a group of people speaking spanish in the street ("Hey, Spanish! But, of course..."). I even dream in english from time to time. And sometimes I find that an english word can express what I want to say much better than any spanish word. Words like "anyways", "though", "whatever"... just come much easier and are much more handy than whatever spanish word we use in their place. Some other times, of course, it´s the other way around.
Then I miss other things that I don´t really like that much, or are rather stupid, but are symbolic of the good times I had when I was there. From London, for example, I miss the risky bus rides. And the voice of the woman saying, "Alpha Close", or "Lord´s Cricket Ground", or "Saint John´s Woods". As incredible as it may seem, I miss my room, with my mattress on the floor, my cereals on the windowsill and the freezing drafts coming from that hole in the bathroom ceiling. Well, it´s not that I miss that, but I think, oh, yeah, those were good times.
From NY, I miss starbucks. Yes, I do. I spent a good amount of my time in there, right? And I don´t even like coffee. I might have gone to starbucks 3 times in all my life in Spain. Well, 4 times if we count that one in Barcelona. And I´m not eager to go. But if I come back to NY, I will definitely do! Which, I guess, doesn´t make much sense.
And I also miss NY subway, even though it´s kind of crappy (not crappy, but..., kind of, you know what I mean) compared to the one we have here. I miss everything that has to do with it. Music, crowds, pannels, and yes, rats. When I took the subway from the airport to my home, I tried to find some. But nope, they are just not there.
Whenever I see an american movie or show and there´s a NY metro station, I can´t help thinking, hey, I´ve been there!, with a slight smile on my face.

But the best part of living abroad is that it rips you from your everyday drowsiness, and forces you to adapt yourself to a whole new environment where you are not part of the majority, you have no rights of belonging, you are nothing better than the asian or the south american (it´s tough but yes, that´s how most of us feel when we see foreign people living in our country, right?), you´re just one of the others. It exposes you to new ways of thinking, new ideas, coming from people who, in that context, are just like you. And you have no reason then, in that context, to think that your way is better than theirs. And once you accept that, you might realize that there are actually better ways. And not only that, you might also find that those other ways can work for you too.
That´s something you won´t find in Madrid if you are born, raised and rooted there. There is diversity, but a diversity that doesn´t interact, or, when it does, it does only under certain very well defined patterns.
And if you leave, your city will no longer be your referent, but one of your referents. You will be able to compare other places between them and get the best from each one.

So, like I´m saying, leaving, just for the curiosity of leaving, is a whole experience in itself. But of course, for it to be pleasant, it has to be your own choice, and you need to know that you can always come back if you want to. And maybe you will never want to. But it´s the possibility of coming back what makes staying be your choice.
I have only started to scratch the surface. But now, I don´t want to stay here. Not forever. I want to get the whole experience, if the experience can ever be whole.

Meanwhile, I will keep looking for the rats. They have to be there, I´ve seen them in the streets...