Meeting Friends, Eating Amazing and Having More Than Fun: A Member Spotlight

This is the story of how my life indeed was better in Barcelona.

By Ivonne Penadillo

Hola! My name is Ivonne. I am a Peruvian fashion designer who came all the way from South America to Spain looking forward to learning and enjoying as much as I could, certainly I did.

A year ago, I had no idea how good my life was going to get and how many best friends for life I was going to make.

I remember that when I first found my room and I read that I was going to live with 10 other people with only 2 bathrooms, I thought: NO WAY! I was extremely worried about how that was going to work, so I only booked for one month to check it out first.

Well, once I arrived, I thought on my third day I would extend it for half a year more. Yes, we were a lot of people, but extremely nice people and we all had different schedules, classes, jobs, habits. So, the only 2 bathrooms were not that bad at the end of the day, not most of the time at least, because I cannot deny that I was super unlucky sometimes.

The last 11 months, I have not only been living with nice roomies, I have been living with the most amazing people and friends I could have ever asked for. Now, I have friends from all around the world. One of us, Julia, even got a tattoo of our postal code! Yes! That close we are!

As an only child I am not a person who likes silence and loneliness so a flat with 10 other people always around was perfect for me. I always had someone that would sit with me on the sofa on a lazy Sunday, or someone who made soup for me on a hangover Sunday (Rebe I love u).

There was always someone up for a walk, for a fast food afternoon or for a night out. I always had someone to sing along with me “Tusa”, even our non-Spanish speaker friends. For real, Amber, our Belgium girl learned a reggaeton song in Spanish!

But more than all the fun we could have together, for me the most important things were that I always had someone who ask and truly care about how did my day go, someone who could hug me when i was missing home, someone who could stay up with me a long night up and I could have a lovely dinner with. I think now I am ready to cook for an army!

A fun fact is that we were mostly all girls, but we had our best “guardaespaldas” with a gold heart, Pablo better known as Pablito and our white, super white, extremely white Niek, better known as Nicolas or Nicholson. The real fun fact is that none of them is single anymore! So back off girls! Thanks for all the jars you open for us guys.

Also, If I ever had a bad day where I was feeling insecure about myself, I only needed 5 seconds with Alyce. Our lovely Alyce would always have something nice to say to you. So, if you want to hear how gorgeous you are and how good that new lipstick looks on you, just stay with her for a while. Thank you, girl! You are amazing!

I ate amazing, I tried too much and so many different foods from all over the world. I had amazing Mexican nights and Brazilian meat cakes. And specially during quarantine I had two amazing Master Chefs Rebe and Luisa cooking churros, donuts, cakes, pies, cookies, everything sweet you could imagine basically. Thanks for the extra kilos gained, girls.

We got extra kilos, but we worked them out in our yoga and exercises sessions in the living room. We won them again at night though. But at least we keep on the same shape, not a bikini shape but a shape.

I learned so much stuff this year, so many languages, slangs, history, politics, etc. I learned that you should never ever tell a “Niña de pueblo” that she is a “Niña de pueblo”, that not all the Beltran are Narcos, that there are more than 10 words in Spanish for having sex, that the Spanish cards are different, that the whole world loves Uno!

Thanks to all my amazing roomies for the best experience ever, all of you have an incredible special place in my heart forever. I learned so much from each one of you. Gracias, I love u all. Rebeca Lara, Julia “Bebe” Suau, Julia “Crianza” Machado, Luisa Beltrán, Alisha Dad, Pablo “Pablito” Labowitz, Alyce Corbett, Niek “Nicolas” Scherpenhuijzen, Amber ¨Tusa¨ Bailliu, Teresa Lemos, Jan Zimmermann, Fabiola Marcocchio.

We all will never forget the amazing time we had in Gran de Gracia, 17, 08012. Thanks, Inèdit Barcelona for letting us live this amazing experience in your coliving flat!