It is with great sadness that I report that after nearly four years, we have left Spain. This has been an absolutely amazing journey, and we have enjoyed it so much. Alas, reality calls, so we are moving on to…well, that is a story in an of itself, and when I started this blog post we had one destination planned, but a few months later when I get around to publishing it, we ended up somewhere completely different. Though that is a story for another blog post!
In the nearly four years we were in Spain, we have had some amazing adventures, dealt with some frustrating situations, and made fantastic friends. We miss it all! (not so much the frustrating situations, but with some distance, we stop remembering the frustration and are left with amusing anecdotes).
So – let’s recap the four years, starting with the ones who have grown and changed the most:
When we arrived, N, a newly-turned 5 year old, was too young for Primary school and started in the final year of the Infantil school. He had the kind of bubbly, loving teacher everyone would want for their 5 year old, and made a bond with his small group of classmates (his class was, and remains, the smallest in the school, with only about 12 students in it).
First Day of School in Spain – 5yr old class 
Last Day of School in Spain – 3rd Grade
N hardly remembers living in, or leaving, the US, and this move from Spain hit him the hardest. He loves his teacher and he loves his friends. This is the life he knows. He hopes to go back and visit a lot.
L has spent all four years at their wonderful primary school. He came in 2nd grade and is leaving as a graduate of 5th grade, the penultimate year of the school. He is the shyest of our shy kids, but being in the same class with the same group of kids, plus meeting an outgoing, friendly fellow English speaking classmate when he arrived, helped him find his place. Undoubtedly, his Spanish isn’t at the level of A, who has spoken only Spanish to his friends and peers at school, but for L, meeting his best friend who was born here, but whose first language is also English thanks to an English dad and German mother, made his time here.
A has been amazing. He came here in 4th grade at the primary school, and just this year finished his first year of secondary school. His Spanish is head and shoulders above the rest of the family, and truly talks like a native speaker.
A few months before we left, he was swimming with a kid he had never met before and the kid was shocked when he said he was American. The kid thought, based on his accent, that he was from Madrid! One of A’s new friends in his secondary school class has an English mom, who I know from outside of the school. Despite both kids being a native English speakers, the boys only speak Spanish to each other! He was pretty upset when we decided to leave Spain, but came around to it, and was excited about the opportunities he would get at a new school and a bigger town, which was one of the primary reasons we are leaving.
We spent our first three years in a small but nice apartment right on the primer linea or first line, right on the beach with totally unobstructed views.
It was an adjustment for the five of us to live (and work remotely) in a three-bedroom apartment, but the location was great, and we loved our view, so it worked well. Until quarantine…C likes to say it “broke us” and once we were released after 40-some days confined to that apartment, our priority was to find a house with space.
We did find our perfect house, and in a typical Spanish situation, the process was a nightmare, but we ended up with the house. Not only did it give us the space we wanted (and then some), a pool and a yard, but it was also right in between the primary school and A’s new secondary school, saving A what would have been a long walk from our old apartment.
We loved this house (other than our dreaded roommates, the Argentinian ants who infest every corner of this property (and frankly the entire southern Spanish coast – successful invasive species that they are!) and will miss it. Sure, it could get a bit chilly in the winter, but we loved the space for everyone, its (relative for Spain) large kitchen, dedicated office space, and big pool.
We can’t mention the house without mentioning the opportunity it gave us to foster animals! This is a great property for pets, and we had quite a few of them over the year! We had two cats who stayed with us for most of the year, and assorted other cats, kittens, puppies and a dog that stayed with us for shorter amounts of time.
Having the animals was really special, and we were sad to leave them, even though we went into it knowing we couldn’t keep them. L especially loved the cats and had a special bond with them, particularly one of the kittens, Gargamel, who grew up with us, coming to us at 2 months old and leaving after she was adopted at 7 months old. C complained a bit about the pets, but they made our life richer and the boys had great experiences with them this year (though N still manages to be extremely afraid of animals despite the year of cohabitating with them).
C has come a long way in Spanish, thanks mostly to his good Spanish friend, Raul, and his unending supply of patience, who hung out with him regularly, despite C being pretty darn bad at communicating when they first met.
I also want to thank Raul for C’s improved Spanish, and how it allowed C to be the one to deal with people on the phone in Spanish, which is like the worst thing to do ever.
C has also enjoyed the gym he found, run by a super fit, super educated Italian guy. The owner has become another one of his friends here in town. Of course, C also has a crew of fellow non-traditionally employed guys who are always up for a midweek beer. He is going to miss this easy social life once we get to [redacted].
Though I didn’t get my Spanish anywhere near the level of C, I did manage to have lot of fun and make great friends. Nothing bonds people more quickly than a shared experience, and living in, and adapting to life in this strange land has made me some life-long friends. Friends and I met weekly to (very badly) play padel (a strange tennis/raquetball/pickle ball-type game that is very popular here) and do a book club on the classic Spanish novel, Don Quixote. We may or may not have finished the book (it is VERY long and a bit slow moving, to be honest), but we had lots of fun and always enjoyed a coffee after playing.
We also enjoyed the regular evenings out, in this place where going out is so easy. We all walk from home to meet up at one of the many restaurants/bars around town (there really isn’t much distinction between restaurants and bars, all restaurants serve drinks, and there are very few just “bars”), and enjoy chatting, drinks and our free tapas.
Again, so easy to find a group willing to go out just about anytime, and I’m happy to have found a group of ladies I really enjoyed. I also spent the first few years swimming regularly. It was great to get back into it (even at a MUCH slower rate than when I was younger!), and I give all credit to the warm pool, without which I never would have done it 😉
We loved the other families we met here, and yes, they were mostly all English speaking, but the reality is that it is hard to expect the Spanish people to take the time and effort to make friends with people who come here hardly speaking the language, and that you know will leave soon. Add the fact that most Spanish spend the majority of their socializing time with their extended family, it was hard to break through. However, we made some good Spanish friends as well, who were fantastic resources for the “what does this mean?” and “is this normal?” questions we always seemed to have.
We were also lucky to have another family who we all got along with and who liked to travel as much as we did. Though we were limited for most of our last year to only the local area due to COVID, we managed to find a few fun adventures out of town.
Road trip to Cordoba, Spain
This place, the people, this exact time in our lives, is a bit of magic in a bottle that we know we can never get back. We are sad but ready to move on, but we will all be changed for this amazing experience we have had. We didn’t expect to spend four years here, but, as anyone who has been there knows, there is just something about that place.
Adios, Spain. Hasta la proxima.
