To Spain

A Peek Under the Hood

JanisU — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 19:50:00 GMT

It’s been a year since I moved to Spain with my son and husband. I imagine most people think the past year has been about travel and cultural immersion. While this is true, there’s another part of the story.

Some Things You Might Not Know
Most people don’t know our decision to move to Spain took place in the Fall of 2016 when my husband lost his job. While it looked like we decided to move to Spain in May of 2017, it actually took us over a year to make it happen. Most people think it was fast and easy. Nope, the year's activities were hard.

Decisions were hard, too. Instead of keeping our life in tact after my husband lost his job, we took a pause. We decided to let go of many things we held dear instead of keeping the status quo. And the big ticket item hardest for me to let go of was our house. But while it seemed crazy to do so because we'd only been in it for 18 months, it was the best time for us to let it go. It also marked the beginning of down-sizing our life. It felt good.

Most people don’t know we purposely moved into a small, fixer-upper duplex after the sale of our house. It was a conscious decision. Some people, after seeing my crappy, quirky rental, told me they were sorry for my loss. But what they didn't know was we had a bigger goal and the duplex was a big part of it.

The move to a smaller place was ideal for helping us adjust to having less space, less storage and less things. Now, it wasn’t easy. After living in a beautiful, newly remodeled, spacious house, the duplex was sad. It was drafty in the winter and hot in the summer. The kitchen was hard to cook in and we had to get used to sharing small spaces with one another 24/7. In the end, though, the year we spent there was perfect.

Another thing we didn’t tell people about our move was the move. It wouldn't be until July of 2017 when we would share our plans. Most people didn’t know our Spring Break trip in March was more than a vacation. It was actually a scouting mission.

Testing the Water
We purposely chose to stay in a couple of Air B and B’s during Spring Break of 2017 so we could cook, do laundry and buy groceries. We also used our time in Madrid and Barcelona to learn how to minimize our life in Austin. If we could minimize that life, we thought, then we could more easily adapt to our new way of life abroad.

We were delighted to find that our duplex rental living was very close to how we would need to live in Spain. Even the thin walls and noisy neighbors in Austin were preparing us for “the city that never sleeps” called Barcelona!

In the Fall of 2017, people found us putting the finishing touches on our VISA documentation and letting go of as much stuff as possible. A big shout out to friends and family who took some of the bath and kitchen and other odds and ends stuff! We started writing a blog back then, mostly to keep our wits about us, but also to capture the process for anyone who was interested.

Getting our one-year VISAs were really hard and the whole process required a lot of patience. The long, stressful days were all worth it, though. By the end of the process, as you could probably see from the FB posts I've shared with my friends over the year, life began again.

Endless Vacation
But traveling to new places is only one part of our story. I bet for most people, they think I am living a permanent vacation. But there are bills to pay, a kid to feed and protect, and my husband’s full-time job to support.

What I thought I’d be doing and what I ended up doing are vastly different and it's been no picnic. For example, I had no idea that the move would shake my insides around. I had no idea how hard it would be to connect with friends and family. My friends were busy, I wasn’t. The environment around me was busy, but I was too tired to connect with people. For months it seemed like I was in some sort of limbo fog and I became terribly lonely.

Body By Spain
It was nice to rest but my body was also being pushed to its limit. Years of a car-centric life and work from home job had taken a toll on my muscles. I was weak. Very weak. Just walking the two blocks to the metro and climbing a flight of stairs was grueling.

After a couple of months of walking everywhere, I felt the worst pain in my body. My neck hurt. My feet hurt. My toes hurt. I didn't know your toes could hurt that much. Bedtime brought throbbing pain throughout the whole of my body like I’d never experienced before.

I worried that I was venturing back into a chronic pain experience, something I knew all too well from the 10 years I lived with chronic neck pain. But I learned to embrace sleep during the middle of the day and I took it easy whenever I could. I didn’t have a formal job to go to nor anywhere I “had to be" so that made life a bit more bearable.

To my surprise, though, my body got stronger and stronger. There are multiple levels of fitness to overcome when you change to a more pedestrian lifestyle. Even to this day, my body goes through sore times as it continues to adjust to my ever-increasing level of physical activity. I have lost a lot of fat and feel better than I have in years.

The Heavy Lifting
That said, let’s talk about the mental and emotional work this move has required of me. This is where I’ve “earned my money” this past year. My time in Spain has been grueling. I was not prepared for the deep mental cleaning and the emotional upheaval the move caused. I can’t even begin to tell you how much of my sense of self I have lost, thank goodness. Yes, it is a good thing, but something you just can’t ever prepare for in the end.

By the way, I don’t think everyone’s experience with moving to a new country is like this. Mine has been hard because I made it hard. I did. First, I removed all anchors to my old life by not bringing a lot of possessions with me. Second, my husband and I consciously left our old life in Austin behind by not visiting similar stores or even speaking English outside our home in Spain. Third, we stayed in confusion by not having English-speaking friends. Not having our home language available to tell our well-rehearsed rote story in helped us let go of it. We realized we could be anyone we wanted to be, why waste such a wonderful opportunity?

Confused and Out of Sorts
We simply lived in Spain, confused and out of sorts. We went to local hangouts, local grocery stores and spoke the language, (very poorly, I might add). And this was good because the busy-ness of our old life had kept us from talking about things in our relationship that needed to be addressed. In our secluded, small piso we had all we needed to address the deeper issues that naturally come up in a marriage.

And that wasn’t all I discovered. I discovered a bunch of beliefs about money and work and productivity I thought for sure I had conquered. Nope, they were alive and well. Hola!

I had my fair share of spiritual crisis, too. So many dark nights of the ego! Once a dark night showed up, I couldn't escape it. I had no excuses. So I kept digging in, deeper and deeper because, well, I had the time to do so. But I wouldn’t recommend it because finding one’s short comings is not fun.

So as not to get too personal, I’ll share one such realization I came to in the Spring of 2018 that shifted how I conducted myself and business.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road
After many soul-searching, gut wrenching arguments with my husband and lots of meditation practices, I realized my validation hungry ego was alive and well. My work made no sense, especially the radio show and new website that ended up being a huge waste of hard-earned money. But such is life when you don’t know which (dysfunctional) part of yourself is running the show.

It’s insights like these that sometimes only happen when you’ve taken some time off from your self and your busy life. My lack of distractions was a really good thing, and layers of old beliefs and old stories peeled away. I continued to work my a** off for the rest of Spring and into the Summer.

Hi! Como se Llama?
By June I felt healthy enough to start socializing again. A wise sage, my hairstylist Tony, said to me one day in May, “Honey, you are making your time here too hard. You need friends. Make English-speaking friends, you need people in your life. Go get yourself some girlfriends.” So, I did.

I started putting down my roots, (pun intended), by finding an English-speaking Chiro-massage Therapist to help me address some physical pain. That encounter led me to a professional woman’s group where I slowly started meeting people.

This Wasn't the Plan
As I reflect on this past year, I can honestly say I am not where I thought I’d be. I currently live within the walls of the Old City, Barcino. I’ve only seen a handful of clients this past year instead of the hundred new ones I imagined.

The internet presence that was supposed to bring me riches, (LOL), brought me insight and no money. That insight is probably worth more money than I can imagine, but doesn’t necessarily look good on the business balance sheet. Oops.

Sometimes having invaluable life lessons are better, though. And a dose of mental discipline goes a long way. I’ve shored up my meditative practice and, after giving up my spiritual life, I’ve come into some of the most spirit-filled experiences and insights scattered within the musings of everyday life. Take that, New Age Industry.

The Good Life
In my 30's I used to wear lots of T-shirts with the Life is Good logo on them. I used to get them at Whole Earth Provision Company or Academy in Austin. It was just a mantra, (okay more like a wish), back then.

But today as I sit in my dimly lit, 14th century stone-walled living room in Barcelona, I know life IS good. It is beautiful, gritty, noisy – perfect in every way.

I really look forward to our next year in Spain. By writing this post I realize that I am doing another round of letting go. Instead of the physical items of last year, though, I am letting go of old, mostly non-physical things. This year's purge is about letting go of old ideas, outdated thought patterns and unfinished digital projects. Sheesh, another round of purging?

I can do this. I must do this.

Okay, with that kind of encouragement, I will devote the rest of the year to finishing old projects and purging all the outdated, digital information from the “self-growth business” of the past few years.

Sweet! I'm feeling excited now. How about you?

One thing is for sure: Getting rid of old, stale versions of ourselves takes time.

Who Am I?

JanisU — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:08:08 GMT

If I asked you who you are, what would you say? Would you say you are an American, an Italian, or a Spaniard? Would you tell me you had kids or grandkids? Would you tell me you were a doctor, an engineer or a programmer?

I’ve lived abroad for almost 10 months now. Before moving to Spain for an undetermined amount of time, I wouldn’t have even thought about telling you I was American. I lived in America and most of the people I knew were American. We all spoke English and some of us dabbled in other languages.

I have to admit, I took being American for granted. It wasn’t anything I had to explain or talk about. But living in Spain, I am different. I don't meet many Americans in daily life.

We purposely immersed ourself in the culture. It's been hard, lonely and vulnerable. Even though we have done our best to learn the language, we are not able to communicate as effectively as we are used to back home. I’ve felt like a toddler again, learning one word at a time and short phrases as they come.

Language immersion is hard.

Beyond Language
I took a two-week refresher on basic Spanish when I first got here. It was weird because I was the only American in the class. Most people were from Germany, England or Italy. Just the other day someone at a conference pegged me for an American just by the way I spoke English. I was impressed. And then wondered, “Wait, do we speak English that distinctly?” I asked her, she laughed, and said yes.

This was yet another learning experience for me. I have learned so much about myself here. I naively thought that my move to Spain would be an experience of a place, not a person. And I certainly didn't think the person would be me.

I've always belived that I am who I am no matter where I go.

I've told my kids on numerous occasions, “Remember, wherever you go, you always take yourself with you.” But I am not sure this is the case anymore. I think there is always a new self, (or old self), to discover when you move your old fish-y self to another pond.

The question is, will you allow yourself to be open-minded about who you are? Can you get to know another version of yourself?

Who Am I Today?
I like to ask myself "Who am I?" on a regular basis. I like doing this because it reminds me to notice how I am feeling or dealing with a new situation. It helps me go second position to myself and learn more about what I really like, what I don’t like and how I actually interact with people.

Years ago someone told me that you could live life in meditation and meditate in life. I thought that was one of the strangest things I’d ever heard. Being curious, I started pondering what that might be like, to be a meditator on and off the cushion.

My first experience with observing and wrestling with this idea took place during a language immersion course. Without my language, I found myself incapable of explaining who I was and how I lived my life to people from different countries. I was scared, angry and very disoriented. I quit in the middle of the experience (for an evening) and went back to speaking English. I cried. I laughed at myself. It was my first realization that I had a story to tell (about me) and needed my “home language” to ‘splain myself.

I didn’t know it back then but that 10-day experience prepared me to live in Spain. During that experience, I learned how to meditate in life, to observe and allow situations to arise. I learned that I am not my story, and quite honestly, that no one cared about the version of me I stored in my head.

Old and New
Which brings us back to the question at hand. Who are you? Right now, who would you say you are? I would say I am an American living in Spain. I would also say that I am beginning to identify as a global citizen. In fact, I like this emerging identity better because it feels more like truth. People are people every where.

As I meet more and more people from different countries, I am learning we are all the same. I am also learning that our culture is very important to our identity, and how we see the world is very much an extension of what we’ve been exposed to and how we’ve been raised.

This is neat because by living abroad I am finding more facets of myself. I love the facets that have been carved and polished by my American upbringing and, at the same time, I enjoy being a free electron bouncing around and interacting with people from other parts of the world, getting to know me.

Through Another's Eyes
The most interesting part of this experience has been how people perceive my culture. Many have hesitantly asked me about my culture and observations they’ve made while visiting the U.S. One of my favorite observations has to do with passports. People can’t believe we aren’t issued passports from birth. I tell them I never thought about having one and perhaps, like me, most people dream about visiting all 50 states, which in itself can take an entire lifetime to accomplish.

These conversations have been the most eye opening because they move me into second position and I get to see what they see. And, it works the other way, too.

Another Language, Another Soul
I read a quote the other day about language. It said something like "the man who learns another language gains another soul". As I continue to study and speak more Spanish, that makes sense to me. As I struggle to learn the language, different thought processes come up.

I've had some practice with this soul emergence. In 2014, I took on Esperanto as a second language. My immersion experience unexpectedly opened me up to a more extroverted, adventuress side of me. I was changed for ever. In fact, that course was the first global experience I ever had.

Speaking with people from Tawaiin and Japan and other countries using only beginner Esperanto ignited something in me. And a new facet emerged, I call her the world traveler, and I bet you the seed for moving abroad was planted at that time.

Continued Emergence
So who knows who I will be next year, right? For now, I will live in Spain and continue observing who I am.

Before I go, I’ll share what I’ve learned about myself so far:

I am an extrovert, really and truly. All my life I identified with being introverted. Nope.
I am the most flexible I’ve ever been. Wavy lines or no line at all? No problem. Bikes, pedestrians and cars all on the same narrow street without "slower traffic keep right". Sure. Bring it on.
I feel fortunate to be an American. Living abroad has made me appreciate my nationality. I love sharing my culture with others as much as I enjoy learning about theirs.

I’m sure there will be more insights as I become more fluent in Spanish and, perhaps, learn Catalan, (hey, why not?). You can't have too many souls, right?

Language. The gateway drug to the soul.

Year End Reflections

JanisU — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 19:29:57 GMT

I can't believe the end of the year is upon us. 2017 has been quite a ride. I am sitting in the living room looking out the window at the still night outside. The sky is full of clouds, making the sky seem a dark gray.

A couple of nights ago I looked out the window of the bedroom to find the Big Dipper constellation. It was so beautiful and bright. The sky was so clear and I couldn't believe that I could see it so well given I live in one of the busiest, well lit areas of Barcelona.

Integrating Change

It takes a while to integrate all the sensory inputs in a city this dense. It has definitely taken me a while to adjust to all the activity. I finally integrated some information, like where we live and why the metro line we live near is so busy.

We live between two of the busiest metro hubs, Espanya and Catalunya. This makes our trips during busy times of the day quite fun as most of the metro cars are full.

We also live 2 blocks from Gran Via. It was nice to be able to walk over during the Christmas season because they put up a lot of shops along the main row. One of my favorite perks from this shop area was roasted chestnuts. For a few nights in a row, John and I walked over and enjoyed some roasted chestnuts straight from the fire into our hands.

The Christmas season is not quite over yet, we've got another week to go. The twelve days of Christmas start on Christmas Day here and I've really enjoyed the laid back manner of life here since Christmas Eve.

Physical Feedback

Nick and John are sick. They've been sick for the past couple of days. I am hoping I don't get sick. They seem to have a cold or something. I was on antibiotics a couple of weeks ago after I got a gland abscess.

So the end of the year has brought some physical adjustments to us but we are all still happy and relatively healthy in Spain. There has been a lot to adjust to for sure but we are almost 3 months in. Being here for that long is a big accomplishment. It hasn't always been easy.

Emotional Feedback

I have been homesick a couple of times. And being in a small piso day in and day out can take some getting used to. We haven't always got along, but we've managed to have some open and healing conversations with one another.

My friends have busier lives on a daily basis than I do and it makes it hard to connect with them. It can be lonely at times but I do the best I can to reach out to them and keep them in my life.

I've started some new projects while I have been here and those are going well. These projects have also pushed me to my limits sometimes, too. So I've had some good, old fashioned "cry sessions".

Changing Identity

I've been changing and shifting for about 9 years now. Self growth is all about change. And changing how one lives on a daily basis is one of the biggest growth challenges to be had. To date, I've probably changed the concept of who I am about 6 times. This one is the biggest shifts I've made.

Because our footprint is so small here, it has helped me spend more time with myself and within my relationships with work and my family in different ways. It has been healing, too. I've spent a lot of time clearing out memories and post-processing all the steps it took to get here. One of which was giving up all of our stuff.

Letting Go

We didn't intend to become minimalists but our move here forced us to be smart about what we brought and how we lived. We don't buy much, each of us have a small amount of clothing and a couple of pair of shoes, (I have about 5 pair), and most of our information, books, pictures, etc. are stored on computers.

We live in a furnished piso and don't have to attend to the upkeep of the place outside of cleaning and dusting. All this has brought a couple of our ideas to life. John and I talked about living in a tiny home at some point in our life and the other day we realized this is pretty close to living in one. If you saw our bathroom, you'd know what I am talking about.

We talked about pairing down the items we each had and throughout the past three moves, we've paired down quite a bit of our stuff. This last round led us to having only a small storage unit left in Austin, (that still has too much stuff in it!), and a couple of suitcases we brought to Spain.

It's been quite an accomplishment as we both had very full lives before this move. And with full lives come a lot of furniture and books and tools. I watched a video I made last year as we prepared to move out of the duplex and I saw all my clothes hanging up. I left most of them behind and up until that moment I had forgotten how many of them did not come with me.

Looking Forward

I'm not sure what next year will bring to us or the country or the world, but for now, as I watch the Christmas lights blink across the way, I am feeling grateful.

I look forward to family visits and to seeing Nick play futbol. I also look forward to my new work projects and seeing what new stuff John creates in his work environment.

But most of all, I am happy to say we feel safe in our place and in Barcelona. We have already seen a piece of France and we look forward to seeing more of Europe while we are here.

Its about the verbs, not the nouns

JohnU — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 19:38:23 GMT

We have lived in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain for almost two and a half months now. There are many differences in the culture and society that I have observed, most of which I am giving time to think about before writing. One observation, however, I am ready to talk about is called "focusing on verbs instead of nouns"

The Setup

I am a systems person and so analogy is going to come from that arena, yet I will save you from too many technical points.

In object oriented programming, you organize what you want to have happen by creating objects. Examples of objects include Person, Bank, Bank Account, and Messages that get sent between them.

Here's an example: Bob(Person) tells Banco Santander (Bank) to transfer money from his checking account (Bank Account) to Jane's checking account (Bank Account).

Normally in designing a program the programmer will decide all the objects, then he/she decides what messages they will send. This has been the standard practice for decades and is how most programmers are taught to code.

Ironically, though, the first pioneers in object oriented programming emphasized something else. Instead of focusing on objects first, they focused on the messages, the action, the verbs, or interactions such as, request transfer, or move money, first.

When they understood what would happen to the objects (or characters, or nouns), the objects would naturally pop out, such as Client, Account, or Request.

Inevitably the objects and messages will be different within each approach. For example, designing from messages first moved towards a better system that was more maintainable, simpler, and easier to understand.

OMG what's the point already?

Thanks for sticking with me.

It is a very subtle point, indeed. What I have found living in Barcelona is this: they focus on the messages first and the effect on objects, (people), is huge.

First Example

I read a lease here a month ago and could understand it, even though Spanish is not my first language and I am far from fluent, I could understand the lease.

Contrast that with reading a lease in the United States where English is my first language. I even have degree obtained using English and yet I have never been able to understand 100% of a lease, more like 40-50%.

Why? Here the lease seems to be written with the goal of facilitating understanding and communication to those who are party to the lease rather than the goal of defending someone legally.

Second Example

Today we found ourselves needing to see a doctor at one of the local hospitals. No worries, it was a minor issue and everyone is fine.

We made an appointment online through our insurance provider's website, showed up, showed our insurance card to reception and signed a one page document.

After that we were told to wait about 20 minutes until they called our name to see a doctor. Seems simple and an obvious solution. But if you're in the United States, getting situated that quickly seems more like a pipe dream.

In the United States you would have to find a doctor around you, but not really because then you would have to go to your insurance provider's website to see if they were part of their network.

Most of the time, the website would be out of date and the doctor out of network. Likely So you'd have to find another doctor and do it all over again.

Once you found a doctor you would have to call the clinic/hospital and make an appointment, then transferred to the hospital staff to give them your insurance information.

You would then go to your appointment, but upon arrival, you would once again have to give your insurance card so they could confirm with the insurance provider you were covered.

You would also be given 4-5 pages to fill out and return to the reception area. After all of that, you would still wait a long time to see the doctor.

Whew, an entire paragraph to describe the US version, and one sentence for the Spain version. I did not really use liberties with the United States version as I have had to do it so many times in my life. I still simplified the process down quite a bit. Sometimes you'd find yourself filling out forms again or finding out at your appointment that the procedure would not be covered for some reason.

What's the count?

Spain: 4 objects, 5 interactions
United States: 7 objects, 12 interactions

Bear in mind, that's if everything goes well, and you know it never does. Usually interactions can be up to three to four times more complex and/or time consuming.

Why?

Why the difference? The systems here are designed from interactions first, and this makes it easier for all people (objects), in the system. When you are one of the objects,a person, trying to sign a lease or seek medical attention, it really makes all the difference.

In the US, user-centric design is not unknown. It is even implemented, sometimes. It is just never the first approach. It is usually "bolted on" at the end when it is done.

Am I just being a Señor Complainypants? I hope not. Again as a systems person, I naturally study systems in my life. I notice the objects (people) in the system and the interactions between them.

Conclusion

What I am saying is that instead of ranting about how this or that could be better if only this object or this person did this, there is another approach.

If when creating a system, instead of thinking about the nouns or actors and improving from there, what if we thought about who needs to say or know something and improve from that interaction?

We'd get a much better designed system. When the majority of your daily interactions have been thought through this way, they build on each other in amazing and fascinating ways.

And as a person interacting within the system, you tend not to feel like you are getting lost "in the machine" or "in a corporation's structure". You feel like a human talking to other humans. You feel heard, and this feeds the human-ness within us especially when we are signing an agreement or feeling sick.

P.S. Don't get me wrong I have been interacting with a coach for 6 weeks going through the process of getting a kid on a soccer team and at times it is frustrating, but I'd take 6 weeks of an interaction-first system than 15 seconds in a DMV.

Our First Thanksgiving Abroad

JanisU — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:05:29 GMT

John said something today that reminded me about our blog. I realized I hadn’t written for a couple of weeks now. Eek!

As we were enjoying the sites of Nantes for the last time before our flight, he mentioned the fact that we'd only had our residency cards for 10 days. Huh? Only 10 days?

As I thought about that short amount of time, it definitely seemed like we had picked them up over a month ago, not 10 days ago.

I definitely have a different sense of time in this part of the world.

Picking up Residency Cards

We decided to go to the police station early afternoon on a Friday, right before my last Spanish class. I believe that was the 17th of November.

I was super excited to be finishing 2 weeks, 20 hours, of Beginner Spanish. Side note, I have definitely felt more confident speaking the language in daily situations.

Practice, Practice, Practice. I am studying on my own using Duolingo and some handouts from a course I took when I was at Austin Energy so I can keep the momentum going.

Back to the 17th. We arrived at the police station and only had to wait about 2 minutes to be called to the counter. Our cards were ready and we picked them up within 10 minutes. It went by so quickly, especially for such a big milestone in our “To Spain” project. It was an awesome step to accomplish because it was the last milestone we needed to complete.

Is that All?

I am not sure we really got to savor the moment as much as we had anticipated we would. When we originally pondered moving to Spain, we imagined the milestones would be filled with a huge sense of accomplishment. I thought they might include some sort of universal party, too. LOL

But when you are living your day to day life, with food to buy and classes to attend, you can get a little pre-occupied. And for us it was also the week before Thanksgiving. There was much to do before the holiday: Nick’s schoolwork, my website edits, and completing Spanish class were on our minds.

We decided to take a trip for Thanksgiving break. The trip happened unexpectedly. We had only made plans for it just
two weeks prior to our departure. One Sunday we started talking about "getting away" and before we knew it, the idea became a reality.

At the time it seemed like an excellent time to "disappear" since everyone we know in the States would be celebrating...without us.

We decided to travel to France because it is very close and Nick has a list of ships he'd like to see while we are living abroad. Since France is only a short drive or flight away from where we live we asked him to look for something he'd like to see there.

Thanksgiving Away from Home

As I write this post, we are sitting at a table for four in the Nantes Airport cafe. We are super early for our flight because we had to leave our AirBnB.

It was a quick trip from where we were staying to the airport, and way cheaper than the taxi cab we took from the airport when we arrived. Talk about sticker shock.

We always seem to spend a lot of money getting from the airport to our rentals no matter where we travel. I think it is worth it though, because landing in a strange place late at night is just too hard to navigate and we are usually tired.

Just as we spend a lot of money up front, we also seem to make up for the expense at departure. I think it is because by that time we’ve had experience with the area and we know how to buy tram and bus tickets, something that can be quite confusing at the get go.

Why France?

We decided to go to France for Thanksgiving break because most people would be preoccupied with family gatherings and Nick’s school was going to observe the standard Thanksgiving break, with Wednesday through Friday off.

It seemed like a perfect time to get away. We chose Nantes so Nick could see the Maille Breze, a beautiful destroyer commissioned in 1956. They filmed parts of the Dunkirk movie aboard the ship. I’ve been on quite a few airplanes, (parked), and subs during my days as Nick’s mom so I know a thing about tours, and ships, and planes.

Probably way more than I ever wanted to know.

The tour of the Maille Breze was very thorough and the ship is in very good condition. We saw it the first afternoon we were in Nantes. We also saw Les Machines and the downtown area. It was Black Friday weekend so we got to see a lot of Christmas lights and people shopping. We also saw some of the most beautiful landmarks, including the cathedral and the castle.

The weather shifted on Saturday from cold to “Oh, my gosh that wind is really cold” cold. This morning we awoke to a temperature that felt like 35 degrees.

Reflections

As I sit here waiting for our gate to be assigned, I have to say we had a great trip and we are ready to return home to Barcelona tonight.

One of the things we appreciated most about our stay in Nantes was the quiet. Our place is in heart of Eixample which means there is non-stop street noise. Between that and the neighbors and the ambulances, we don’t usually have the luxury of hearing the wind blow gently or the sweet sound of nothing. Nantes fed my nature lover and my cup runneth over today.

John seemed to relax a lot, too. He told me he didn’t know he needed the break until we spent a couple of nights there. I agreed with him. We all seemed to benefit from some nature time. The trees are huge here, and include a variety I don't normally see: chestnut, persimmon and pine.

There was so much grass and water to enjoy, too! My inner nature lover was in heaven. I spent as much time as I could with my feet in the grass and my hands on the trees. We took some amazing photos, rich with a variety of colors as the leaves were changing for the season. Leaves of rich red, orange and yellow colors graced our foot steps as we walked to places like Lidl and various pastry shops.

A Break is Always Good

No matter where you live, it's always nice to get away. I’m glad we took a break from our daily life. Though I have to say our daily life in Spain is very relaxing, despite the hustle and bustle of Barcelona.

This week we will return to business. Nick will get back to school and John and I will get back to working on our projects. I’ll be launching my radio show a week from tomorrow and have much to do to prepare for my time on air.

Shifting Perspectives

It is funny how projects we began in our home country seem to have different purposes now. Because I am more relaxed, I don’t feel the pressure to succeed. Everything I do seems to have a different version of me driving it.

I feel more like my younger self, more free of “what will people think about this?” expectations that I had at home. I had been in Austin for 17 years so the chances of running into someone from my engineering career, coaching practice or people from my boys’ education there was high.

But here nobody knows us. And it is nice to be unknown here. I feel I can just be myself and it gives me a chance to find out more about me, rather than who I think I should be.

One of my goals for our time here is to shed whatever masks I might still have lurking in my suitcase. It is amazing how we take cues from our environment and try to become who we think the environment wants us to be.

As a coach I know how hard it is for people to “let others down”, especially the people we love dearly. But I also know how amazing it is to feel free of positioning and competition. This is something I've dived into for years now. It's amazing to me how many layers of shedding this type of work requires.

But I keep at it, because I really like my self.

Who's Running the Show?

The downside to me recovering more of my younger self is that poor Nick is stuck with me. He sometimes has a look about him that says, “What has happened to you?”

I usually tell him that I am perfectly fine, and that I was naturally goofy and silly way before he came on the scene. I don’t know that he believes me but in time I hope he can relax and just be him, too...whoever he really is or who he wants to be.

So it's worth getting a look of slight concern on his face if it releases him from whatever masks he's wearing.

But there is a time for masks, like Mardi Gras. Oooh, we should travel to see some Mardi Gras celebrations...

Focus, Self. Focus.

Back to Thanksgiving. We survived our first holiday away from home. I missed my sons and my family. I missed the turkey and dressing and pumpkin pies more than I imagined.

Thank goodness for Facebook pictures of some yummy Thanksgiving spreads. I have the best friends and family ever and I can't wait to talk to them soon.

The One Month Mark

JanisU — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:54:28 GMT

We've been in Barcelona for a little over a month now. Daily life is coming together, we have less interruptions to our daily routine and that feels nice.

It's also been two weeks since we were approved for residency. We've been using the receipt they issued us on October 26th for things like Nick's futbol physical exam and player application until we are able to pick up the cards.

We will be going next Monday to check on them. Getting the residency cards will be the last step in the "To Spain" project. I am excited to check it off our list of "to dos" and officially close out the project.

Diving Into the Language

John and I signed up for Spanish classes a couple weeks ago. There's nothing like daily immersion to encourage you to learn a new language. Not being able to hold a simple conversation has made me very uneasy.

I started the Beginner class and John started the A1 level class this past Monday. It has been neat to hear a lot of English spoken in one place. I've enjoyed meeting people from different countries, too. In my class I have people from Germany, Turkey, England, Scotland, France and Russia. I am the only participant from the U.S.

I haven't met this many people from other countries since NASK, (annual Esperanto immersion learning), in 2014. That was the year NASK was held in Canada, and people from all over the world attended. It's since been held in North Carolina.

I have a lot of fond memories of the 2014 course. It was my first international experience which showed me the possibility of having a more internationally based life. This is something I've dreamed of since I was a little girl.

Are You Ready for Some Futbol?

Nick attends futbol practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the park just below the bridge at Marina. He was quickly placed on a team after tryouts. His team hopes to get on the game schedule soon. Once Nick is approved for play, they will have a complete team and can play. I'm still in awe about how easy it was for us to find a team in need of a goalkeeper. As a Course in Miracles says, "Miracles are natural occurrences".

Nick went to the last two practices by himself. Letting him go on the metro by himself was a big step for me. My baby is growing up. He is more happy when we don't go to practice, you know how teenagers are. The less they are seen with their parents the better. I won't always stay home when he practices, but I do like to give him some time on his own so he can learn how to take care of himself without us.

He's done very well and he seems to enjoy having us trust him to get to and from practice on his own. We still have him text us when he arrives and when he leaves to ensure he is safe. Hey, I'm still his mom, I'll always think about him. I still think about his brothers and they are in their twenties. It's a mom thing. I just heard him roll his eyes at me. LOL

Why is it So Cold?

Tenemos frio. We finally settled in to our piso (apartment) last week, and just when we got everything figured out, we discovered the heating option on our AC/heater unit "no worky."

The weather in Barcelona changed quite drastically this week, bringing the heater issue to the forefront of our attention.

Cold winds and low temperatures mixed with high humidity make for some cold days. I call this "wet cold" and I don't do well with this type of cold. I prefer the drier cold, you know when the humidity is 40% or less. The lowest temperature I've faced during my morning walk to Spanish class has been 46 degrees with 87% humidity. Brrr.

This week, I've walked to school at 9am every morning and what I've discovered is an interesting fun fact. Mornings have the most sunlight. That time of day brings us the most we see of the sun for the whole day.

It also seems to be the warmest part of the day, too. By the time my class is over at 11:30, the sun seems to be hiding behind the clouds and it definitely feels a lot colder. As I write this today, it is 2pm and the sun is still out, a first for me this week. The trend is warmer temperatures, in the 60s, for the weekend. Yay, that's some really good news for me!

The cold weather has offered me some contrast, though. I've learned a lot about European clothing. The jeans I brought here from the US seem to allow more cold air in, while the pants I bought here deflect the wind more.

I bought three pair of pants since we arrived and I notice the material is lighter yet more tightly woven. This means that I sweat less when it is hot and the material keeps the cold air off my legs when it is cold.

After this week's cold snap, John and I decided we need some gloves. My hands have been very cold this week. It can get pretty chilly in the evenings, especially when the wind blows. This week we found ourselves missing our gloves. We wish we had brought our winter gloves with us. When we went to buy some gloves at La Corte Ingles, we realized they were very expensive. Brands we could get for around $20 at a Target were at least 50 dollars here.

Other items that are hard to find and expensive are beach towels and beach wear. Shoes are quite expensive here, too. I've got to retire my "comfort" shoes that I brought from the US because they just don't cut it here. I'm down to one pair of shoes that have passed the European walking test. I bought them at Karavel shoes in Austin and they are by far the best pair of shoes I could have brought to Barcelona.

https://www.thewalkingcompany.com/taos-star-/49718

They are green so they stick out and don't necessarily match what I'm wearing but the fun thing about Barcelona is that shoes have more character here and people really play around with mixing and matching colors, so I fit right in.

Today I make it my mission to find some black comfortable shoes for me. I will slowly replace my U.S. shoes through time because at my age it is really important to take care of my feet.

What I Miss from Home

We've been here long enough to get homesick. While everyday living has been easy to adapt to, there are some things I miss about home. I miss being able to text my friends often. We have Spanish phone numbers here but texting and data options are circa 1990's. We get charged per text and per call. The prices for data are a bit high, too.

I normally use Skype or Google Fi, (Android phone), when I want to connect with my friends but it is not the same. I've been using Facebook a lot more than I expected because sending a message is easier and I can keep people updated in groups versus having to do it one at a time.

I miss the face time with my friends the most. I had friends that I could meet up with for breakfast or lunch or at each other's homes and that is a thing of the past. It can get a little lonely at times, but we've been keeping in touch really well consider the time zone difference.

Ah, the time zone difference. We are 7 hours ahead of Austin and 9 hours ahead of the radio show network that hosts my internet radio show. Working with the production team doesn't start, (for me), until around 4 or 6pm. As a family we are used to working as late as 12 or 1am to accommodate U.S. hours.

Nick's due dates for his online school changed, too, when we moved here. Instead of assignments being due at 11:59pm each day, they are due at 4:59am the next day. He was quite bummed about this change because it means he has work due on Saturday mornings. Ha, ha.

What else do I miss? I miss some of my favorite restaurants although we have a variety of foods here. I am also getting to experiment with seafood more. They eat octopus and squid like we eat hamburgers and barbecue in Texas.

I miss my trees and all the nature around my place. It takes some effort to take the metro or walk a few blocks to a park. Parks here have more concrete and sand. There are usually signs posted to keep off the grass, something I just don't understand. Grass is made for walking and sitting and playing in.

I miss my client work at times, too. I have really come to appreciate the years I spent working in an office setting with my clients.

I really enjoyed the massage table work and I enjoyed hosting clients in my space. I bought some incense and Palo Santo when I got here so that I can still light up some "smelly stuff", it reminds me of home.

I also bought some tea light candles. I've learned to use them as an anchor to work time and sometimes the lighting of a candle brings back some fond memories of working with clients.

Transitions

Overall, I am very, very happy we made this move. While transitions can be hard, we've managed to plan this one out well. Like I've mentioned before, we've been very deliberate about this move. We've practiced living here by living in a small, slightly uncomfortable space in Austin.

As a family, we visualized living here. We also talked about it often over the past year, acting as if we were already here. We also set goals and intentions for what we wanted to achieve. These goals have served us well as we have something to look forward to achieving during the year and it reminds us to take advantage of our time here.

This wraps back around to Nick playing futbol and John and I learning Spanish. What's next for us? Transitioning our home environment to Spanish so Nick can become fluent in the language. John and I would also like to learn the native language of Catalan. And, of course, futbol games. We look forward to seeing Nick play competitively.

Residency

JanisU — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 15:05:51 GMT

It has been many days since I've written a blog. Let's just say there's been a lot going on in our little world. This week we've been sorting through our residency requirements with the immigration attorneys we hired back in September.

After the long process with the Consulate and relocation, we just didn't have it in us to navigate through the residency requirements on our own. When you move to Spain, you have 30 days to apply for residency. So while we all have our visas, they are only good for 90 days. This is geared to give you enough time to obtain a residency card.

Hiring Help

John didn't tell me about the residency process until we were a few days out from leaving Austin. I thought it was funny that he didn't tell me, but, as he guessed, it was a good thing he didn't. Had I known we had another process to go through after the visa process, I probably would have called it a day and moved in with my family.

Given what we've been through this week, hiring a firm to help us was by far the best money we've spent this year. They filled out all the required forms, made us an appointment and navigated the on site conversations.

We seemed to have a lot coming at us this week. I received a jury duty summons at the end of last week, so I began contacting them on Tuesday. We also received correspondence from one of the local fútbol organizations, inviting Nick to try out on Tuesday night.

John's been attending meetups, we've both been homesteading, (making our place a home), and we also went to enroll in Spanish classes on Monday.

The Bin

Part of the homesteading progress included finally picking up our bin from DHL last Friday. We decided to ship shoes, textbooks, microscopes, and physical therapy items to save on suitcase space. Had we known the difficulty we'd encounter in doing so, we probably wouldn't have shipped them.

When delivery stalled, we were asked to meet with customs in person and self certify our goods. This also meant we needed to pay an import tax.

Getting to DHL was not easy. While we made it to the airport via subway pretty easily, navigating the airport back roads was not going to happen on foot.

We found a really nice taxi driver, though and she helped us the rest of the way. She also helped us communicate with people as most of them did not speak English. This was amazing of her because she didn't speak English either. It took us four hours and a 60 euro taxi ride to get the bin home. It was a tough Friday morning.

A Hard Week

By Tuesday of this week, I decided that it had indeed been a very intense week. It seemed the challenges of Friday followed us into this week. Yikes!

I know I have mentioned hard weeks a lot during this move, but I assure you not all days or all weeks are this hard. You just usually hear about the hard ones because, well, isn't writing all about expression? And as you can tell, I normally write just after the hard days subside.

Remember Where You've Been

I remember to write after we've overcome a hurdle or a challenge because I don't want to forget some of the challenges we've faced. It is easy to remember the good times, like WE LIVE IN SPAIN!

Beyond all the awesome meals and adventures, there are challenges and I want to honor the challenges we face because, after all, we are writing this blog so others can do what we've done without as many surprises.

We also want people to have some perspective on what it takes emotionally, physically and mentally to handle a significant life change like this. It's totally worth it, but not always easy.

Back to Residency

We learned Monday that we needed to get color photos for our residency application.

We ended up taking Nick to get his done Monday afternoon after he finished school. John and I decided to take our pictures on the way home from the language school that morning since we were out already and I was having a good hair day.

Harhr

Side bar. Let's talk about hair, (hahr), for a minute. Good hair days have been few and far between for me here. I can't seem to go as many days without washing my hair. In Austin, I was going 4-6 days without shampooing my hair but here I have to wash my hair at least every other day.

Getting our pictures taken on a good hair day made the rest of the week seem manageable. Little wins make for kinder weeks. :-)

Residency Appointment

Okay, back to residency. This morning we had our residency appointment. Our attorney met us at the government office and we waited in a fairly long line for our turn. We had an appointment, but we ended up waiting in the wrong area so we missed our appointment slots.

We didn't have to wait too long, though, and today's appointment seemed much easier than the one we had on Tuesday. Prior to submitting our forms today, we had to go and get what is called an empadronamiento. What this basically means is that we had to report to the census office and "declare" we lived here.

Getting the empadronamiento was a bit involved as we had to get a more "official" lease for our residence. We rented our place using AirBNB. Let's just say that Barcelona and AirBNB are still finding their way with short term rental agreements here.

We have a long term rental through a registered company which makes things a lot easier for us. But just to be sure we didn't have any issues with residency, we obtained a lease agreement from our landlord on Tuesday morning. Everyone has been so helpful.

The Tuesday afternoon appointment at the census office was a bit scary and we ended up not having all the documentation we needed in order to get Nick's document. Thank goodness one of the law firm assistants accompanied us because the first person we spoke with did not speak any English and we needed to make a follow up appointment.

We were able to make an appointment for an 1 and 1/2 later and proceeded to get back on the subway to retrieve the document we left at home. Ah, all the trips back and forth really got to me.

Traveling by Foot

I've learned it's not so much the riding on the subway that gets to you but rather the physical challenge lies within the endless tunnels and the stairs and the steep stairs, oh the stairs and the more stairs...lol.

And once you get to the street level, there is more walking to your destination. John usually tells me it is a block but it seems to be more like 3-4 blocks of walking. I wonder if he tells me that so I don't just plop myself on the street and hail a taxi...

What I have also learned is it is all about wearing the right shoes. In the right shoes, all of this movement is not too big of a deal. I have two pair of shoes that fall into this category.

But this day, we decided to dress nicely for our appointment so by the time I got home my feet were beyond tired. The shoes that I considered to be some of my most comfortable walking shoes in Austin didn't seem up to the task. They probably shouldn't have been shipped in the bin. Ah, the bin incident of 2017.

I definitely look forward to buying some shoes more suitable to my pedestrian lifestyle.

Okay, so my feet hurt. And, I was sweating. I've been told it is unseasonably warm here. Of course it is, we are here.

With that said, we have realized the fabrics our clothes are made of tend to be a bit thicker than the fabrics here so they take longer to dry in the milder weather, the temperature range varies only about 5-8 degrees daily, and they don't seem to be as breathable as they could be.

Success

We did get the empadronamientos for everyone on Tuesday. Progress. That is our new saying here. We simply say, "Progress." Our taxi cab driver last Friday kept saying it whenever we made a little progress with DHL or the airport people. It made us laugh so we've adopted it as our family mantra this week.

By the time we returned home from the census office we were spent. We had to navigate the second appointment all by ourselves and there is still nothing more uneasy for me than trying to communicate with someone who doesn't share a common language. I've gotta learn Spanish.

All the effort was worth it, we had everything we needed for the residency appointment today.

And we got some good news on Tuesday evening. Nick tried out for a goalie position on a team. He was accepted and assigned to a team. He will be practicing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with games on Friday evenings. Things seemed to be looking up. I was really tired that night, too much excitement for one day, I guess. We also had a tough conversation with the director at the futbol organization, he didn't speak English and we didn't have my passport on me. We intend to get Nick all squared away documentation-wise on Friday.

Documentation

As you can see, this post has a lot to do with documentation and communication. Basic conversations about enrolling your kid in soccer or how much your groceries cost at the store are difficult. I recommend that you hire someone to help you whenever possible with the big stuff because the little stuff is hard enough. And with residency cards at stake, you definitely don't want to misunderstand a requirement.

And with everything so new, it can be a lot on the nervous system. We take short, easy conversations for granted when we share a common language with someone. Here I feel accomplished if I can hear the phrase, "Para llevar." LOL

So while the big things like residency card processes are foreign, so are every day living situations. It takes some getting used to, for sure. Different weather, different ways of commuting and a lot more contact with the environment make for an interesting adjustment period.

Approved

To wrap up today's rap session, we have been approved for residency and should be able to pick up our cards in 30 days. PROGRESS. We have a nifty piece of paper that says we have accomplished this step.

Today is an important day. We get to celebrate the completion of a year long project. Yep, it took us over a year to get here.

We are at home in Spain, equipped with residency cards that don't expire until next October. We can now get on with daily living and immersing ourselves in the culture and the languages of this beautiful area.

Now, where does one buy some comfortable shoes?

Bottoming Out Days

JanisU — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:41:22 GMT

I have noticed that as a family we have what I call "bottoming out" days. These are days we all feel sluggish and a bit on edge. They seem to occur every 4th or 5th day. I attribute it mostly to sleep cycles and I can only imagine what our nervous systems are going through as they try to absorb and process all of the new sights and sounds around us.

We try to walk a lot here. We've got Nick walking 10,000 steps before he asks for a Coca Cola. Last weekend we ended up walking and seeing a lot of the Port of Barcelona, including Port Vell.

My body was very tired after the busy weekend and I did not sleep much on Sunday night. John didn't either and we met up about 3:30am in the living room. We contemplated making the most of our non sleep time by watching the sunrise. But sunrise wouldn't happen for another 4 and 1/2 hours, and that seemed too long away.

We ended up going back to sleep at 5am which made for a very long Monday. Nick awoke kind of grumpy and edgy. I imagine he felt as tired and out of sorts as we did.

All day yesterday I felt as if I was in a strange sleep state. My neck and shoulder area hurt a lot. I managed to go get groceries but anything more seemed to be too much. I didn't feel like working as I felt like I was in a foggy brain state. My body yelled for my physical therapy tools that haven't arrived yet. We shipped them in a storage bin since they were light and awkward shapes.

Ah, the bin. I sure would like to have the bin we shipped. Hoping it would meet us here, I had planned to be without my tools less than a week. It has been tied up in Customs now for over a week. We are hoping we are getting closer to its arrival today, at least that is what I am telling my body.

Some good news today makes me feel more hopeful about its arrival. John shipped his personal laptop the day we left Austin and it arrived this morning. I feel there might be an energetic shift happening that will bring the bin to us soon. We packed things like Nick's school books, deodorant, shoes, and some electronics, like a mouse, some cables and a microphone I use for dictation.

It would be great to have some of that stuff, especially our Native deodorant, we won't be able to buy that here. If you haven't tried it yet, you should, it is a wonderful alternative to most deodorant that contains aluminum, https://www.nativecos.com/product/deodorant-women/.

So every few days our bodies seem to say, "Enough!" and we find our family unit tired and in a strange mood. But we try to make the most of it and focus on the fact that we are here in Spain. Even bad days can seem a bit better because our dream to live in Spain has come true.

When I find myself in the state I was in yesterday, I usually take myself out of any project's critical path. My energy can be a bit much and if I am not resonating at the positive end of the scale, I seem to cause more problems or hold ups in the world around me. This I figured out after many years of trial and error in many projects that could have gone easier. LOL

I have discovered the best thing for me to do in states like the one I was in yesterday is to meditate and lay low. So yesterday I did some guided meditations and some simple breathing meditation to help the issues my neck has been having.

And how I miss my chiropractor, Dr. Rogers, he is really skilled with restoring functionality in people with cervical neck injuries, (https://www.facebook.com/Dr-Jason-Rogers-236709003132652/). Now how to get him to follow me here...

I am grateful we did a lot of work before I left, though, and I really do feel more empowered to live this active life. He specializes in the injury I incurred over 20 years ago and has been well equipped to take my body's frame to the next level of healing.

So even when my neck begins to hurt, I know some new exercises and anti-inflammatory actions I can take to help my body recover faster. Recovering faster from over exercise means less degeneration and pain messages for me.

And to that point, I have been amazed at how well my neck has been doing, it took it about two weeks to start yelling at me. That is some amazing progress because the two weeks I speak of were not normal weeks. They were filled with moving and cleaning and travel and walking. We've had a lot to adjust to, this pedestrian lifestyle requires a lot of the body. I am glad I took the time to work with Dr. Rogers. He really helped me get my muscles into good shape before I arrived.

Which brings us back to the physical therapy tools in the bin. Oh, bin, I can't wait until you arrive. I visualize you coming to our door every day and hope you get here soon. My muscles sure could use the precious objects you hold.

What we've learned about shipping internationally is this: don't expect the package you ship to arrive within a week. There are many steps we were unaware of. We also highly recommend shipping your items from someone who is knowledgeable about the shipping requirements of the destination country. We think our person wasn't as knowledgeable about customs in Spain and so we have run into some unexpected snags.

While the process is probably business as usual, we didn't expect to have the bin tied up for this long. And we've had to provide, as of yesterday, a copy of John's passport, his plane ticket and his residency info, (which we don't have yet). We also had to send a copy of the packing slip with estimated values to the customs agent yesterday even though the carrier was given a copy of it.

So there you have it, we are still waiting but celebrating the arrival of John's personal laptop. Yay! And Nick is feeling better today. All of us seem to be feeling better today and we look forward to taking Nick to a soccer practice, even if all he does is watch and mingle like he did last week.

Since he's been doing so well in school, our next project for him involves finding a way for him to play soccer. That is another process we weren't expecting to be so hard. Some things, like soccer, should get easier once we get our residency cards, though.

That appointment is next week.

Our First Week in Spain

JanisU — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 12:01:07 GMT

We've been in Spain for almost 6 days now. Unpacking our stuff was easy. We arrived with 3 medium sized luggage and 2 carry on bags. Each one of us had our laptop backpack on us.

I've been pretty impressed at the amount of stuff we didn't bring. We were careful not to exceed the weight limits posted on the airline website. In the end, we probably could have brought a few more items but we didn't want anything else to delay us from our departure.

Life is But a Dream

The last couple of days in Austin were surreal. We didn't have a home or our own transportation. We stayed in hotels and relied on the kindness of Nick's dad and my friend Susan to get us to and from places.

After unpacking all of our items we had some time to get settled in. We went walking around our neighborhood. We found our favorite store, LIDL, and bought a few items. We also found our way around our space. It was nice to take a shower and put away clothes, especially since we wore the same clothes for two days in a row.

The next day was filled with excitement. We were all still tired but it would be a few more days before we'd catch up on some sleep. The time difference has been difficult. Being 7 hours ahead of Austin means that all our friends and coworkers are asleep for most of our day. We can start connecting with people around 2pm our time, provided they are early birds.

Setting up a home is something I am pretty good at, so our space felt like a home in a very short time. I had a client session on Thursday evening, less then one day after our arrival. I had another client session on Saturday evening.

Enjoying the Familiar

It has been very easy for me to do my client sessions remotely. I think I've been practicing for this way of working for quite some time now. Alongside me, Nick got straight to work on Friday. Having weeks of international school at the duplex in Austin, he's done well adjusting to his new space. He even did some homework in the Frankfurt airport.

John went back to work yesterday. Today we are all doing our work in different areas of the apartment. Last night was the first night I watched a little Netflix just to relax.

Challenged by the New

The hardest experiences of the past week have definitely been the time difference and troubleshooting appliances. We had some issues with the fridge getting too cold or too warm and I have yet to master the washer/dryer. We have a funny situation with our hot water heater. If you want hot water in the kitchen, you've got to turn the shower on in the bathroom first.

It was terribly hot the first few nights so by Saturday we were out looking for table and floor fans. Our building gives us access to the outside by way of the balcony and a small window in the bathroom. Overnight the air can become very still with all the doors to the balcony closed and it can be hard to get comfortable.

We paid a lot for the fans we found in a shop three subway stops from our place but after using them a few days, the money spent has been well worth it.

Getting Out in the World

Yesterday we took Nick to the Egyptian museum of Barcelona. He has been studying Egypt in World History so we thought we'd take him to see some of the artifacts from that period. And it gave us a great excuse to get out of the house.

The night before, John and Nick found a street festival so we hung out there for a little while. There were a lot of vendors and amazing beef and chicken kabobs. I also had some sangria to take the edge off of the day's laundering events. I will master the washer and dryer programmes one day!

What else? Oh, we have new phone numbers and a European phone plan. I like that we can get a hold of each other easily. Living in a new place with a 14 year old can be a bit nerve-wracking. I feel better now that Nick has a wallet and a working phone again. The other day John got Nick a 90 day metro card at a really good student rate.

We also set up our GoogleFi phone, not once but twice. That was quite the ordeal. Today I need to work on getting WebinarJam up and running for work. I also have an interview this evening to launch my new radio show and webinar work.

Settling In Feels Good

John is settling into work today. Nick is kicking schoolwork's butt. I am still trying to find a way for Nick to play soccer here, youth soccer hasn't been easy to find here.

In a couple of hours, John will call Nick's school to get that darn Biology lab situation resolved, there's been much dropping of the ball, sigh. We'll probably have a late dinner given our schedules. I think John will attend the Esperanto club meeting tonight. I am hoping Nick will go with him.

There you have it, our first week in Spain. Sounds pretty similar to most lives. It is. We get to do it in Spain, though, surrounded by the signs and sounds of Catalan and Spanish.

Finally in Spain

JanisU — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:06:00 GMT

Our flight from Austin to Frankfurt took to the air on Tuesday, October 3rd around 5:30 pm. As we waited in the airport, I couldn't help but think about all the years I had lived in Austin and all the things I had accomplished there.

For as much as I loved Austin, it was time for a change and I really wanted the next leg of our adventure to begin. After spending weeks selling, donating and storing items it was nice to sit and do nothing.

We arrived in Barcelona the evening of the 4th. Our short taxi ride and uneventful time through customs was very welcomed. We were prepared with all the documentation we needed, including our visas, just in case we needed to 'splain ourselves.

It wasn't until we were at our new home that we realized our time through immigration was way easier than we expected it to be. We simply presented our passports to the nice gentleman in Frankfurt and he stamped us through to the other side of the airport. That was it.

We had anticipated waiting in a long line and being asked to present some documentation from the consulate but none of that happened. We were somewhat disappointed, but mostly relieved, that we didn't need any of the documentation we had painstakingly prepared for months.

When you go through the long experience we just had, you get used to preparing for the worst. Thank goodness John and I know how to laugh and celebrate the surprises that generally follow our tendency to over prepare for such non eventful moments.

Speaking of surprises, we found a big surprise waiting for us as we entered the door to our new apartment. The owners had used the time we were delayed, our lease started on September 15th, to completely remodel the unit.

We entered a bright, freshly painted space. The bathroom and kitchen had been switched and were newly equipped with everything IKEA. I couldn't believe how bright and beautiful the place looked. It was definitely unexpected and the changes they made to the floor plan really changed the look and feel of the place.

It was then I giggled because, as usual, what I thought was a delay was actually an opportunity for the universe to reconfigure the space more comfortably for us. Yep, these are the things that happen for us when we lean in and say yes despite what our minds are telling us.

Upon booking this place, based on the pictures, I was a bit concerned that the small kitchen "closet" wasn't going to be functional enough for us. I had huge reservations about the space working for us, and my mind said that it was a bad idea. We couldn't see the unit prior to booking, so everything was just going to have to work whether or not it did.

And given the lack of rentals available at the time, we found the location ideal and I decided to override my reservations about the place and gladly say yes to our new home in Spain.

Then I walk in, 18 days late to Spain, to find a brand new floor plan equipped with a very functional kitchen and bath.

It took me a few hours to stop giggling, I couldn't believe the owners spent 10 days completely remodeling the place. How fun!

All the months we'd spent stressing about paperwork and the money we'd spent preparing for this move just seemed to melt away in childish delight as we settled into our new home.

Worth it.

Flight Delay

JanisU — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 15:57:32 GMT

We were supposed to fly out from Austin last night but our flight was delayed until this afternoon. After a long weekend of packing and shuttling objects all around town, we were ready for our overnight flight to Frankfurt.

Yesterday morning my SUV was picked up and we enjoyed a yummy goodbye lunch with Nick's Dad at El Alma on Barton Springs Road.

We were homeless and carless for the first time ever. With three suitcases and 3 backpacks, we were ready for the next stage of our move.

Upon arriving at the airport we were informed by other passengers that the flight was cancelled. With no flight personnel available to attend to us, John called the airline and I called Nick's dad to turn around and come pick us up.

After verifying our flight was delayed until this afternoon, we packed our suitcases back into the little RAV and headed to dinner.

In some ways we were disappointed we had to wait, again, to leave Austin. In other ways we were relieved. Today upon waking we couldn't help but feel better about flying to Spain today instead of yesterday. Today is definitely a better Spain travel day for us, although we don't know exactly why.

As we wait for another couple of hours to pass before getting an Uber driver to take us to the airport, we are fascinated by all the news coming out of Barcelona.

Because we always seem to attract "excellent adventures", it is no surprise that Barcelona is in the midst of a political demonstration today. The market is closed, the streets are filled with people, transportation is at a standstill.

It is a good thing we are still here. How would we ever get to our rental in these conditions?

We are not sure what is in store for us as we board an airplane today. As of now, we don't even have a flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona confirmed. But after months of the visa process and the look of anticipation and "just want to be there already" on my son's face, we're still willing to make the trek to our new home.

We are prepared as a family to ride out the delays ahead of us, so surprisingly stress is pretty low within us. Perhaps this is what happens when you've let go of most of your personal possessions and haven't a home to call your own.

We have spent months preparing for this week. Nick's ahead in school, John is off from work and I haven't but a couple clients scheduled this week. This helps us manage the unknown ahead of us better as we keep an eye on our safety as we travel into Spain.

The Gap Year is Over

JohnU — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 16:13:00 GMT

Yep.

For the past few weeks, anytime we tell the more yuppie inclined that we're moving to Spain with a 14 year old, they ask if we're taking a gap year. Umm, no.

Our gap year started a year ago, when we led stressful lives in a large house without much financial maneuvering, jobs and school that drained us. The year is ending with us getting on a plane in 3 days on Monday to go live in Spain for an undetermined amount of time.

The gap year has consisted of me working at a much better and less stressful job making less, and by less I mean like 15% less. What was I thinking keeping the much worse job for that little money?

Our gap year also involved Janis really focusing on a particular clientele and getting a lot of traction to start her new business endeavors.

The year also meant living in half of a crappy duplex with noisy neighbors and constant construction in our neighborhood.

Janis said tonight that it seems like we're going back home in three days. I couldn't agree more, it seems like the beginning of a new life.

So no, not a gap year, we've had our gap year and we are looking forward to settling into "normal" life again.

5 Days to Lift Off

JanisU — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 23:35:49 GMT

Thought I'd write while I wait for John to get home from work. I don't want to forget how hard these days have been.

This week has been filled with a lot of big ticket items. John and I have been working on selling both vehicles this week. I am so grateful we were both able to find the registrations, titles, etc. needed to complete the quotes. Mine is scheduled to be picked up on Monday morning. We are still waiting to hear back about John's.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to unload the last of our furniture that we don't want to store and that I don't want to work at selling. We exchanged all the money we made on Craigslist furniture for euros this week.

Sunday I got to see all of my boys. It was such a treat to have all three of them together. My grandson was here, too! I felt so blessed. I will miss them a lot.

My boys helped the couple who bought our bed set move it out to their truck Sunday afternoon. That was some good timing on their part.

Today I've been sorting through the last of our things. On Monday I put most of our items into one room. I went through all the closets and storage areas and pulled out all the boxes and items we have left.

It was overwhelming at first to see all the stuff we had left to go through but by this morning we've made significant progress. We have three corners designated as trash, donation and storage. They make it so easy to organize everything. I've already taken out one big trash bag and packed a couple of boxes. We should be done with all of it by Friday morning.

I actually took a break from things yesterday. It rained all day and I spent the morning with my friend. When I got back home I decided I had been busy enough over the weekend, especially since I was sick.

John is sick today. I was sick from last Thursday to yesterday. The fact that I've been able to do so much despite being sick has amazed me. But when one has only one week left before the big move, one just gets it all done.

I am sure we will all sleep well for a couple of days once we get to Barcelona. Ah, Barcelona, our new home. I learned today as I was scheduling a client session that Cairo and Barcelona are in the same time zone. How about that? So next week when I see my client, we'll be working together in the same part of the day.

Hmmm...what else? Oh, I need to take pictures. One day we'll have the pics I've been taking in our blog posts. Right now, I just take them and store them.

Okay, I am going to go take those pictures now. It will be fun to see the progress we've made. I say fun because these days are intense. I would not say they are fun at all. Everything has sped up towards the end and it has been hard on all of us, it's probably why we got sick.

But we are not giving up. We are so close. We pick up our visas tomorrow morning which means we are driving to Houston at the crack of dawn.

Speaking of driving at the crack of dawn, is 6:35 right now so it is time to take pictures, eat some dinner and get to bed early.

Oh, the Stuff, so much Stuff

JanisU — Sat, 23 Sep 2017 20:31:23 GMT

I am sitting here on a Saturday morning waiting for people to show up to our garage sale. John is sitting outside and I am sitting inside, waiting, waiting, waiting.

While we have downsized several times over the past few years, we still seem to have so much stuff to get rid of this week. With items priced to sell, we wait. Where are the buyers?

After a week of trying to sell a bedroom set to no avail it seems to get harder and harder to sell items. And we are getting closer to our move date. This makes me feel very uneasy.

To occupy myself I got my computer out. As I sit here typing I am thinking about taking some pics of some of the items and posting them on Craigslist.

Perhaps we'll have better luck selling the items there. Although I am not too keen on getting more texts and setting up more appointments with people. But it seems to be working well.

I have to say, I am not my usual garage sale self. We hardly put the signs out this morning and while I advertised it on Craigslist, the start of our garage sale is no where in sight. I think we are all getting tired of dealing with the stuff.

Oh, the stuff! I love a lot of it, but when one is considering a new lifestyle, ours includes moving out of the country, it seems the effort it takes to sell really makes one review their life choices. What was I thinking when I loaded up my car at IKEA?

Afternoon Action Wave

It is late afternoon now and John and I've made a pretty decent dent in our garage sale efforts. Not too long ago we dropped off another donation load to Goodwill. There was some nifty stuff in there that I hope others get to enjoy as much as we did.

I just sold my awesome Amethyst Biomat to a gorgeous red head who is purchasing it for her mom. I am glad the biomat will be put to good use. It was breaking my heart to think those beautiful crystals would be stored in a dark storage unit for a year.

It was hard to see it go. I am a bit emotional right now, it has been such a great helper in my client sessions. My family and I have benefited greatly from it, too. I am glad I got to use it and I hope to buy another one someday soon.

But for now, it is back to packing and clearing out the kitchen. My sister-in-law is here this afternoon. She's helping us pack and store. What a treat to have both my sis and sister-in-law here this week. I am a spoiled girl!

Now how do I get my mom here...

9 Days to Go

JanisU — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 22:20:15 GMT

It is Friday mid afternoon in Austin. Nick just left to spend some time with his dad. John is at work. I am on the couch wondering what to do next.

My sister came to see me on Wednesday night. It was so much fun. I am going to miss her. She took some of the items from my place that I didn't want to throw out. She was so gracious and kind to do that for us.

She also scored on some household items, like curtains, curtain rods and pictures. It is hard to let go of items when you only get $3 for something you paid $40 new. I am glad she was able to take items that resonated with her and toiletries that her family can use.

Taking Only What's Needed

This move has been like no other. Usually we take toiletries and pictures and knick knacks with us. Because we are moving to another country we have decided to only take clothes, shoes and laptop bags. And it is challenging to know what to store.

I've been doing a lot of running around since August, too. In fact, I've probably driven more since May than I've driven in the past 2 years.

Nothing like a big move to help push you into doing things you've been putting off. I've had chiropractic appointments 2-3 times a week, lunches with friends and Nick's had soccer practice 1-3 times a week.

Preserving Memories

It has been a blessing to be out in Austin, though. Despite the traffic headaches, I've been to places I haven't been to in a long while and it makes me happy that I can say a proper good bye to the city I've called home for 17 years.

John got some of my VHS and Hi-8 tapes digitized. It was nice to see my life here in Austin. I loved watching my family life unfold and Austin has been a great place to raise my kids. I am very grateful for our time here.

The bad news is that all the running around has caught up with me. Today I am feeling a bit under the weather. It is a tough time of year right now. I told John that I forget how miserable September is for us. I complain every year about the August heat but I consistently forget about the humidity and pollen activity that happens in September.

Allergies

The occurrence of allergies, colds and sinus infections go up this time of year. It can be really tough of the kiddos, they just started school in late August.

Without thinking about it, my body's had a hard time with the change in season. I looked at the news online and finally figured out why I was feeling so bad. We've seen very high mold, ragweed and elm counts this past week.

Between allergies, heat and dealing with Craigslist postings, my body asked me to take a break yesterday. I was like, "No, not now!!"

I feel bad about taking a break right now because there is so much left to do. We only have 9 days left here. But when the body calls, I know it is best to listen. I've learned the hard way in my youth that pushing the body only makes things worse. I know that stopping and resting yields faster recovery and faster recovery yields more productivity so I am choosing that option right now.

I have been resting and taking vitamin C for the past day and 1/2. I also slept 12 hours last night after eating nothing but soup and broth yesterday.

I hope to feel better enough in the morning. Oh, please, body! We have a moving sale scheduled for tomorrow. Which reminds me that we haven't even put signs out. See, there is so much to do and not a lot of feeling good going on over here. :-(

I guess my husband will be helping me get those signs made and placed tonight. I just hope he doesn't get sick. He's got one more week in the office left before we leave. Then he will transition to contract work.

Optimism in the Present Moment

All in all, despite me feeling under the weather, I feel optimistic we will be able to get everything done. I am not seeing clients right now so I have a lot of hours available in the day to run errands.

Nick is pushing through his course work and is doing very well so he needs me a lot less. We are trying to keep him a week ahead of schedule right now so he'll have some down time when we get to Spain to adjust to the new time zone.

"Everything will be fine." I keep telling myself. I'll still feel better when most of our items are sold, donated or stored. I hope to make some big progress this weekend.

Then we'll need to sell cars, get luggage or duffle bags, and finish legal and financial matters. But that is for another day. For the next couple hours I'll be resting in hopes that I will be able to help John with everything that needs to get done before tomorrow.

Present moment, one day at a time.