I'm often asked how the reality of being vegan is in a country that is dedicated to their love of all things cerdo (pig) and mariscos (seafood). Honestly, we don't find it to be difficult in the least. First, I have years of experience in vegan cooking and knowing how to manipulate rather strange sounding ingredients (ume vinegar, chickpea miso, kala namak, tapioca starch, agar agar) into common taste profiles and textures. We don't eat boring salads or woody sandwiches aroun

I'm excited, because I noticed that our daily routine has shifted from vacation-like to routine. We have found our favorite place to buy bread, the most convenient place to buy groceries, the dogs' top spots to do their doggy business, and just how long it takes to line dry our sheets on a breezy day. We have made it to the real-life portion of our expat adventure. Boys have been in school for a few weeks and are getting themselves to and from school without issue. We had a m

C arrived back in Valencia last Monday night. It was a long 3 weeks while he was back in the US, but we knew that this was part of the deal when we decided to move to Valencia. It was also an opportunity for C to bring back some of my cooler weather clothes, Hunter rain boots, and most importantly our 4-legged family members. You may remember from my December post about Maizey & Blue that we had some concerns about how they would do as city dogs. There are significant differ

Tomorrow is a day that may go down in the family history as the greatest day ever. Spain, and in particular Valencia, is known for its raucous festivals (hello, Fallas), though almost all of the festivals are religiously-based. La Tomatina is the exception to that rule. Held in the neighboring community of Buñol, about 40,000 people get together on the last Wednesday of August and throw tomatoes at each other. Most people run away from the chaos, which means that we are runni

We've had a busy few weeks here full of adventures. Firstly, #1 has visited and already returned to Israel. We had a nice visit, but it was odd too. It was evident that the time he spent independently in Israel has allowed him to make adult choices and that my time actively parenting him has ended. As he makes his way in the world, I hope that he remembers the lessons and chooses the values that C and I spent 18 years trying to impart. The last couple of days of his visit, ou

I am very excited to say that we ended up renting the apartment that I was hoping for . Our agent, Anthony, was recommended by friends we've made on Valencia Expat boards. Jack and Maja have been in Valencia with their 7 children for about 18 months. Embarking on this journey for our family has been overwhelming at times, and I am in awe of Maja. If you want insight into what it would take to move a family of 9 overseas, you can follow the Burton's adventures on their blog, B

Once we know for sure, we will fill you in on the details. #moving #Valencia

This past weekend, we officially moved out of our house/home. While closing doesn't happen for 11 days, we are having our Estate Sale this week and the hardwood floors touched-up next week; with all the upheaval, plus the fact that we are selling our beds and our bedroom furniture, it was impossible to live at the house any longer. We are very fortunate that my parents have plenty of space in their home to accommodate all of us, including the pups, until we are ready to leave

One of the ways that C and I were preparing ourselves for living in Spain was to watch a whole lot of travel videos on YouTube. A few months back, we got rid of cable, save for our Apple TV. As such, we have very few channels to watch live television, but we can watch as many YouTube videos as we'd like. Initially we'd search for videos about Valencia, and we'd watch vloggers talk about a typical day in Valencia. However, we also stumbled across a guy who writes travel guides

It's been a whirlwind the past few days and I'm back in Atlanta. My Mom and I had a great time eating our way through Valencia, though now that I'm back I've realized all the places that I wanted to take her that we missed (Loving Hut Valencia and The Vurger are the 2 that come to mind immediately). Most mornings we began with a homemade vanilla soy latte and a smorgasbord of Violife cheeses, baguette, fresh veggies (avocados, tomatoes, cucumber, and olives), and occasionally

It's only been a weekend, and so much has changed. Most exciting and important, my Mom is now here. She came out on Saturday and I've been showing her around Valencia--what a great time it's been. After picking Mom up at the airport midday, we went back to the apartment where I've been staying with my roommates and dropped off her luggage. After grabbing a quick lunch, we went back to the apartment in Ayora and waited until about 3:30 when our Airbnb apartment was available i

Every day C asks me if I think that Valencia continues to be the right choice for our family. After 24+ years, I know that this is not so much a need for reassurance as it is a confirmation...does that make any sense? Neither of us tends to be wishy-washy; we make decisions, take action, and course correct as appropriate. His question is less about the choice to move and more about any course corrections we should make along the way. After having been in Valencia for 4 weeks,

The day before I left for Spain, as I was packing, I listened to a webinar about accents and sounding like a local, wherever that may be. It was very interesting, though I realized it wasn't pertinent to my needs as the target audience was voice-over artists speaking English with seemingly native British/So African/N. Irish/Korean/etc; accents. Still, I found it fascinating and thought that I could perhaps use the techniques to improve my pronunciation as I learned Spanish. M

The last few days have been chock full of things outside of my Spanish classes. Yesterday was a trip to one of the schools that we are considering for the boys. Today was meeting up and coworking with a bunch of other expat/digital nomads, and tomorrow is a meeting for female expat entrepreneurs. While I'm not ready to discuss our business idea, I have been sourcing materials and seeing if the idea is viable. It's a very different beast when you speak the language nominally a

I was looking back at the blog and checking out which posts have a lot of reads and which don't, and it's interesting, because the posts that I think will be great are those that are often the least read. I guess I'm glad that I didn't try to earn a living in psychcology. However, the post that has more reads than any other--by far--is the one where I answered a bunch of questions that I received when we announced that we were moving. Given that it's sinking in for those that

A few weeks ago, before I left for Spain, our family was discussing what we were looking forward to doing when we got to Spain--you know, what is missing from your life that you want to do more of, and you plan on pursuing in Spain. We each had our own answers, but the only reply that stuck with me is C's. With a little self-deprecating humor and a large dose of hoping I'd forget he said "I want to dance with my wife more." For those of you that know C, this was a surprising

I have worked from home for years, and love the ease and flexibility of working where I happened to have my computer. I think my former coworkers are phenomenal and looked forward to our meetings in an Atlanta-area co-work space, but for day-to-day working, the telecommute life is absolutely for me. Over the 5 1/2 years, I worked many places: a hotel on the Las Vegas strip, a cabin in the North Carolina mountains, the Disney World parking lot, an AirBnB in Carlsbad, and the p

Thank you for your kind words and thoughts yesterday--it was a rough one. I realize that this is going to be something that we must get accustomed to, this being a distance from the nucleus of our lives. Over the past 2 1/2 weeks, there have been several methods of staying in touch that I've used, with WhatsApp being the most common. I've also used iChat and Facebook messenger a bit, but default to WhatsApp. During the week, I get done with classes right about 1:00 local time

Saturday was a relaxed day. I had been out the night before and wasn't interested in doing much, but C called and asked me to checkout a new-to-me part of town. Just like the other day when I went to the beisbol field, I didn't have any reason to say "No", so I put on my comfy shoes, and headed out to Mont Olivet. While I was out, I decided to make a large loop and stop by the Carrefour (closest thing to Target that I've found here), for a few grocery items I've only found th

One of the things that I'm most enjoying about this adventure, is the excitement of discovery. I don't know about you, but I've been in a rut. I've lived in my town for almost my whole life, so it is not new to me any more. If I want a bagel, I know where to get it. If I need a quick run to the grocery at rush hour, I know which of the 4 grocery stores within a 2-mile radius of my house I should hit up. If I need kala namak, a specialty salt, I know where to go. If I want to