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

The first time I traveled internationally, I traveled to France. This was in 1985, right after high school graduation, and I learned that the world was much larger than my suburban Atlanta neighborhood. The sights, sounds, and smells awoke global curiosities that I didn't know that I had and that have never quieted down. I remember hearing a conversation in French about ME-ah-ME and not understanding until the ladies started speaking of Mickey Mouse. Lightbulb, ME-ah-ME is Mi

There are a few things that I've found during the Great Purge of 2018 and one of them was my library card. I've belonged to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library for as long as I can remember. The Sandy Springs location was where I researched and wrote many a school paper. Post-college, I was a literacy tutor for the homeless out of the downtown location. While the boys may not remember it, I have many memories of being a young Mom and escaping into the stacks while they were e

Saying goodbye can be challenging for me, especially when I know that it is a final goodbye. I will not gloss over the fact that--though very much part of the plan--it was exceptionally difficult watching a large majority of our things sell for pennies on the dollar to complete strangers. I am grateful that we hired Ruth's Reselling to do the heavy lifting of the sale for our family (if you are in the Atlanta-metro area and need a great company to help you with a sale, please

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” — Destin Sparks For the next few days, I will likely be putting up few worded blog posts. Rather I will be posting to Instagram images of our deconstructed home, and what it looks like to get rid of almost everything to live our dreams. If you don’t already follow us on Instagram, you can always check out our home page for a gallery of the latest images. #moving #expatlife #expat #quote #pics #pictures #socialmedia #instagr

C and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary towards the end of the month, and for the majority of those years, we have been in stuff acquisition mode: furniture, televisions, home decor, books, stereo equipment...you name it, we've likely bought it. And now we are selling off of a good portion of those carefully curated things in a garage sale/jumble sale/venta de garaje. We've had a few friends ask about specific items and those things are promised out: the kitc

Today we hit two big milestones in the process of getting ourselves over to Spain: we had photographs taken of our home for the real estate listing and the lockbox was put on the door. I'm so pleased with how everything turned out in the house and I think we will be under contract quickly (fingers crossed). It's always hard to gauge things when you're close to the source, so I asked the photographer how he thought the house looked. To my delight he said that the house was pho

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

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

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

When I set out to learn Spanish, little did I know that this was going to be a political issue. I'm just learning Spanish, right? What most of us typically think of as Spanish is technically Castilian. This is the national language of Spain and is similar to what is taught in the US in high schools. Though slightly different in pronunciation and a few colloquialisms, it is the language that is used throughout Latin America and Mexico also. As a matter of fact, Castilian is th

Today is a holiday in Valencia though I'm not entirely sure for which Saint. It is not a national holiday, just a holiday for those in Valencia province, which means that everything is pretty much closed here including my school. Knowing that I had a 3-day weekend, I didn't feel compelled to force a bunch of sightseeing in this weekend and I've relaxed a little. Saturday I went to the grocery and in the evening went on a Ruta Vegano--a tour of a few supermarkets to help new v

I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas and to-date I never have. I remember being confused as a child about how Santa Claus fit into the holiday and if there was some connection between Santa Claus and Jesus. I've not really found a good answer to that more than the Coca-Cola Company's marketing of an icy beverage in the middle of winter. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmastime in the US when houses are decorated with lights and trees, and people tend to both smile and make