Author: laurasuzy

Residency Renewal in Progress!

On By laurasuzyIn Research and PlanningLeave a comment

Our first year of Spanish residency expired at the end of March.  I called the Oficina de Extranjeros in early march to make an appointment for renewal, but they didn’t have an appointment for us until early April.  I was really surprised that it was a 5+ week lead time to get a cita!

When we went to the Oficina de Extranjeros in Motril, they back-dated the application for renewal to 5 days before our expiration date, just to make sure there was no problem with us being here while in process.  On April 5, we submitted an updated copy of the same forms we needed to apply for the initial application, plus proof of medical insurance coverage, a copy of our financial documents (we provided our latest 401k statements to show sufficient funds, plus a month’s worth of recent transactions from our local bank here), copies of every page of all of our passports, and a letter from the school saying the kids were enrolled so that they didn’t need to come with us to the appointment.  We didn’t need photos this time, and the paperwork load was a lot lighter than it was for the first application!

The appointment was quick – she just verified the copies of our passports against the actual passports, and made sure we had the required documents, and we were done.  Then we waited for the letter from Granada.

The “inicio de procedimiento” letters finally arrived late last week (it took about 6 weeks).  Today I went online to request the forms required to pay the renewal fee at the bank (modelo 052), and then once I have paid the tasa I take the receipts back to Motril, so they can send them on to Granada.  And then we wait some more for the next letter!  This is a multi-step process… hopefully we’ll have our updated residency cards by July.

For anyone who might be going through the same process, here is some helpful information:  When I went to the URL to fill out modelo 052, the web URL gave me an invalid security certificate error, and I had to add an exception to my security rules to access it.  It looked like there was an option to pay online, but you have to have a digital DNI, which is a physical device (some sort of card reader) and a digital card that I think you can get from the ayuntamiento, but I did not have.  So the other option is to print the forms and bring them to a bank to pay.  You choose your province (Granada), and then fill out the form with your DNI, name and address.  I was a little confused at first about which box to check, but I called the Oficina de Extranjeros to confirm that the correct one was “2.2 Renovación de autorización de residencia temporal”.  The fee was 15,76 euros per person.

Summary of our Summer 2016 Adventures

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical, Traveling in EuropeLeave a comment

(I wrote this post back in October 2016 and never published it because I was looking for the right photos!  Better late than never?)

I have fallen behind on my plan to write about our adventures here in Spain!  That was partly due to a frightening and discouraging event that happened shortly after we arrived (that I will write about in more detail later) which put a big wet blanket on all of our fun for a while.  Sadly, it made me less interested in sharing the details of our lives.  But now I am ready to get back at it, with a quick summary of our summer adventures.

Buying a Car

I’ll write a separate post about my experience buying a car in Spain.  But the short of it is, used cars are pretty expensive here relative to their age, and it’s hard to find a car big enough for a family of 7 that has space for some luggage and small enough for the crazy mountain roads around here.  It was quite a stressful experience, but it is done!  After several trips to cities all over Spain in search of the perfect car (that was my first mistake, but more about that later), we are now the proud owners of an 8-seat van (Peugeot 807) that is smaller than a typical American mini-van, so it works fairly well in most of the places we try to drive.

Granny’s Visit – Local Castles, Gibraltar/Tarifa/Morocco, Texas Hollywood, Olive Oil Tour, Alhambra



Ryan’s mom visited for three weeks in July. We had plenty of time for grand adventures, but we didn’t plan ahead, so we didn’t get to other parts of Europe like we hoped. But we did enjoy lots of fun at and near home seeing the castles in Alumuñecar and Salobreña and other local sites, and we made it to Gibraltar (which is part of Great Britain) and Africa, so we’re counting it as three countries!

My favorite part of our Gibraltar visit was the monkeys. They will jump on your head if they think you have food!

It is also struck me as funny that you can walk from Great Britain back to Spain.

Did you know you could do an olive oil tasting, much like you would do a wine tasting? Neither did I! It was very interesting and also educational.

We toured an olive grove, saw an ancient mill, and tasted several different kinds of oils. The kid’s favorite oil was orange flavored, and when you put it on bread with a little bit of sugar, it’s like a dessert.
Texas Hollywood is the movie set in southeastern Spain where many of the old western movies were actually filmed.

We got to walk through the dusty old town, see a shoot-out and a enjoy a can-can dancing show.

Valencia
The kids and I spent two nights in Valencia on our way up to Girona. We loved the science museum and Gulliver Park!

If you ever visit Valencia, it’s worth the money to run in the “hamster balls” on the water outside the science museum. They let you step in, then they inflate the ball and zip it up, and you get to play in a ball floating on water!

The kids could have played all day in the science museum. There are tons of hands on exhibits, and a really cool room where you get to play with illusions. They also had a small fish pond in the kids area and Cora loved trying to pet the fish. We also saw an iMax movie that I think was a first for the kids.

The aquarium was pretty awesome, too (although we were so tired by the time we arrived there, I think we enjoyed it less than we could have given more time).  Check out this HUGE eel!!

On our way out of town, we visited the BioParc (zoo). The kids always enjoy seeing animals, but it was hot and we were tired, so I think their favorite part was the air conditioned gift shop!  Here’s Matthew’s best imitation of a giraffe.

The city itself was not very appealing to me as we saw a lot of graffiti and run-down areas, and driving was a pretty scary as lanes of traffic appeared and disappeared unexpectedly.   Usually Ryan does the driving, but he was working from home and met us later in Girona by train. But I would go back to Valencia to visit the science museum again!

Girona (Olot, Banyoles)

We took an extended weekend to visit with the families of our Young Life USA exchange students at the beginning of September, and were so thankful for their generous hospitality!  We felt like part of the family, and I fell in love with Girona province, because it is so lush and green, with gorgeous mountains and farms, interesting volcanic formations, and also so near the beach.  Both Olot and Banyoles are charming little towns, and I even liked the city of Girona despite the fact that I am not a city girl.  It seemed small enough not to be overwhelming, clean, full of interesting history, and pleasant to stroll about.

We swam in the lake at Banyoles with Anna, her mom, and her friend from Alaska. If it weren’t for having to learn Catalan, I would jump at the chance to move there.  Maybe after we get Castellano under our belts we’ll be ready to move north for a greener landscape, and try to take on a third language!

In the city of Girona with our gracious hosts!


Cathedral of Girona.
Ella continues to cartwheel through Europe!

Olot

In keeping with tradition, we took a bike ride with Tomas (when he was visiting us in the states, our bike rides with him were the longest my kids had ever taken!).  I was on a tandem bike where Peter could help me pedal, and Cora was in a baby seat behind him (since Ryan still hadn’t arrived, I had to take the two smallest along with me).  She loved the ride and then fell asleep!  Here’s the kids all pretending to sleep along with her.


Look, mom!  No hands!

The hill behind us in this photo is an extinct volcano. Tomas and his family were wonderful hosts, and it was really great to see him again and meet his parents!

Downie’s Visit – Sierra Nevada, Local Fun and LATE nights!

Our friends, the Downies, wanted to get a feel for where we live now, so when they came to visit in September, we ate at some of our favorite restaurants (arriving home well after midnight), swam in and jumped off the rocks at our favorite cove on the beach, saw the ancient ruins in Almunecar and played in the pool at home.

The photo above is in the Parque Majuelo, where you can see the ruins of a fish salting factory from 400 BC and also the castle of Almunecar.

Buried in rocks at the beach!
Cook your own meat skewers in the pig!  These tapas come free with the purchase of a beverage.

We had been meaning to go check out the Sierra Nevadas, and finally drove up to see the top, where the ski resort is that we hope to try out this winter, and had some good laughs in the car looking for animals.  Molly spotted the B.O.U.S. (Bull of Unusual Size) in the mountains – the black toro silhouette that is the emblem of Spain and can be found all over the country in the most unexpected places!  We also renamed the acronym LOL to “Lake on Left” and enjoyed another “laugh out loud” about it.
This was the kids first day of school in September!  Molly walked down with us, and of course, the kids wished they could have stayed home with her.

It was wonderful to have our best friends here with us for almost a week.

What’s Next?

That was our summer – plenty of adventure mixed with lots of relaxing time at home.  I’ll write a separate post about our December/Christmas trips and Ryan’s mom’s visit.  For our next adventure, we are hoping to visit to Rome once my nephew arrives there for his study abroad semester in February.

You’ve Got Mail

On By laurasuzyIn The Stuff of Daily Life2 Comments

Getting our mail delivered in Spain hasn’t been quite as simple as we thought it would be.  When we moved in to our long-term rental house, we knew the street address, so that is what we gave to people who needed or wanted to send us mail.  But after five or six weeks here, we had not gotten a single letter, bill, or even junk mail!  We found out in June that the birthday card that a family friend had sent to Peter in May got returned to the US, but as far as we could tell, it was addressed correctly.

Then one day, an new friend of ours who has lived here for almost ten years said to me, “hey, have you been getting your mail?” and I said, “no!  nothing!”.  He then told me that he was talking with the mail man, who had asked him if he knew of some new Americans in town with the last name Hammond.   When our friend replied in the affirmative, the mail man said “oh, I’ve been returning their mail, but now that I know they really live here, I will start delivering it”.  He even mentioned that he had sent back something from the police, as well as other letters.  What??

I asked our friend for clarification, and after several conversations, finally understood that it wasn’t so much that the mailman didn’t know us, but that our mail didn’t have the urbanization (neighborhood) name on the address, and that is required for some reason, even though he knew exactly where the mail should have been delivered using the street name and house number.  Once our friend vouched for our legitimate existence in the neighborhood, the postman was willing to deliver our mail even if it was not properly addressed. Hooray for Joaquim!  So now…

You’ve got mail!

We got the birthday card after she re-sent it (even without the urbanization name), but we never did get another letter from the police.  Hopefully it wasn’t important!

Living with Less… Living with More

On By laurasuzyIn The Stuff of Daily Life2 Comments

One of goals in coming here was to downsize our stuff, and live with less.  We traveled to Spain with a large suitcase and a small suitcase for each member of the family, plus 3 boxes of miscellaneous items (Ryan’s work computer, books, kitchen items, etc.) and one trunk for the kids’ treasures.  When we were in the process of getting rid of our junk, it was so hard for me!  I found I had strong emotional ties to too many things, so while a part of me was excited to be freed from the “stuff madness”, a part of me felt like I was ripping off a band-aid, quite painfully.  I read several articles on the subject, and every writer promised that once the stuff is out of sight, you will get over that feeling, and feel glad that you’re living with a lighter load.

And they were right!  Since we arrived almost three and a half months ago, I have only missed a couple of things, and most of them I didn’t even think about more than once.  For example, I was thinking of my kitchen scale one day (although I don’t even remember now why I thought I could use it).  We have purchased a few things for the kitchen here, because it was not fully equipped, but we did not replace the many gadgets we had in the States.  I love the simplicity of having just 2 large pots for pasta and soups, 2 smaller pots for rice and sauces, and 2 frying pans.  So much easier to store and use!  And we have been finding new (old) ways to do things, like toasting bread in the oven. We have been using a stick blender with a food processing attachment to replace a large food processor, regular blender (margaritas now just get mixed without ice and frozen for later), and mixer (although recently having baked a cake – I might need to buy a hand mixer).

One appliance we didn’t have in the states is a juicer.  I bought an electric juicer here because it’s lovely to have fresh squeezed orange juice from local oranges every now and then.  And we finally “caved” and had my mother-in-law bring us a proper set of measuring spoons – I have gotten pretty good at using my hand, but when it comes to cakes, it can be pretty sad if you guesstimate use too much salt!

The only other thing I have found myself missing on a regular basis is our trampoline.  It was such a important part of our days – excellent for fun, and also for anger management – that I have pondered buying a new one here.  Since the weather here is so fantastic, the pool is our new trampoline, and if the kids need some motion, they just go jump in!  For now, that is working for us.  I am really trying hard to resist re-gathering all of the things we had in the States, inside and outside the house, but I know it will be a continual battle not to accumulate things.

On the whole, I am finding that living with less really is living with more – more creativity, more time spent doing things other than cleaning up stuff, and more time enjoying memorable activities together, and that’s what really matters.

Our New Weekday Routine

On By laurasuzyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We have been in Spain for a bit more than a month now, and we’ve been in our long-term rental house for about three weeks.  Things are starting to feel a bit more settled, although we still have some nagging to-do items, which include buying a car so we can stop changing rental vehicles, and assembling or returning the dining room table we purchased (we’ve been using an outdoor patio table for a dining table).  We have been fully unpacked for about two weeks, and we finally got reliable internet service about a week ago (hooray!).

What is Our Life Like in Spain?

The pace of life here is SLOW.  We anticipated this, and so we have been patient with things we would not be accustomed to waiting for (like a company that will actually install the internet service speeds they promised).  We have also been intentionally chilling out – not signing the kids up for extracurricular activities, not visiting local attractions or taking any road trips yet, and instead, just enjoying leisurely afternoons and evenings at home or within walking distance.  The kids stay up quite a bit later here than they did in the states, so they occasionally nap, but mostly they have been enjoying swimming.

The average day starts when one of the kids awakes around 7 or 7:30am.  I drag myself downstairs and make coffee with my newly discovered squeezable bottle of sweetened condensed milk (yum!), nurse the baby, and help make breakfast.  We all eat and get ready for school, and one of us will walk the kids down the mountain around 8:30 (a relaxed walk) or 8:40 (a somewhat rushed walk), to arrive by 9:00am.  If we are running late, we can drive down in about 10 minutes.  After we drop the kids off for school, we sometimes have coffee with some of the other English speakers that live here (they have coffee together every day!), depending on what errands need to be run.  Ryan and I have been taking turns bringing the kids, but usually he gets started on work and I take them down.  It has been great to have him home all the time, and no commute!  Cora has been taking a morning nap around 10:30 or 11:00, which gives me a little bit of time while the bigger kids are at school to do something else.  Usually, that involves food prep, cleaning, going grocery shopping, other errands in town, doing work on the computer, or my favorite, which has only happened a couple of times – taking a nap! I  really want to use some of this time to do some painting, but I haven’t been able to do that yet, because as I said, it seems everything is slower here, so errands and such take longer, too!  (Maybe it’s just me in slow motion…)

Too Much Cooking!

The kids get out of school at 2pm, and we have lunch, which is basically like dinner.  The Spanish tend to make that their big meal of the day, so we have been trying to do that, too.  The only problem is that now I’m basically cooking two dinners a day, and it’s more time in the kitchen than I care for!  Back in America, I would cook in the evening and we would eat leftovers for lunch the next day.  Since Ryan is working from home and he isn’t a big fan of leftovers in general, my old cooking schedule doesn’t work for us.  I decided today that I’m going to have to come up with a new plan to simplify the amount of cooking I’m doing, maybe by prepping both meals at once, or by making enough at lunch to eat the same thing for leftovers at dinner the next day.

Our afternoons now involve helping the twins translate their homework (Ella and Peter haven’t really had any), doing chores, swimming at home, sometimes going to the beach, or napping.  Ryan basically works normal business day hours on Spain time, so he is most often working in the afternoons, but he does have some flexibility and can help with homework sometimes, too.  One afternoon, I took the three oldest kids to meet a new friend at the beach, Cora was napping, and Peter stayed home and played by himself while Ryan worked.  I got to sit under a palm tree reading a novel while watching the kids play in the Mediterranean!  It was like a dream!


We have tried to go out to dinner a few times, but none of the restaurants open back up until 7:30pm, which is a bit of late start for us to be out (for the baby in particular).  When I cook, we try to have dinner around 7:00, but since it stays sunny and bright so late, and because we’re really doing the “laid back” thing, I often don’t realize it’s time to start cooking until 6:30 or 7:00, and then we get a late start even at home.  A 7:30 dinner is still pretty early for many Spaniards, but most families with young kids eating around then, I think, so they can get the kids in bed at a reasonable hour.

Taking Advantage of the Amazing Weather

We love eating our meals on the patio by the pool!  It is perfect weather for it, and it’s just so easy to relax out there.  It seems like at least one of the kids is in the water near dinnertime anyway.  They have been swimming literally every single day since we arrived, even though the average temperature is usually in the low 70’s!  After dinner, we usually put Cora to bed and do something fun with the kids for a bit, like watch a TV show, play a game, or  do the less fun work of finishing up the chores.

Sunset is almost an activity of it’s own, because we have a particularly beautiful view from our upper terrace, and I just love to sit up there (sometimes with a glass of wine) and enjoy the splendor of God’s creation in action!  Tonight we played board games with the kids up there and enjoyed watching several paragliders take off and land down on the beach.

It doesn’t really get dark here until almost 10pm, so it’s a little too easy to stay up late.  The kids make their own meriendas to eat at school (effectively, packing their elevensies lunch), and we all pretty much go to bed at the same time (although I am often the last one awake doing things like writing this blog post, talking to someone in the States, or checking Facebook, hence having to drag myself down for coffee in the mornings).

In many ways, we feel like we’re on vacation (well, a working vacation for Ryan), and it is fantastic!  I highly recommend the less busy lifestyle.

First Day of School in Spain – Our Parental “Oops”

On By laurasuzyIn Uncategorized1 Comment

It was a successful first day of school!  The kids were all very “nervoucited” (nervous/excited) about it.  When we arrived in the area outside the gate, there were several little girls Ella’s age that came to meet us.  They were very excited, too, because apparently, word had already gotten around that the new americans were starting class today.  We met a couple of girls who speak English, and a Spanish family with a girl in Ella’s class.  Then the music came over the loudspeakers, and the kids all ran into the courtyard and lined up with their teachers.  I was able to go in and meet the teachers briefly, but generally, parents aren’t supposed to go into the school yard.  Ella and the twins both have male teachers, and Ella’s speaks a little English.  Peter has a young lady, but we met several of his classmates that speak English and can help him translate.

After the kids went into their classes, we met the other English-speaking parents outside the gate.  There are several Americans, some British and I think Irish.  They said they go get coffee almost every day after they drop the kids off, and they invited us to come, but we had plans to drive to Malaga and pick up a few things at Ikea.  They warned us that we might not have time to get there and back before 2pm, but we were optimistic – it’s only an hour away, and we had five hours!  Certainly it would work!  Right?

Well, we should have listened.  As it turned out, it took us a while to walk back up the mountain to home, finish a phone call with mom about Jon’s accident (more on that later), and then get in the car.  Then I forgot my Ikea list and we had to go back home, and then I took the wrong road to get out of town, and ended up driving through some frighteningly narrow one way streets in Las Maravillas (the high, hilly part of town), before finally making it back to the highway, so we didn’t arrive at Ikea until noon!  Well, we figured it wouldn’t take us more than an hour to shop, and we’d have an hour to get back, and all would be well.  Did you know that Ikea is a maze intended to keep you there forever?  We did, but we thought we could get through it fast enough. We were wrong!  In retrospect, we should have abandoned our cart and just hoofed it through every shortcut we could find once we realized time was getting tight.  But we thought we could buy the few things we had and still make it.  Of course, there were long lines and checkout was SLOW!  So it was 1:15 when we left, and we knew we were in trouble.

As we sped back towards La Herradura, I called the school and told the secretary we would be 10  minutes late.  She was not pleased! She told me “This is a school, not a day care!” and warned me that if somebody was not there to pick up our kids, the local police would have to come, because the teachers all leave.  I was mortified!  What a terrible first day impression to make.  (Can you see me wringing my hands and hanging my head?) I had not put anybody’s name on the matriculation forms as others who are allowed to retrieve the kids, because they only people we know here are the Wagoners, and I didn’t want to burden them with that responsibility.  But what could I do?  It was physically impossible for us to get there on time (due to our own newbie foolishness), and we had no other options, so I called Heidi.  Thankfully, she was home and was able to go pick up our kids!  I called the secretary back and explained that another American lady would be coming to get my kids and stay with them until we arrived.  She seemed glad (though I am sure was still not at all happy with me).  When Heidi arrived, another parent we had just met that morning who also knew her had to assure the teachers that it really was okay for her to take the kids, so we had yet another person come to our rescue.  Thank you Heidi and Joaquim!!

When we arrived at 2:10, the kids were all sitting on a bench in front of the school doing their homework.  There were no tears, and no shouts of joy when they saw us, either – they were all engaged in their work!  All of the Americans were hanging out talking and waiting for us, so our shame was fully public in the expat community.  But the kids seemed like it was a good first day!

On the way home, they told us they really didn’t understand much of what was going on. There were several English speakers who helped them, and the twins came home with photocopies of pages from their math book for homework.  Their favorite part of the day was recess, of course!  I will interview them after their first week and post a video so you can see what they think right from their own mouths.

 

 

Contracts, Illness and Matriculation Forms, Oh My!

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical, The Stuff of Daily LifeLeave a comment

Have you ever entered into an international leasing contract, or filled out school matriculation forms in a foreign language?  The past couple of days have been very interesting.  I have been reviewing and editing a lease contract originally written in Spanish by a Spanish lawyer, and then translated into English, so that it can be reviewed and signed by me and the Dutch owner of the property (who doesn’t speak Spanish)!  The English translation was pretty bad, so I brushed up on my legal and translation skills (Say what?  I’m not practiced in translating Spanish legalese!) and tried my best to make it match the intent of the Spanish document and the verbal agreement we have made with the owner (in English).  The most entertaining highlight of the translation was the heading called “Exposed” – a term I’ve never seen on a lease! It was “Exponen” in Spanish, and I decided the closest thing for a legal heading would be “Presented”, because it was the section that outlined the parties presenting the contract, so let’s hope it works.

While I was reading two translations of same document, I was also intermittently reviewing a change in a new contract for the sale of our house in Virginia, and nursing a feverish sick baby who wanted nothing except to be held.  It’s really hard to read legal documents with a poor, miserable toddler in your arms!  The kids have been passing around the  intestinal virus that made me take Ella to the doctor.  She is better now, but Matthew got it (and is better), and now Cora has it, too.  Madeleine and Peter have yet to bite the dust, so we’re just waiting for that shoe to drop.  I’m hoping that Ryan and I have sufficiently mature immune systems that we remain clear of that mess.  Our lack of finalized house contract plus illnesses in the house delayed our plan for school matriculation, but tomorrow I’m making it happen!

We decided on the big house in La Herradura because ultimately, Ryan needs to be able to work, and having a dedicated office space away from the main living area will make that possible.  I’m a woman of two minds on this, because part of me is super excited to move there and enjoy the beauty, extra space, bigger pool, and quiet, and part of me is grieving the idea of leaving Almuñécar and the more frugally priced house we are in now.  (If you know me, you know that “frugal” part is key for me!) I love seeing the sun rise over the pueblo blanco out my bedroom window every morning, and I love being close to town.  But the big house has fantastic views, too, especially at sunset, and we can enjoy walking in the town of La Herradura and also enjoy Almuñécar, since we will be here at least twice per week for church and grocery shopping.  The decision was made for us, in the end, because while I was waffling and looking for some third option, the house we are in was rented for the summer.  As high season draws near, there are fewer and fewer options available that would work for our family, so the big house in La Herradura is the best one for us for now.  We are going to sign a 14 month lease, so I suppose we can always change our minds next year!

Since we are renting the house in La Herradura, I plan to enroll the kids in school there tomorrow.  That sentence made it sound like it was an easy decision, but it was not!  I really loved the school we had visited back in October, Colegio Publico La Noria, and I visited them again this week.  The teachers and kids were all so very welcoming!  The school yard has more play space than La Herradura, and the impression I got is that they have a more laid back atmosphere and have a little more fun there.  It may be an unfair impression based on insufficient information, but there it is… effecting my ability to make decisions! This transition into school (which the kids have never before attended), and on top of that, school taught in a language they don’t speak, is NOT going to be easy, so I am pulled strongly towards the place that seemed like it might make the kids feel more at ease and welcome. If all other things were equal, that’s where I would send the kids.

But everyone I have talked to says they have only heard good things about the school in La Herradura, and I did like it enough when I visited last week that I felt it was a viable option for us.  Still, something intangible about it ranked it as my second choice.  Nonetheless, here are the factors that made me choose the school in La Herradura anyway: the ability to walk to school, and the hope we will integrate into the local community.  We hope the kids will make friends at school, and we hope they will have the opportunity to see those friends outside of school hours, either at the plaza, la playa, or just in town.  And since we will be living in that town, walking in that town, and hitting the beach in that town, we figured it makes sense to give the kids a chance to meet the kids that go to school in that town, right?  Plus walking to school daily will get us all some good exercise, and get me out of the house and hopefully meeting some of the other moms after dropping the kids off.  If I enroll the kids at La Noria, I’ll have to drive them there every day, and I have a feeling that would get old really fast.  So we’re going to dive into my Choice B, but here’s the upside: there’s only 2 months left of school!  So if we hate it, I’m pretty sure I can make the switch and send the kids to the other school in September.  Here’s hoping I got the paperwork right and they can start on Monday!  And we’re also hoping to move into the big house this weekend so we can finally get unpacked and settled in.  It could be an exciting next couple of days for us!

Our First Adventure with Spanish Healthcare

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical, The Stuff of Daily Life1 Comment

I finally decided I needed to take Ella to the doctor tonight.  (ALERT: If you do not like reading the gory details about illness, or if talk of bodily fluids makes you squeamish, STOP READING NOW!)

Ella had been complaining of tummy aches for the past 3 or 4 days, and has had some diarrhea.  I am the type of person that lets a sickness ride for a few days to see what will happen.  I generally don’t go to a doctor unless I see something alarming.  Well, tonight I happened to be in the bathroom with Ella after we got home from our day trip to Granada (which is SO beautiful, by the way), and I decided to check to see if what was coming out was still diarrhea.  That was when I saw something alarming!  Blood in the toilet never inspires confidence, especially not when it’s coming from your seven year old’s rear end.  I told her we’d have to bring her to the doctor to check it out (which immediately made her burst into tears), and went to look up what’s available in town.

Doesn’t it always happen that when you finally decide you need a doctor, it’s right before the weekend, when everything is closed and your only options are emergency services?!  It was 7:45pm on Friday night, and I hadn’t the faintest idea where to find the health centers in town, much less the nearest hospital (which I have since learned is in Motril, a 20 minute drive to the next town).  Hoping that maybe the Spanish siesta hours might work in my favor, or that I’d find something with Saturday hours, I started searching the internet.  I found that one of the clinics in town has hours till 8pm!  By the time I called, it was 7:55pm, so I was not really even expecting an answer.  Imagine my surprise when I got a real person on the line!  I started to tell them why I was calling, in Spanish, and I was doing great… until…  “My seven year old daughter has blood in her….”  umm… what’s the Spanish word for “stool”?  Part of my brain was looking for synonyms for “poop” that might translate easily, when I finally gave in… “Do you speak English?”  Thankfully, not only did he speak some English, but he asked me where I was right then, and said that if I could get to the clinic in 5-10 minutes he would wait for me. “Si!  Ya voy!” and we hopped in the car.

Let me go back for a minute and explain the drama that was happening in the background while I was searching for a doctor.  Ella was horrified by the idea of seeing a doctor.  She was wailing loudly, and saying things like “Why ME? Why do I have to get sick and go to the doctor when everybody else gets to go to the beach?” (We had no plans to go anywhere but bed tonight.)  And then she got even more upset.  “The doctor is going to hurt me!  He is going to have to stitch up the part that is bleeding!”  While I comforted her, I held back my laughter (are you with me on the implications of that one?!?).  But she had a previous experience with a split chin, and didn’t care much for having the wound glued shut, so you can imagine what was going through the poor child’s head about this particular blood.  Ryan took over comforting her and helping her understand things better while I was on the phone, and by the time we left she had simmered down to the whimper rather than a wail.  On the way there, she was starting to cry again… “What?  I might have to show my  private parts to a MAN?” but I assured her everything would be okay.

The ride into town took less than 7 minutes, and we parked on the street right in front of the clinic.  Thank you God for that parking space! After I accidentally spilled the entire contents of my “important papers” bag all over the street and then picked them up again, we made our way to the door.  It looked like a city apartment, with a buzzer outside, which we pressed to have them unlock the door.  Inside, it was dark, and there were stairs and elevators, and you had to find the light switches yourself as you made your way in.  We knew we had to go up, so we took the stairs because we weren’t sure how many flights up, and were very relieved to see a big sign on the door saying CLINICA on the first level.  Phew!  That was easier than it looked at first!  The doctor himself ushered us in, and the secretary showed us the waiting area for a brief moment.  Then we went back to his office and I explained what was going on half in Spanish, half in English.  He mostly spoke back to me in English, I think so Ella would understand – he spoke directly to her a lot.  He was so kind, and he put Ella right at ease, and even got a smile out of her!

We were thinking he’d check for hemorrhoids or parasites or something, but he did a basic exam which involved palpating her stomach and taking her temperature, and assured us that a little blood in the stool is normal after a bout with gastroenteritis, and that he sees it all the time.  He gave us some dietary recommendations to make sure we aren’t irritating her bowels and ensure she’s properly hydrated, and said if we still see blood on Monday to come back.  Sixty euros later, I have a bill to submit to insurance, (which is not bad compared to an American out-of-pocket doctor visit) and we were on our way to Mercadona to buy some bananas and apples for her to bake and eat for breakfast.

Overall, I was pleased with the experience, and was especially surprised that they were willing to stay open to wait for us.  In retrospect, I might have freaked out a little too much about the blood in her stool in the first place… though I know my mom would say I should have taken her to the doctor days ago!   I guess the weekend will be telling.  We’ll be praying we have no need to go back.

 

A Tale of Two Houses

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical6 Comments

I am mentally in a tizzy because I cannot come completely to peace about our house choice!  We have been looking for a 4+ bedroom place with a private pool that is within walking distance of town and school.  We are currently staying in one, and we could rent it’s twin next door long-term (this particular house is already rented out for the upcoming September), but we would like just a little more space if we can find it.  So after considering several other options, we have two homes in the running: this one, in Cotobro, a neighborhood of Almuñécar, or what we call “the big house” in La Herradura, the small town next door.

Cotobro – The Smaller House

  Pros

The house we are in is beautiful and modern, and it has pretty much everything we need, including a baby bed and high chair, rooftop parking with auto-opening gate, gorgeous view, and king sized beds in each bedroom.  It has a very small private pool, the care of which is included in the rent. It even has a clothes dryer, which is not very common here, a poolside bathroom, and an elevator.  I love it!  We can run (literally, hoofing it fast) down to the beach in 5 minutes (or walk in 10), and the walk to school would be about 20-25 minutes.  We can also walk to the center of Almunecar for church, banking needs, shopping, etc. in 30-40 minutes.  I have already developed a strong fondness for the town, the paseos along the beaches, the great grocery store, and the view of the point with the cross on top.  The long-term rental price is significantly less than our mortgage in Virginia, which leaves extra money in the budget for easy travel plans.

Cons

The only thing this house is lacking is an office for Ryan to work in (or a seconding living area for Cora and I to be in during the day), and green space.  It has 2 terraces and a balcony, so there is some room for the kids to run around outside, but no grass, no flowers, no trees, and if they fly the paper airplane too high, it goes over the wall into the neighbor’s terrace. Who knows what would happen with a soccer ball.  The microwave in the kitchen is behind the kitchen door, which is a little tricky – if we stay here we would probably take that door off it’s hinges and store it away somewhere so we can get to the pantry and microwave without closing the door.  Visitors would have to sleep in Cora’s room and then we’d have to move her somewhere we could squeeze in her travel crib, and they’d have to share the hall bathroom on the bedroom level with the entire family or go downstairs to use the other one.  But the biggest issue is feeling like we’re a bit on top of each other, and that Ryan’s work place would either be on the pool patio in the shade, in the only living area in the house, or in our bedroom (and there is not really space for a desk).  If Ryan can’t work effectively, this whole Spain thing won’t work for us long-term, so this is important!  Of course, all of the kids are home all day right now, and soon, 4 of them will be in school from 9 – 2.  Maybe that would make all the difference?

The Big House – La Herradura

We discovered the big house by looking at homes that are for sale and asking if they’d be willing to rent. Turns out, this house is owned by a man from the Netherlands, and he’s had it on the market for a year already, so he’s willing.  The house is in the next town to the west of Almuñécar, called La Herradura, and is less than a 10 minute drive from where we are now.  I have read conflicting information about the exact size, but at least one source said the population of La Herradura is about 3,000 compared to Almuñécar’s 30,000.

viewfromterrace

Pros

The house is absolutely stunning.  The views are breathtaking – mountains, sea, trees and flowers.  There is a much larger pool with steps to enter it that would be great for me and Cora, several grassy areas, several great poolside seating options, a hammock, a lemon tree, a banana tree, gorgeous flowers blooming over the terrace railing that are automatically watered by an irrigation system, and an overall outdoor presentation that is the perfect relaxing oasis.  We saw it last Friday night right before sunset, and as we watched the sun set behind the mountains, my heart wanted to live there at any cost, despite anything my brain might say.  It is in a gated community and the road has a cul-de-sac, so there is a flat area where the kids could roller skate or bike a bit (if we had those things).  The roads to get there are generally less anxiety-inducing than the steep, narrow switch-backs in Cotobro, and there is even a lane on the side marked off for walkers and bikers. The house also has 4 bedrooms, but they are much larger, and they all have their own bathroom.  All of the bedrooms upstairs open onto a large upper terrace.  One of the bedrooms has room for a futon in addition to the bed, and it has an en-suite bathroom that makes it the perfect place for visitors.  The house is new, well-maintained, and feels luxurious, with things like heated towel bars, a wood-burning fireplace, stainless steel appliances and marble floors.  Most importantly, it has an office, two living areas (one could be the “kid zone”), a larger kitchen, and of course, the green space.  Real grass, as springy as a trampoline!  It would definitely be easier to be home with Cora all day in the this house – more places to play, more ways to change the scenery, less worry about our noise bugging others, and less likely to be a frustration to Ryan while he’s trying to work. Another benefit is that for now, the owner is leaving his kayak and wind surfing board in the garage, and has given us permission to use them.  Cool stuff!  Working directly with the owner will save us some real estate commissions, which is a nice benefit, and he’s willing to leave the utilities in his name and just let us know what we owe for them when the bills come, which seems simpler than the alternative.

From the big house, you can walk on a somewhat scrabbly path down to the beach in about 10-15 minutes, and you can walk to the school in La Herradura in 20-25.  Or you can take the road and the walks are about 10 minutes longer (unless we can find a few more staircases that cut off some of the turns).  I visited the school before we saw the house, and liked it quite a bit.  I was encouraged that they also have a Spanish tutor to help my kids learn the language just like the school in Almuñécar, and the classes are small (about 16-17 kids each).  They have students from 27 different countries there.  There is a huge gated playground very nearby the school where I could play with Cora for a bit after dropping the kids off, and there is a soccer field right on the beach (a paved, enclosed soccer area) where I assume the kids would often play after school.  The town is small, has fewer options for shopping, and only one beach, but does have a branch of our local bank, some restaurants, and some small supermarkets.  The people are all very friendly, and I ran into people on Saturday that I met on Friday who recognized me and greeted me in the street!

Cons

The rent for this house costs as much as our home in Virginia, which means we’ll have to budget more carefully to achieve our travel goals.  I have run some numbers, and I think we can still do it, but it will take more cost-conscious planning than living in the other place would.  Thankfully, other expenses will be lower for us than they are in the states, including food, cell phones, and car costs (we’ll only get one, and won’t have any commute). Aside from the cost, a few other little things would be less convenient living at the big house: the garage is below the property, down the hill really, and only has a manual door, and is accessible only via outside stairways to get up to the house. That means going anywhere in the car with the kids will be a bit of a pain – we’ll have to get everybody down two outdoor staircases, and there will be no more simply saying “kids, go get in the car, I’ll be right there.”  There is no clothes dryer, and if we installed one, it could not fit in the laundry room.  We’d have to put it in the boiler room off the kitchen (which still would be better than hanging all the laundry for 7 people to dry!).  Also, the house is mostly furnished, but not fully equipped – meaning we’ll need to buy a few pieces of furniture (master bedroom bed, desk and chair for office), pots and pans for the kitchen, and probably some other miscellaneous items like towels and linens (though he does have some there we can use), and cleaning tools.  He did offer to help with the missing furniture, but since we don’t have a contract yet, I’m not sure if that means he’ll buy it for us, or give us some money towards the purchase.  So there are some start-up expenses (but also the fun of picking things out).

The other significant con about the big house is that the town we can walk to is really a tiny town, more like a suburb.  Though I hear the community has all the kid activities we would want, and we could walk to meet our basic shopping and dining out needs, we would need to drive to Almuñécar for the big grocery store, and also to church.  This is a somewhat difficult item to evaluate – an intangible unknown about what life might be like.  Would we feel like town is a little too tranquilo? I love being close to town in Almuñécar where we are now, and I worry that we might feel a little isolated in La Herradura, but it could be that I’m just more familiar with Almuñécar.  Perhaps once we got to know La Herradura, I would have the same fondness for it, and be glad for what it offers?  Another concern is that the area has more expats, so we may be less likely to make Spanish friends in that neighborhood/side of town.  I love the idea of having some english-speaking friends, but our main goal here is to be speaking Spanish.  The kids will be speaking Spanish in school, and making friends there, and hopefully we can make friends with the parents. Could we invite people over, and would they come? I do not think that neighborhood has many (or any?) kids in it that we’d just run into on the street, so we may have to work for friendships in a different way. And finally, because this is a more upscale neighborhood, I worry a little about being like an “elite” member of the community, which might make it more difficult to make friends, as well.

So those are our two options.  Which would you choose?  We will decide soon, because we need a rental contract before we can go get our residence cards, and that must be done within 30 days of our arrival!  Let me know what you think!

 

Fun Facts and Random Oddities

On By laurasuzyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Here is a list of little things that are different and interesting:

There is a very confused rooster somewhere on this hill that crows all day long.

Most days we have slept until 9 or 9:30am instead of the usual 7am!

You can’t open any of the doors to the house from the outside because there are no handles.  Even the front door can only be opened with a key.

We park on the roof of our house.

All the bathrooms have bidets, but their location in the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms is swapped, making choosing the correct receptacle in the middle of the night a bit of a challenge.

I saw a grasshopper as big as the ones I dissected in high school!  At first I thought it was a defective hummingbird.

Guardrails, even on the most steep of mountain switchbacks, are apparently optional here.  (Yikes!)

The first thing we smelled when we walked out on the patio was jasmine.  Glorious!

Trash is collected daily after 8 pm.

We measured the grade of the hill you go up to get to our house.  It is 25 degrees in many places!!