WalkerIAM

Nov 21 to Jan 1 2019: In the last 45 days Kathy and I have done so much. For Thanksgiving, we attended a Thanksgiving dinner provided by Americans Living in Valencia. About 75 people were in attendance including many Spaniards who just liked the idea of giving thanks for the many things they had. It was fun. Kathy had a clandestine meeting with David, the organizer, to buy the tickets about a week in advance. It was like she was buying drugs or passing national secrets. We walked across town on a dark and dreary night where she met David about 9 at night at a corner in the rain. I watched the plot unfold from a sidewalk café across the street. They talked for a few minutes and then the transaction was completed. She came ... read more

Sept 20th to Oct 12th: Kathy and I started the week by signing up for Spanish classes. We are going to take one week of the intensive class which consists of 5 days of 4 hour instructions with a couple of hours of homework. I told the instructor that I didn’t think that I could do that because it would interfere with my nap. He kinda frowned at me and continue his spiel. By the time he was finished, I was thinking that retirement was over for me and I might as well go back to work. At least I would get paid. As this is going, I’m paying him. But Kathy as convinced me that we would both would be better off if I would just get with the program. As she put it, “Russ, ... read more

Aug 20th to the 31st: Since last weekend, we have been nesting. We are buying some of the things that we sold like coffee pots, trash cans, patio furniture, etc. We are a little smarter this time in that we know we will give this stuff away when we return to the U.S., so we are buying cheap, cheap, cheap. But still, all the stuff adds up. Each day we move a little more stuff to our apartment. We have a week left at the AirB&B, so we are making the most of washing clothes, and internet, which we don't have yet at our apartment. Tomorrow, we contract for internet and Kathy's phone, we get our debit cards from the bank, and we buy a couple of chairs for our patio area. It seems that we ... read more

Well we are official. We signed a lease last week for a 3 bedroom flat along the Turia River Walk outside the City of Science. Sounds great doesn't it? Our apartment is in a working class neighborhood on the first floor (which is actually the second floor...the first floor is zero) of an older apartment building. But it is nice with laminate and tile flooring and a sitting area in the Light Well, which is the center section of the building where everyone hangs their wash. I figure we will not need to buy another piece of clothing the rest of the time that we are here. Regardless, the apartment overlooks the City of Science. In the words of HGTV, "our apartment has a view of the beach" from the small window in the bathroom where ... read more

The last couple of days (Friday and Saturday) have been interesting in that we are finding out about the separate communities in Valencia and how they would impact our lives. Our realtor gave us a couple of locations that we could look at to decide where we wanted to live. We looked at the old city of course but prices there are going to be expensive and contain a lot of tourist traffic. It would be the most interesting place to live though. We looked at a more residential community with local groceries and shops near the City of Sciences, and we looked at a more commercial area with shopping malls, pools, commercial buildings etc., which we nixed right off the bat. One interesting apartment on the edge of old town had promise and we looked ... read more