Blogs from Vigo, Galicia, Spain, Europe - page 3

Money matters…both in the sense that it counts and that it’s a subject AND that I’m running out of it…already. England and the start up here has been expensive—MUY—and I’m now penny pinching for a while. It’s funny, I’ve started to observe certain things about the Spanish; for example the way the mothers wear high heels to pick up their kids from school, the late meals, the blaze mannerisms, the time they take to talk to you and help you, the way they always tell you that you have lovely Spanish (even though we all know that’s not true), their beauty in everything and their vivacious and passionate ways—especially with the children. Noticing all these things I moved throughout my day with a happier outlook than before, trying to immerse myself in the culture. The first ... read more

Each day things look brighter and better! Today I dropped the kids off at school and then met up with Jen, we then met up with Heidi, an old au pair of a family around here and her friend; they took us to a local language school and then we went for coffee. Every day I feel more settled down here and happier. I feel more at home and excited to be…IN Spain! IN SPAIN THAT’S WHERE I AM LIVING! Ahhhhh! Realization! After we toured the language school we went for coffee and chit-chat. After that I came home and ran around doing some chores for Susi before I went to pick up the kids from school. They then packed up really fast and flew out the door to make the four o’clock train to Sanxenxo. ... read more

My first day in Vigo! It began earlier than any other day thus far in Spain—7:45 AM, “so long party nights and all day sleeping!”. I showered and got ready with the children, we had breakfast and then I walked them with Sussi (the host mother) to school. Next we headed back to the apartment to pick up a few things before we went in search of the bus to the Universidad de Vigo! I took the bus alone, it took 50 minutes! I finally got there and then FiINALLY found Mercedes—the woman I had been corresponding with about taking lessons etc. The test was…well let’s just say I guessed through half of it, ok, 90% of it but I think my guesses sounded very spanishy! Haha! Then I went to a foreign students talk and ... read more

So, where were we? Having lived here for over a year now, and hopefully for a little while longer yet, one of my favourite things about Spain (or at least this part of Spain) is how, for the want of a better word, old-fashioned lots of things are. I hadn’t appreciated it before I came here and I mean it, almost entirely, as a compliment but moreso than anywhere else I’ve lived there are customs, values, ways of life that are reminiscent of Britain 30+ years ago, which in some ways is quite nice. By way of an example, today is a Sunday and there is, so far as I know, one supermarket open in the city (which, annoyingly for those of us too disorganised to buy food more than a day before we plan to ... read more

I’ve found, whilst doing this in various different places, that sometimes it’s the normal, mundane things that are the most difficult to accomplish. In my case, getting a haircut abroad is something that makes me want to go into a corner, roll up into a ball and start sucking my thumb. This, I think, is largely down to a particularly painful experience in Beijing where with all the cunning logic of a fox, we reasoned the barbers there would be more used to cutting Westerners hair than those in our remote location (home to four and a half million people by the way) and so we delayed the necessary for longer than we probably should have until we went on holiday to the big smoke. This apparently flawless plan, turned out to have rather a large ... read more