I’m all for not thinking toooo hard before making life-changing decisions, but when I moved to Spain in 1998 I was young, free, and single… so it was a bit of a “no-brainer”.

However, I’ve noticed a few comments on the blog recently from people wrestling with the decision: to move to Spain or not to move to Spain.

So, in no particular order (but all important!) here are 9 things to think about (even just a tiny bit!) if you are planning a move to Spain:

1. Language: Do you speak Spanish?

I turned up here 10 years ago without a word, but as I planned to be an English teacher in Spain for the first year, this didn’t really matter. Plus I planned to get very fluent very fast, which, with classes, intercambios, and massive motivation, I managed.

But will you have time to learn Spanish? Will you need it for a job? Are you bothered about it?

In general, I would say: count on needing to learn Spanish if you want a successful life in Spain. If you live outside the expat zones on the coasts, do not expect people in banks, landlords, people on the end of a phone etc, to speak English.

No problem anyway, learning Spanish is fun!

2. Expat guilt: Will you face it?

Are you leaving people behind that you will feel guilty about? Do you have responsibilities at home you really might feel bad about running away from? This isn’t the case for everyone, but where possible I highly recommend tying up any loose ends before you go that might tug at your conscience later. Or getting work here that frees you up to pop back often…

3. Work

What are you going to do for a living in Spain? Working in Spain is not as easy as it was where you came from, unless you plan to be an English teacher in a big city.

Spain is in the middle of its own economic crisis, and has very high unemployment at the moment. So make sure you think ahead, or better still, have something lined up for when you arrive.

If you arrive without work, aim to have at least 5,000 Euros in the bank before you get here to tide you over while you find work in the first few months.

4. Responsibilities

Will you be bringing a spouse, or children, that depend on you? Then things get a LOT more complicated. You need to work out what they are going to do in Spain too, work-wise or school-wise, and you need to have a LOT more money in the bank as a safety net before you arrive, not to mention a job lined up or very very solid plan.

If this is you, read this cautionary tale about leaving Spain.

5. You may never want to leave

OK, enough of the ‘warning shots’ above, this one is positive. Be warned that once you get here, you may stay forever… I planned to be in Madrid for a month, Spain for a year. That was 10 years ago, and I’m still in Madrid. It’s great, but something to keep in mind!

6. You may be changed forever!

Moving to Spain long term will almost certainly make you more independent, broaden your horizons, and will enrich and stimulate you mentally and culturally.

What’s wrong with that? Nothing! But you may find that after a time you loose touch with life and culture back home, and only have half a clue what’s going on here! It’s a weird transition, but in the end, you may end up more culturally Spanish than whatever you were before.

Again, no problem, but makes it hard when you go home for a visit and you have no idea about the celebrities, scandals and TV shows your old friends are talking about at dinner parties.

7. New friends

How good are you at meeting people and making new friends? Where will you find them? Lots of idea on that in this forum post: A happy landing in Spain

8. Leaving your comfort system behind.

By way of summarising the scary bits above, you will be leaving established work channels, friends, support systems… weather systems for that matter! You will be stepping out of your comfort zone. Make sure you are feeling good, fit, mentally strong, and up for an amazing challenge. And be determined to fit in with your new surroundings (see “The Ex-Pat Manifesto”…)

And don’t worry, as I always say, if I can start a new life in Spain, anyone can…

9. Over to you…

What would you add for number 9? Please add to the list or just comment below!

OK, I said I was too busy to post this week, but I really shouldn’t make rash statements like that, clearly.

In the forum there is an interesting discussion about the new system for EU foreigners resident in Spain and how they should carry ID. In the past we all queued up for insane amounts of time to spend hours in awful police stations to eventually be given an incredibly useful credit card-sized piece of plastic called the NIE card.

This included name, address, tax ID number, signature, and fingerprint (!) – it made you You in Spain, and you really can’t do anything without it. Buying in shops with a credit card, checking into a hotel, signing up for anything, all necessitate this wonderous little plastic me.

Now it is being phased out (mine expires in June), and replaced with an A4 piece of paper declaring us to be foreign, that will need to be carried at all times together with your passport!

What a pain! Now, in my case, having been resident for 10 years, and married to a Spaniard (which may be less relevant), I have a feeling I can apply for some sort of more permanent nationalisation that would allow me to apply for and carry a DNI (the Spaniard’s credit-card sized ID card with all the info).

That’s not the only reason I’d be happy to become more half-Spanish, but it is a good one – you cannot underestimate the usefulness of that little card! Does anyone know anything about the viability of this? Can a Brit end up with a DNI?

Not often this wonderful meteorological miracle comes to pass, when Madrid’s difficult micro-climate allows the snow that’s been falling on the nearby sierras to creep within the city limits.

The city grinds to a halt in surprise of course, and it never lasts more than 24 hours, but I made sure to get a quick morning walk in the Retiro, with many of the other city’s photographers!

More photos of the snow on Flickr

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Thoughts on Christmas in Spain, changes (or not) in Spain, the future of this blog and more…

Stuff mentioned in the podcast:

Spanish New Years Podcast

Watch “El Comisario” on the net

Pure Genius by Dan Sullivan (Worth every cent 100 times over. And not just for “entrepreneurs”)

Follow me on twitter … if you’re into that stuff

Please comment below!

A question we often ask ourselves… should we stay in Madrid forever, nearby? Or somewhere completely different? Where would you like to live in Spain? Where should we? Watch the video and comment below!

Ten years ago today, on August 30th 1998, I left the UK for Spain. It was a move born to a great extent out of desperation. I was nearly 26, living in London, with no real job or income, and no reasonable plans. After making a few random applications, I had been offered a place on a TEFL course in Madrid two weeks previously, decided to go for it, and from there one thing after another just fell into place. A friend told me at the time that I was very brave, all I knew was that I was plain terrified.

Ten years later it’s fun to look back and see what Spain has given me:

A wife, new friends, a beautiful new language, endless travels and new landscapes and, through a hell of a lot of hard work, a business we love that keeps me and la wife out of an office job and covers the mortgage. I certainly couldn’t have predicted that last one!

Obviously a lot of those things could theoretically have been achieved if I’d stayed in the UK, or gone anywhere else, but it certainly feels like I was meant to come here, and that some of these things might not have happened so well had I not wound up in Spain.

An interesting part of living so long in a new country is that you become bi-cultural, but in a weird way which I’ll try to explain. I totally lost touch with the finer aspects of British popular culture years ago (who the hell is Russel Brand?), but still feel nostalgic if someone mentions British childhood favourites like the Magic Roundabout.

Conversely, I know lots about Letizia Ortiz and enough about David Bisbal, ZP, corruption in Marbella and the speed of Spain’s trains, but am completely lost when Marina laughs at jokes based on TV characters from her Spanish childhood (who the hell is el hombre de Pescanova?!)

So when I say I’m bi-cultural, I mean I’m culturally British up until the age of 26, then mildly imbued with Spanish culture from that point on. It’s a bit odd.

It means that when I’m back in the UK I get a kick out of the familiar homely tones of BBC1 or Radio 4, but am lost as to half of what they are talking about, as if I’d gone to sleep in the late 90’s and just woken up to a completely different version of the day to day UK. On the other hand, having not been born into it, much of Spanish popular culture (just about anything on daytime TV), really doesn’t ring the right bells, of hit the right spots…

None of this matters of course, it’s just a minor disconnect on both sides of Ben – English Ben, and Spanish Ben – that sometimes leaves me mildly… … Spanglish.

Other random thoughts:

Marina says that Spain has made me a worse driver, I agree. After 10 years of seeing how no one else pays complete attention to the all the rules of the road, it’s hard not to let standards slip oneself.

At home, Marina and I talk to each other in a terrible mixture of English and Spanish, often switching mid sentence, and occasionally mixing in our own made-up cross-breed words (“I’m feeling a bit agobiated”).

To my continued surprise, I really like Morcilla (blood and rice shaped into a sausage).

If England played Spain at football, I’d be with Iker’s team in a flash.

I sometimes feel at least 50% Spanish.

Spain has done me very very well, and as usual I’d encourage anyone thinking of making a similar (in fact, any) bold move in their life to go for it. Big changes need bold moves. When I made mine I was young, free and single, and that undoubtedly made it a hell of a lot easier. If you are none, or only some, of the above, you can still take a step into the unknown, just think carefully about what backups you should have in place first.

Anyway, enough of all that, here’s to another 10 years in Spain, and a whole lot more after that!

For more on my escape from London, my first three years in Spain and meeting Marina, don’t forget to read “Errant in Iberia”!

We recently started ordering big boxes of beautiful organic vegetables about once a week. Not only does this hopefully guarentee a better quality of produce, but it also saves a few bag-laden trips back from the supermarket! Marina writes about the different companies we have tried in the forum, see this thread, 3 posts down from the top: Ordering Organic Food in Spain

Dave Hall (Pepino) has great advice for anyone thinking about bringing a dog to Spain, 4 posts down in this thread: Moving a dog to Spain. My favourite part of his advice is:

2. Traffic. I see loads of people walking dogs in the street off their leads, and it’s truly amazing how the dogs seem to instinctively know the pavement from the road (better trained than most UK children!!) My dog is well-behaved for the most part and wouldn’t run away from me, but has no actual road sense and would happily bumble stupidly into the road if something catches his eye. He wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in Barcelona

This constantly amazes me too, they can’t all be that well trained? It must have got into the Spanish canine genetics!

Remember, for just about any question you have about Spain or learning Spanish, or just a good chat about anything under the sun, register and join in the conversation in our forum!

An important comment left on the blog yesterday:

“The grass is always greener. We moved here when the Real Estate was booming, bought a house, put children into private school, at the time was not an issue. Although as they got older the fees ended up being 1000 euros a month (every month) when some salaries are not even that!! Now daughter gone back to Uk to University, no money left to continue other childs education. Cannot sell house . Over 50 so struggling to get work. Trying to make it online. It’s soul destroying, we came here for a better life and it has ended up in disaster. There is a lot more to sun sea and sangria. We came here to give our children and ourselves a better life. What more can I say. Be very careful before you upsticks and move. We are truly stuck, stressed out with limited funds.”

Read in combination with this video from the BBC, I would say a lot of those previously keen to take their family off to a better life in Spain are now thinking twice.

Meanwhile The Sun warns, “…many home-owners could now find themselves stuck in a stagnant market”, under the headline, “Property bubble bursts in Spain”.

Then we have, “Plunging prices cause pain in Spain and trap desperate Brits abroad”, from the Guardian. Pretty depressing reading.

The message seems pretty clear. Only buy property in Spain if you fall into one of these categories:

1. It is a second home that isn’t necessarily also a key investment.

2. You are retiring to that home and are convinced you don’t want to go back to the UK later.

3. You already have a very settled life here and are 100% sure you want to stay.

Moving here with a family without a hell of a job waiting for you, or trying to make a fast buck on the housing market, seems like a very bad idea these days.

And I can only imagine what the Brits’ declining faith in the Spanish property market will do the country’s already troubled construction industy… especially since most Spaniards have given up on investing in new coastal/second home properties as well.

This was an important subject of debate in the forum last week. The general consensus was that although it is easy to set up a new life in Spain when you are young, free and single, it is an extremely risky proposition if you are married, mortgaged, and have kids.

In fact, if you haven’t got a year’s worth of salary in the bank, and a firm job offer on arrival, the general advice was ‘Don’t risk it!’ And certainly don’t sell your property back home to buy another one here, because if you change your mind later, you’ll never afford to buy a similar house back if you have to return home…

You can follow the full debate in the forum, but be warned, it’s enough to put a family off moving here altogether. Perhaps that’s why I was really interested in a very appropriate comment left here on the blog over the weekend, in answer to a previous question. “How long does it take to get used to living in Spain?”:

I moved to Madrid from the US 3 years ago with my husband and 2 children, one of which was a toddler. I speak fluent spanish, so the language barrier was not a factor. It was a difficult move. The “mañana” way of life, the ridiculous driving standard, the siesta hours, the over-inflated prices, the holier than thou attitude… well you get the picture, it’s very, very hard to get used to.

Once I realized that I was NOT in the US and I accepted that things are “different” it got much, much easier to live here. The amount of time it takes to realize that can vary for each individual. For me it was at about the 2 year point. I am much happier now and when I am happy, my family is happy.

I miss my home, the US, very much. But I’m not going back until it’s time to move back (another 2 years). The way I see it is: “I’m in Europe and I’m going to see this part of the world before I leave.”

So to answer the question…. It is different for everyone, but you have to make a choice. You either accept a different way of life, or you fight it until the end. Good Luck.

So it is possible for families to move here and survive/be happy, but just how common is it? Have you moved your whole family here, or do you know someone else that has? Would you risk it?

Dave Hall lives and works in Barcelona. You can read more of his great posts on his blog, and his guest blogging posts here on Notes from Spain. He is currently somewhat of an expert on life in a Spanish office:

After listening to the Notes in Spanish Advanced podcast about life in a Spanish office recently, I thought I’d write a little about my experience of some of the most striking differences from my viewpoint as a long term UK office worker now working in various Spanish offices over the past 18 months.

The biggest (and the most obvious) thing that I still struggle with at times is how to get my head around the well publicised relaxed attitude to timekeeping.

In my old UK company, we would routinely receive emails reminding us that 9 am was the start of the "working" day, and not the time you should be stubbing your fag out against the wall outside and thinking about dragging your lazy, no-good, workshy carcass into the building only to then go for an unfeasibly long pee, get a coffee and chat to your colleagues about last night’s television (OK, I’m paraphrasing). Something along the lines of "You should be at your workstation, ready to work at 9 am" was the usual message.

Lunch time was a fixed 45 minutes and the same rules applied then. In fact, this was so well drummed into us that, if you strolled back in 5 minutes late, your own dear colleagues (from outside your department) would look at you with scorn and pass comment either behind your back, or to your face in the form of a lame joke. The management had clearly done their job on us, as the staff were effectively policing each other in the form of an internalized company Gestapo!!! (Although, we’d of course swapped finger screws for finger pointing). A sad situation indeed.

Here in Spain, it’s very different. Last week, when I asked what the hours were in my new job, my boss kind of shrugged, expelled a lot of air, umm’d and arr’d , then finally said, "Well, come in about 9am ish, lunch is roughly 13.30 until whenever, and most people start leaving about 18.30, or earlier if it’s a Friday." (She then immediately asked if I wanted to go for a coffee with her). Ah well, that’s clear then, thanks!

So, not a bad situation, but totally useless for an anally retentive, logically minded Virgo like me who can only cope with life if there’s a "rule" of some kind to help avoid unnecessary confusion! I still find myself rushing back to work after lunch, only to find an empty office, and then chastising myself for being such a pillock. For someone who prides himself on having done a reasonably good job of fitting into Spanish life, this work timetable thing is an irritatingly persistent problem that I still need to shake off before my hair falls out or I start cultivating a stomach ulcer. Read the rest of this entry »