A Modern Odyssey: Expatriates in Iberia
Experiences with work and play
In 2020, my wife and I realized our dream of living in Europe. What began as a way to document our move has evolved into a place to share stories about life in Spain and Portugal, travel, history, culture, and the many unexpected discoveries that come from living abroad.
Apparently, I’m Excited About an Electricity Bill
Another Lesson in Learning How to Live Well Here In my last post, I said that we’re no longer figuring out how to live here, we’re figuring out how to live well here. Apparently, that includes getting strangely excited about an electricity bill. When we first moved into our apartment in Valencia, our electricity bills…
Sobrasada: The Sausage We Somehow Missed
Before we moved to Valencia, we’d visited Spain quite a few times. We’d been to Madrid, Andalusia, Asturias, Barcelona, Valencia, and various other places around the country. We’d eaten plenty of tapas, pinchos, jamón, chorizo, and more plates of things involving pork than I could possibly remember. But somehow, we’d never encountered sobrasada, or at…
One Year Later
We’re No Longer Figuring Out How to Live Here. We’re Figuring Out How to Live Well Here. A year ago, everything in Valencia was new. Every trip to the grocery store was an adventure. Every government office was a mystery. Every doctor’s appointment required a little extra courage. We were learning our way around a…
To Blend or Not to Blend?
That’s an Interesting Question… Before we moved to Spain, we had a picture in our minds of what life here would be like. Some of those expectations turned out to be spot on. Others… not so much. One of them involved clothes. Our preconception was that Spaniards tended to dress better than we were used…
When Geography Disappears
Fire in Valencia… But Which Valencia? Over the past week, we’ve received a lot of messages from friends and family asking if we’re okay. “We just saw there’s a fire in Valencia. Are you safe?” First of all, let me say how much we appreciate every one of those messages. It’s comforting to know that…
Valencia’s Corpus Christi: Dragons, Giants, and a Very Old Party
One of the pleasures of living in Valencia is discovering that the city seems to have an endless supply of festivals. Just when you think you’ve recovered from Fallas, another celebration appears on the calendar, complete with medieval imagery and religious pageantry. This year, we decided to pay special attention to Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi…
Madrid vs. Valencia
The City That Impresses vs. The City That Works For Us We hadn’t been back to Madrid in a while, but we remedied that this last week. We had a perfect excuse: my younger brother Dave and his wife Lorraine were passing through on the way to a cruise departing from Barcelona, and Madrid made…
Our First Fallas: Beautiful, Bizarre, and Very Loud
When we moved to Valencia, one of the things we were most excited about was experiencing Fallas. We had done our homework. We’d visited the Fallas Museum multiple times. We understood the basics: the ninot figurines, the falleras in their elaborate dresses, and of course, the climactic spectacle of La Cremà. We thought we understood…
The Surprisingly Long Journey to Not Owning a Car
When we first started planning our move to Europe, we had a simple vision: we wouldn’t need a car. European cities are designed differently than American ones. Shops are nearby. Public transit works. Walking is normal. The idea of driving everywhere just … fades away. At least, that was the plan. Reality had other ideas.…
Another Bureaucratic Update: The Waiting Worked!
For those of you who’ve been following along, lighting candles, sacrificing toner cartridges, or simply shaking your heads knowingly, I’m happy to report a small but meaningful victory in our ongoing Social Security saga. Kristie’s account is now showing as ACTIVE. No fanfare or trumpet blast, just a quiet status change on a website. Which,…
Bureaucratic Update: We Have (Partial) Lift-off
For those of you who have been following along (and possibly lighting candles for us), a quick update on our Social Security Suspension Saga. After a full 90 minutes of redialing, followed by five minutes of actual ringing (during which I refused to hang up on principle), I finally reached a human being at the…
Suspended in Bureaucracy: Our Social Security Saga from Abroad
When you move abroad, you expect some red tape. Visas, taxes, and bank accounts are the standard dragon quests of expat life. But once you’re settled in, you’d think the basics would stay … well, basic. Kristie and I made that exact assumption when we moved, confident that our previous experience had prepared us. After…
Curtains Up: Discovering Valencia’s Live Performance Scene
…or, Why We’re Still Constantly Surprised by This City One of the things we’ve loved most about living in Valencia is how much of life happens outside the apartment. There are things constantly occurring in plazas, parks, markets, and, excitingly, on stage. We knew there’d be paella. We knew there’d be beaches. But we didn’t…
Healthcare Update: Good News, Bad Scheduling, and a €553 Meniscus
Time for an update on the ongoing saga of The Knee. When I wrote the last post, I was somewhere between hopeful, frustrated, and heavily medicated. We had just entered what I assumed would be the next phase of the adventure: lining up with the Spanish national healthcare system to start getting answers. Well. Things…
A Crash Course in Spanish Healthcare (Literally)
It’s been a while since my last update, and that’s not because I’ve run out of things to say. Quite the opposite. It’s just been… a lot. Some of it has been joyful. The arrival of our new cat Rea was wonderful, and we travelled to the US for some family time at Thanksgiving. Some…
Getting Around Valencia: How Do We Get Where We’re Going?
In Lisbon, we had three modes of transportation. We used the metro a lot; we had monthly passes, and got our money’s worth out of them. We combined that with walking. Our general rule of thumb was if the total journey was less than 15 minutes by foot, or if the destination was within 10…
A New Sister for Lexie: Welcoming Rea
This post is only peripherally about Valencia, or Spain, or being an expatriate. It’s mostly about the #1 subject on the internet – cats! Even before we left Portugal, we’d talked about the idea of getting Lexie a companion. She’s a sweet, quiet cat who gets a little bored at times when the humans aren’t…
“What Time Do We Eat?” Adjusting to Spain’s Meal Schedule (Sort Of)
One of the trickier things about moving to Spain hasn’t been the language, the bureaucracy, or even the humidity. It’s been the clock. Or more specifically: the meal clock. “What time do we eat?” is a surprisingly complicated question here. In theory, the Spanish answer is beautifully structured with a schedule built over generations to…
Life, Interrupted (and Restarted)
It’s been a minute since the last update as life caught up with us for a bit. A combination of dental surgery, major festivals, and a lovely family visit meant things were less about writing and more about just living. Let’s catch up. First up: I had dental surgery. Nothing glamorous, just the removal of…
Replacing Portugal’s Liquid Gold: Finding Wine We Love in Spain
One of the absolute best things about living in Portugal (right after the people) is the wine. It’s fantastic. It’s affordable. And it was one of our regular pleasures for the five years we lived there. Portuguese wine rarely makes a splash abroad, and there are two big reasons for that. First, production levels at…
Old Friends, New City: Hosting Our First Visitors in Valencia
One of the best parts of starting a new chapter in a new country is getting to share it with the people who know you best. This past week, we had our first visitors: our dear friends David and Sarah, flying in from Lisbon. They were our closest friends during our years in Portugal, and…
Cheese Expectations: Spain’s Dairy Overachievers
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I lived in Portugal for years, and I love Portuguese cheese. I do. From the soft and runny decadence of Serra da Estrela, to the salty firmness of São Jorge, to those lightly aged sheep cheeses that land somewhere between a custard and a dream, there’s some…
The Cure for Everything: A Deep Dive into Spanish Charcuterie
One of the first things we started buying regularly at the Central Market was charcuterie. Not because we were planning elaborate tapas spreads (though we’ve had a few), but because in Spain, charcuterie isn’t a luxury, it’s just food. You slice off a few pieces, put them on a plate, and suddenly your meal is…
Thursdays at the Market: Getting to Know Valencia, One Stall at a Time
It’s one thing to live in a city, but it’s another to have your habits in that city. One of the ways we’ve started to feel at home in Valencia has nothing to do with paperwork, language classes, or learning how to buzz delivery people into the building. It’s this: we go to the market…
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