One week in

We’re in Spain! I’m finally getting around to writing about this!

On 8/25, we piled into my parents’ car with all our luggage and everything fit. I cried. It was such a massive finish line after working diligently all summer to prep for this move.

We parked by the entrance to Traverse City’s tiny airport and checked in no problem with all our bags, then said a tearful goodbye to my parents.

Then we waited for our short flight across Lake Michigan to Chicago.

Chicago, or more specifically Oak Park, was where we’d just lived for the past nine years, so it was surreal to pass through, as if we could just hop back into my 2006 Prius and drive home. Instead, we had the nicest lunch I could find.

Stepping onto our plane bound for Madrid was such a memorable moment, buzzing with excitement and hearing Spanish all around us. The background music was soothing Spanish guitar, which has since made it onto Evan’s playlist. The kids were delighted by every bit of food.

I’ve written my anecdote about not having the confidence to order “café” on my first flight to France during college. Well, on this flight, the flight attendant said “café o té?” and I said “agua caliente con limón?” and she repeated, “café o té?” so I said “Té” and didn’t drink it.

Lesson? Many things don’t go the way you expect in a new culture! We roll with it.

Landing in Madrid Barajas airport, we were all charmed immediately by the playgrounds, modern bathrooms, and trash receptacles with three compartments. I started ordering (nervously) in Spanish and was delighted to find that my credit card worked there.

After a short flight to Sevilla, all of our bags arrived on the carousel immediately!

We quickly found my friend, colleague, and host Elena and she drove us home. I couldn’t wait to see the city I’d studied so much online!

This is Elena’s street in Feria, with a 13th century church at the end:

We had a family meal with her (American) husband and (bilingual) son, after a quick run out to the vendors steps from her house to buy fruit and fish and it was all impossibly charming.

Those first few days are blurry, but we did lots of walking and cafés con leche and tapas and feeling quite assured that this city was a good choice.

On Day 2, less than 24 hours after our arrival, we went to see an apartment. It’s the one we ended up renting,and the only one we saw. Our dream place, exactly what I ordered, with an open kitchen for me, loft bed for Evan, and big-girl little room for Chloe, overlooking a park, a short walk from the city center and the kids’ school. This is from our front door:

We were so lucky this place was listed basically as we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean and we were able to scoop it up:

In the meantime, I also bought sheets at El Corte Inglés for 3 different size beds (complicated!!), got us set up with health insurance (which involved giving my kids’ height and weight in metric AND in Spanish, while guessing in the first place, over the phone), and, as of today, and got our place hooked up with wi-fi. Elena actually did by far most of the work on all of this (so grateful).

So how do we all feel?

I’ve been continually so busy managing details, I get my waves of emotions in moments, sipping a café con leche while my kids run off to play. I feel really lucky to be here, reconnecting with my world traveler persona in this phase of life.

It comes with some anxiety of course, and some awkward deer-in-headlights moments when people speak rapid-fire Spanish and I have no idea what to say. But I don’t really know how it could be going better.

I love watching my kids take it all in. They’re so primed for this.

In Michigan, Chloe drew a picture of her new friend in Spain she hasn’t met yet:

I love the hopeful mindset: there will be friends. We just don’t know who they are yet!

Evan asks me all the time why we didn’t come sooner. I know he’s nervous about school but also stoic. He keeps saying, “I need to learn Spanish!” Motivated.

School starts next week. I’ll try to write more. Love to everyone. xo