52 Things I Did When I Moved to Spain

After the complete failure at keeping the promises made in my last article, I had to seriously consider deleting the entire post and save myself the embarrassment. Instead, I have decided to face up to my defeat and overcome it by attempting something bigger.

Vamos a ver.

“Did you move ‘ere for weeeeeurk?”  is a question I commonly get asked by career-obsessed French people.

"Non, Jean-Pierre, I did not move to the poorest part of Spain for job opportunities. Would you?"

People in their right mind settle in Andalucía for the weather and the promise of a relaxed, yet more exciting life.

“So what’s it like to live in Seville”, the rest of my backpacking customers always want to know, “What do you do in your spare time? Eat tapas? Learn flamenco? Watch bullfights?”

I tell them, “Yes, yes, and YES.”

Does that sound cliché to you? It certainly does to me. 

I'm finally leading the life that people think they’d have if they moved to Spain. The life I thought I might have when I first stepped out of the plane and looked around at the orange trees and blue sky two years ago. It’s taken time to get there, and I’ll even admit that at times, I have been focussing a little too much on the “relaxed” lifestyle rather than the “exciting” side of it.

My mistake.

In order to spice things up this year, I have set myself some new goals and I am proud to announce my new personal challenge for 2015:

“52 Things I Did when I Moved to Spain”.

The rules are simple. I must do one thing a week and then write about it. Along the way, I intend to explore Andalucía’s clichés and traditions while trying to stay off the beaten path. I’ll keep doing the things I like, do the things I should have done a long time ago, and some others I haven’t even thought of yet. In other words, more surfing, more traveling and… who knows what else? One thing is sure: I can’t wait to actually find out.

Que Empiece la Aventura!