sally2 - 16 July 2009 11:58 PM
And, Santi, I agree. I am all about research and planning.
It can be important and easy to miss something you had not realised.
From what i`ve read Brits tend to make the most mistakes, they don`t learn the lingo, still !!!!!!! and they assume that Spain is similar to the UK.
Its only due to the Spanish that there tolerated or rather taken advantage of.
I think if you’re young it’s easy to get up and go, the worst that can happen is that you’re back where you started—with nothing.
The biggest mistake in life one can make is too be born, grow up, live and die in the same place.
Life is about experience, whilst Spain for me was not a great experience, my Spanish OH keeps tellin me she told me so before we moved, my biggest regret would have been not to go.
But if you’ve got a family and are used to a certain income it can be a tougher decision.
For us we learn`t that children can gain great experience, ours spoke the lingo before we left and had been travelling to there grandparents since they were 4 months, so for them to learn Spain in Spain was great.
But it does affect there schooling, my daughter now has learn`t that next year she is in special needs class as her phonetics are really bad, spelling is horrendous, she speaks and writes perfect Spanish, speaks and reads perfect English, but when she writes English she is using Spanish sounds to spell, so the words are bad.
So now she has too cope with the issue of schooling, my main concern being if her education suffers until the end, that would really put a mark on the experience knowing her adult life could be affected, she wants to be a vet so bad.
If we were both English i wouldn`t have moved to Spain, for sure, its way too hard and I`ve met many many many Brits returning to the UK, the longest Expat I`ve met in Spain workin was 8 yrs, there are a few writers, painters and B&B;owners who have been longer, but mostly people return.
I don’t think it’s much different than moving to a different part of the U.S., there’s just more red tape to deal with.
My OH compares Spain too Mexico.
Certainly the South of Spain is very closly related.
