In no particular order, here are some things I like:
Walking everywhere
Yesterday, I walked 8 miles. This included a morning school drop-off, a walk to the library to study with my neighbor (and get a library card!), a walk home from school after pick-up, and a walk to and from the back-to-school night meeting.
My feet haven’t quite adjusted. They’re tired! I look around and see Spanish women walking around in little sandals with absolutely no arch support, and I wonder if their foot muscles just have way more endurance than mine. I feel like I’m putting on athletic sneakers most days just to survive all the walking. Maybe my feet will get stronger over time.
Safety
Speaking of walking, I walked home alone from the school around 9 p.m. Along the way, I felt so incredibly safe because there were tons of people out and about. Grandmas and grandpas, teenagers, families eating dinner outside, children walking home alone from practices, etc.
There just seem to be fewer situations that make me feel on edge when I’m walking around at night. Even living in Boulder, which is a wonderful area to live, there were so many unhoused people and people visibly using drugs out in the open that I didn’t feel this same level of comfort.
Also, the neighborhoods I’ve lived in were never really built for walking in this way. I did live in San Francisco in my 20s, and I felt mostly safe walking alone there, but there were definitely areas you needed to avoid.
The food quality and prices
Our weekly grocery bill is so much lower. Yes, in part it’s because the boys are at school and I don’t need to feed them lunch, but it is DRASTICALLY lower.
We eat a baguette a day and don’t feel bloated afterward because it doesn’t seem to be full of preservatives. We cook most meals at home, and the ingredients seem much simpler. When I cook meat, there is hardly any fat or grease.
I am also begrudgingly healthier since eliminating the aspartame from my daily Diet Coke habit. Although, to be fair, they have Coca Cero here, and it’s okay.
The food at school
The experience the boys have through eating at this school is probably the best part so far. They’ve tried squid, turkey steak, pumpkin soup, salmon, monkfish, fried rice, chickpea soup, pea soup (definitely a lot of soups), and fruit for “dessert.”
They’re required to eat 80% of their food before they can go outside for recess. And the lunch monitors are STRICT. They make them eat their food and use good manners as well.
We were so nervous that our kids wouldn’t like the food and would be underfed, which could have led to problems since they’re both so active in sports. Instead, I’m sitting here feeling incredibly thankful that someone else is making sure my children eat vegetables and fish.
Will’s access to soccer
He is adapting to a much faster game of soccer here than in the U.S. The kids, regardless of their technical ability, are for the most part very quick and intense.
Every day at school he is playing at least an hour of soccer, and it sounds completely nuts to me. He says there are multiple games happening on the same field consecutively. Kids are slide-tackling, pulling shirts, and getting kicked with the ball if they’re not checking their shoulders constantly.
Some kids called him “The American Messi,” which he obviously loves. There are kids at his school who play for Barça and Espanyol, the professional academies, so he is having fun getting a lot of playing time with other kids at a good level.
Colin’s swim team as a language-learning opportunity
Colin is on a high-level swim team in a nearby town. The tricky part is getting him to practice on time after school, because our school goes until 5. But so far, he has not been complaining about practice, and he seems to enjoy it.
He has already picked up some Catalan, hearing the differences between counting in Spanish and Catalan from his coaches’ instructions. He is also adapting to a cultural difference in swim team uniforms. The Spanish style bathing suits are MUCH. SMALLER. We forgot his regular jammers last night at practice, so Chris had to purchase him a European style speedo. Another plus for him- he gets to feel super strong and confident as a swimmer because he has swimming once a week for P.E. with his classmates at school.
Renting a smaller home
I do not miss attempting to keep such a large house clean. I’ve never been good at it, and yet we’ve always lived in fairly big houses because we kept making the same mistake: underestimating how much work it is to maintain a home. Chris certainly does not miss the yardwork or pool maintenance. Granted, we’re still setting things up and have a million chores, but having less stuff has, for the most part, been a positive.
Our gym
Chris and I joined a gym that is a two-minute walk from our house. It’s small, but it has a pool for him to swim laps, a weight room, group workout classes, and the best part—an open-air rooftop with equipment. I created a training plan for us, and we can work out together in the sunshine. It’s really lovely being able to walk there.
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