I’ve always thought the reason the Spanish siesta exists is due to the hot weather in Spain. After all, when it’s so hot, you want to escape the heat and take a little rest to re-energize. As it turns out, this is a myth, or at the very least, not the whole story. Continue reading
Updated 1 May 2020.
We get asked a lot – how’s your Spanish? (current status: B1/B2) Which is inevitably followed by, how are you learning? So, we thought we’d give an update on our progress, our experiences, and share our favorite methods to learn Spanish.
We arrived in Spain in July of 2016, and began our journey to learn Spanish (Castilian/Castellano). We’re from California where there are lots of Spanish names for places, streets, Latino owned businesses, Latino radio and TV stations, and lots of Spanish speakers. We were familiar with a few basic words, and some pronunciation, but were starting from knowing near-zero Spanish. So how do you learn Spanish in a hurry – at least enough to get by? Continue reading
Almost 3 months after leaving San Jose and now that summer is nearly over, our family is starting to settle into routines. We’re adjusting well to our new European and Spanish ways of life. We’ve learned some survival Spanish, no longer need maps to get around, are drying our clothes on the line, using the 24 hour clock, the metric system, celsius, and managing to get by just fine without a car.
She and I have always enjoyed traveling, and have done a lot of it together over the years. We enjoy learning about different cultures, the history, and trying new foods. As a life-long suburbanite, I’ve always wanted to try living in a city, and love the idea of living in a really old city. We’ve talked many times about moving to Europe, and I’ve even had a couple of potential career opportunities here, but there was always something that held us back. Whether it was her career or mine, the birth of our son, or something else, the timing was just never right to make it happen.Continue reading