A Quick Guide to Moving to Spain

March 14, 2014 by · 12 Comments

It’s that time of year again: auxiliar placements are right around the corner, and then starts the mad dash to pull together paperwork, get a visa  and book flights to La Peninsula.

I’ve said it once and I will say until se me caiga la baba: DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

To make it easier on you, here’s a quick guide to the most important steps when considering moving to Spain:

Legal Matters

The two most practiced law systems in modern society are:

  • Common law – This is where the laws are uncodified, so no compilation of laws and statutes exists. This is where legislative decisions are generally based on precedent; what has happened before in similar cases. These are then compiled and referred to in later cases, meaning judges play an incredibly leading role in the law of Common Law countries like America and Britain. Common Law systems use two parties and a jury to decide the outcome of the case, which a judge presides over and gives the appropriate sentence.
  • Civil Law – Civil Law is codified. This means there is a regularly updated law code which lists all possible reasons to be brought before a court and the applicable process and sentence for each offence. This is far more structured than a Common Law system, as each case has a set punishment. This gives the judge a different job, as they will need to investigate the case, establish the facts and give the appropriate ruling from the appropriate framework themselves. This makes the judge’s work less influential on the overall law system. This is more like Spain’s legal system.

As the US and UK have a more Common Law system, it can be quite a shock moving to Spain where there is more of a Civil Law system in place. This affects everything from property to taxation and health systems, and there are laws you need to be aware of when moving or buying a second home.

Before you leave

There are a number of things you need to take care of before you leave the country.

Learn (some of) the language

It’s only polite to learn the language of a country before you visit. Not only will it allow you to fully immerse yourself in the culture, but it will make communication and day-to-day life much easier. Even if you only learn some basic phrases before moving, knowing some language will show you’re making the effort, and this can go a long way. Moreover, rural and non-tourism areas will be populated only by people who only speak Spanish or a local dialect.

Passport

You’ll need a valid passport to travel to Spain, much as you would any other foreign country. It’s always advisable to have more than six months left before it expires when you travel, especially if you’re planning on moving around Europe in that time as it negates the risk of your passport running out while you’re out of the country.

Visas

There are a number of different reasons why someone would move to Spain – to study, to work, to retire – and these all require different visas. Outstaying or having the wrong visa can cause problems when you try to leave the country, as passport control will be able to see you’ve broken the terms of your visa. This is why it’s important to know what kind of visa you need and stick to its terms. To see which visa you need, and how to get it, contact COMO Consulting Spain.

Notify everyone that you’re moving

If you’re moving to Spain to live, you’ll need to let everyone know. This includes the Post Office so they can redirect your mail, your bank, life insurance, council and any organizations that might need to know. Sign up for Skype, Line, Whatsapp and any other channel that will allow you to communicate with everyone back home.

When you arrive

NIE

The first thing you’ll need when considering a move to Spain is an NIE – Número do Identificación de Extranjeros (Foreigners’ Identification Number). A NIE is for anyone who isn’t a Spanish National, and is used for buying land, if you’ve inherited a property in Spain, opening a bank account or applying for a mortgage (among other things). The intricacies of applying for a NIE are varied and extensive, but see this guide on applying for a NIE to find out more.

Register with your local town hall

After getting your NIE, you need to register at your local town hall as living at your new address in the area, called an empadronamiento. This will similar to the electoral role in Britain, and will allow you to buy or sell a car, apply for a NIE, register a child into school and apply for a local health insurance card. Note that only fully-fledged Spanish citizens can vote in local and national elections.

Health care

Spain has a health care system similar to the UK’s, as there is a free health care system in place which as a non-Spanish national, you will need to sign up for. Despite this, around 18% of people opt for private health care, which is roughly double the amount of those in the UK. This is of course different to American health care, where you have to pay for insurance.

If you’re working with the auxiliar program, you’ll receive private health care from your assigned province along with a booklet about coverage. 

Living in Spain is worth the hassle of getting all your ducks (can we just go ahead and say patas negras) in a row. By anticipating what you’ll need to do before take off and once you arrive will help make the transition smoother.

For everything else, check out COMO Consulting Spain, my expat in Spain site.

Filed Under: Expat Advice, living abroad, moving abroad · Tagged:

Guiri, Whoa: Buying a Flamenco Dress in Seville

March 13, 2014 by · 51 Comments

Anda ya! 

Jose Manuel drops his hands in desperation as I paw a gorgeous, pale pink flamenco dress with a cascade of ruffles. No hay quien pueda with this guiri.

Nearly two hours into a search for the perfect flamenco dress, I was more undecided than ever. I got the last one in 2011 and knew immediately it was the right one for me, but this year has my head spinning. Jose Manuel dutifully pulls one dress after another, then hangs them up once I’ve ruled them out.

This flamenco dress business is a big deal.

When the Novio’s mother announced she’d be floating the bill for my traje de gitana this year, I jumped at the opportunity to design my own. I sketched out what I wanted – a one-color, sleeveless dress with three volantes and encaje around the bust and waist to make my boobs smaller and accentuate my small cintura.

I called Taller Los Príncipes to ask about pricing, trying to find something for less than 300€ so that the Novio, his mother and I would all pay 100€ each. The woman started asking me a flurry of questions. How tall was I in centimeters (….uhh…..)? What kind of ruffles did I want? Would I bring my own fabric?

I politely said I’d call back. But I was way in over my head and with not a single seasoned guiri around to help me. In the past, I’d always bought my dresses off the rack and had them taken in (or out) as needed.

A bit of vocabulary so that you understand how confused I was.

A flamenco dress is known around these parts as the traje de gitana, or simply a traje. They’re worn during local festivals like the ferias and romerias such as El Rocío and can cost anywhere from 100€ to 500€, or ever more, especially those that are tailormade.

The dress is composed of a body, sleeves and a train of volantes, or ruffles. Made of tela, you can get high-quality fabric or normal and the detailing is called encaje. Lace is especially popular this year. The seamstress, called a modista, assists you in designing your dress and then sews it for you. The most traditional sort of fabric has lunares, or polka dots, but they can also me liso (one color) or with pattterns.

Next to the academy where I work, there’s a flamenco dress shop that’s only open from January until June. The first day I heard the heavy reja go up, it was a sign. I peered in the windows, lights off, when I opened the school and saw the exact dresses I wanted – lisos, con volantes graduados, encaje por un tubo. One color, big ruffles, details in all the right places. Either a deep magenta, turquoise or a pale green.

Later that week, I eat a light breakfast and showed up at Marqués Diseño de Trajes Flamencas. Jose Manuel is on the phone but immediately introduces himself as he hangs up (on his mother, oops!).

I fumbled for the words to tell him what I wanted. Tú no eres de aquí, verdad?

Stupid accent always giving me away as a foreigner.

He ushers me over to the racks of dresses, each slightly different from the next. Grabbing my arm, he shows me the sale dresses, available for just 175€ – una ganga, if you ask me. They are bold – bright reds and blues – but I shy away from wearing something so loud. Jose Manuel assures me that a pale, blue-eyed person would need something crazy to call the attention away from the Andalusian beauties.

So, verde agua is out.

I show him my sketch and tell him I am dead-set on a single color, to which he scoffs. “Those are dresses for women who have nothing better to do during the fair but sit pretty in a horse carriage and look bored in their casetas.” I laugh, and admit that I am far more likely to drop greasy fried fish on my dress than abstain from eating and drinking so as not to get dirty.

Jose Manuel hands me traje after traje, zips me up, and leads me to a full-length mirror with each one, quick to judge the styles that make me look anything but fabulous. Easy-to-move-in cañastera ruffles are ruled out, as is the encaje that call too much attention to my chest and belly. I soon accumulate a pile of half a dozen dresses to discard (as well as my original design).

As it turns out, Jose Manuel da en el clavo: I am extremely traditional when it comes to flamenco dresses. I need color, lunares, volantes, a classy dose of cleavage and tight in all the right places. After narrowing the field down to two thanks to the miracle of whatsapp groups and my American friends, trying them on with a shawl and pulling my hair back to get the full effect, I make a decision before even asking the price.

It’s the tronillo design (pictured on the left and only 220€!) and in a size smaller than I usually get, and we set to the task of selecting the colors. What sets many dresses apart, even with a similar design, is the color chosen and the small details in the encaje. I already have a celestial blue dress with cream and coral accents, so I wanted to go bold.

Choosing the color palate for the dress takes nearly as long as trying them on. I hold up square samples of color, searching for the right combination, peruse back through the racks for inspiration. The smaller lunares, called lentejuelas, are better for big busts because they draw less attention to that area, so I stick with the pattern combination of the original dress I tried on and decide on turqoise. I momentarily consider a paisely, but Jose Manuel’s side eye when I mention it sets me back in place.

A week later, Jose Manuel raps on the window of the academy and asks if I could step out to OK the color patterns and pay a deposit on the dress. The original color I had in mind was not available, so he chose a shade darker, a bit more towards a green hue. I sign the receipt, paid 40€ and quickly scamper over to the academy (those ruffles start at the knee and make it hard to move swiftly) to have María José give me the thumbs up.

Jose Manuel hands me my receipt and says, “un mes largo” for the dress to be ready for its first fitting. Starting three months ahead of time means I’ve got a buffer for those extra weeks in a long month, but true to form, it is five weeks to the day. Nervously, I pulled the fabric over my hips and zipped it into place. It needs to be taken in a bit in the stomach and hips (success!), but it’s perfect.

Traje de Gitana

Chicas, have you ever bought a flamenco dress in Spain? Need help with your complementos? Click here for a guide to buying accessories! 

 

Filed Under: Andalucia, Featured, Feria, festivals, flamenco, Guiri Survival Tips, Seville, Shopping in Spain, Spanish Traditions, typical Spanish · Tagged:

Spain Snapshots: A Saturday Portrait of Madrid

March 10, 2014 by · 20 Comments

An eclectic mix of old and new, Madrid is a city that has slowly crept its way into my heart. At first, it was a necessary stop on my way to or from Chicago, but after so many visits, it feels like an old sweater, a city I can navigate just as well as Sevilla, a cosmopolitan exclamation point in my sometimes mundane expat experience.

After all, there is international cuisine in Madrid. And original version movies. And cupcakes.

I must admit that I’m something of a creature of habit in the Spanish capital, often just letting my feet take me down the streets I know and love. There’s the ice cream shop in Plaza Dos de Mayo, the sometimes English-language book carrying book shop off of Plaza Santa Ana, my favorite Thai place on Atocha. As my  trips to Madrid become more frequent, the list of places I love to visit grows longer.

When Kay suggested we meet in another rincón of the city for a midday beer, in Alonso Martínez, we grabbed our umbrellas and set off from T’s house outside of the M-30 ring road. At just one stop from Tribunal – the metro stop closest to the Novio’s childhood home – I was thrilled to find another stretch of street that I didn’t know.

 Calle Fernando VI is a hipster’s dream – barrio fruit shops and tobacco stands are sidled up next to cactus shops, swanky eateries and macaroon shops lie age-old bars. Hayley and I shared a heaping plate of tortilla for breakfast before we sat at the high chairs and shared tables at Lo Siguiente. A Madrid-brewed craft beer is on tap (spoiler: it taste just like madrileño favorite Mahou) and the exposed brick looked like the café could have been in Brooklyn.

Madrid is truly a Saturday city – bars are always spilling customers, and events all around town are full. There are always exhibitions, shows, honking cars, teenagers dressing up to go to discos, traffic, chaos and every other hallmark of my favorite cities.

Later that night, we walked towards Chueca from the Ópera metro, the streets beating with energy and flashing lights. My heart seemed to skip a beat as I bumped shoulders with strangers and breathed in pollution. Madrid always seems to give me a surge of energy and the courage to comerme el mundo.

Maybe it’s being away from Seville and caught up in the frenzy of movement, or just the way the city seems to glisten, even in the rain.

Have you ever been to Madrid? What do you love (or not) about it?

Filed Under: Featured, living abroad, Madrid, photo post, Spain Shots, typical Spanish · Tagged: ,

Tapa Thursdays: Sol y Sombra

March 6, 2014 by · 5 Comments

Some places have now become tradition with me and the Novio when we have guests – everyone from a sorority sister and her husband to my own mother have had lunch in Sol y Sombra, a restaurant in the northern end of Triana.

The dimly-lit bar is remniscent of establishments from ages past – yellowing, cracked century-old bullfighting posters, a menu written by hand on the wall, dusty wine and brandy bottles resting under them. Those thin napkins that don’t lap up anything aren’t found – instead, you wipe your hands with rolls of toilet paper.

And there’s ham.

Like, dozens of hams hanging right over your head with little plastic cups for catching the sticky fat that rolls off the meat as it matures.

When the Nov and I took Danny and Javi last week, the mournful saetas were echoeing throughout the long, thin bar. At 2pm, the place was empty, so we set up along the bar, feet covered in albero.

The menu is replete with sevillano favorites – revueltos, fried fish, hearty meat stews. Food is only served in half or full rations, and not tapas, and vegetarian options are slim.

The one dish we always order is stewed bull tail, cola de toro. The tender meat comes with the bones and fat in all its glory, served with potatoes. On the last trip, we went all out – a round of croquetas, choco frito, pan-seared pimientos del padrón and the cola de toro.

If you go: Sol y Sombra is located on Calle Castilla 151, just around the corner from Ronda de Triana. Open Tuesday – Sunday from 1pm to 4pm and 8pm until midnight. Expect to pay 10-15€ a head with drinks.

 

Filed Under: Featured, food, Habla de Tu Ciudad y Vive de Ella, Places with Encanto, Tapas Bars, Tapas Thursday, toros, Triana · Tagged: ,

On Nostalgia and Expat Life

March 3, 2014 by · 56 Comments

It always creeps up on me – whether it’s seeing the plastic grocery bags and hearing the clinking of bottles from within on Thursday night as I ride home from the academy, or passing the trendy bars from which people overflow, gintoncitos in hand, onto the sidewalk in El Arenal.

Sigh. Nostalgia always gets to me.

My life as an expat and guiri in Spain has seen its up and its downs. For several years, Spain was a momentary pause between college and real life, a hiccup of time to travel, learn Spanish and enjoy my early 20s.

Then Spain became my long-term plan, and things changed.

Just last week, the Novio and I were talking about looking for a house to eventually start a family. In talking numbers, mortgages and neighborhoods, I had to tell my head to stop spinning. What happened to renting and dealing with ugly, heavy furniture and noisy roommates and hustling to pay the Internet bill?

Did I grow up that fast? Surely I didn’t do it overnight, but when did I start to feel so….adult?

Danny and Javi visited at the end of February, and Javi caught me off guard when he asked, “Do you miss your life as an auxiliar de conversación?” over a plate of croquetas. Without even thinking about it, I said no. Turns out, Danny does.

I got to thinking about it while they had a siesta later that afternoon. Did I miss working 12 hours a week as a job where I didn’t do much but speak in English to a bunch of teens and take advantage of a few free coffees a week?

Well, yes and no. 

Did I miss having a job that was fun and carried little responsibility?

Yes and no.

Did I miss having my afternoons free for siestas, flamenco class and coffee with the Novio? Hell yes.

Did I miss fretting over whether or not my private classes would cancel on me and leave me without money enough for groceries and bus rides? Hell no.

The first three years in Seville were some of my best. I made friends from around the world, spent my many long weekends lugging a backpack on overnight bus rides and budget flights, stayed out until the sun came up or my feet couldn’t take it anymore. It was my second shot at studying abroad and at squeezing another year out of “learning” as if Spain were my super senior year.

Dios, was it fun. I remember so fondly those afternoon beers that turned into breakfast the next morning, the nights in with giggles, the Guiri Whoa moments. And the hard, hard goodbyes.

But the first three years in Seville were also marred with problems and annoyances: I had to live with roommates, learn to light a bombona, factor shoes into my budget and live off of dry pasta and tomate frito. The Novio and I broke up. I struggled with knowing if Spain was a good idea or a waste of my time. I was doing a job that was easy, yes, but not as fulfilling as I had hoped. 

All of those soaring highs were met with desolate lows. I had to decide to love it or leave it.

Making the decision to spend the rest of my life in Spain meant my days went from siesta and fiesta to frantically looking for a job and spending wisely. Then came nóminas, afiliación a la seguridad social, pareja de hecho, car insurance, sick pay and all of those other “adult” words.

I was living my dream of becoming fluent in foreign bureaucrazy and those of becoming a champion siesta taker seemed to fade away. I had made the transition from language assistant to a full-fledged member of the work force practically unscathed (but very, very poor).

As I adjusted to a full-time schedule and work commitments, I began to miss the old me, the girl who never turned down plans for fear of missing out, who would leave on the next bus out-of-town on a whim. Friday night became catch-up-on-sleep night, and Sundays were devoted to lesson planning. I began to lose sight of the things that were important to me and took out my angst on everyone from my students to my suegra.

Something wasn’t right, and I needed to make a change.

I found myself longing for the Spanish life I had before the private school, even with the stress over money and friends and language and life direction. I wanted to enjoy going out and enjoying Seville without just going through the motions.

So I chose. I chose a pay cut and an arguably less prestigious job and the uncertainty of the job market in the throes of a financial crisis. I chose to be happy and to open myself up to other opportunities, lest it be too late. Even with a master’s and a job and a blog and a boyfriend, I managed to regain a sense of myself and purpose. I realized that I end up setting my own limits for work, relationships and happiness.

Life continues as normal for me, six years after moving to Seville. When I pine to not be tired at midnight and to live close to the action of the city center, I remember everything that came along with it: language frustrations, scrounging for money, sharing a flat, drinking cheap and terrible liquor and eating cheap and terrible food.

I finally have a work-life balance that I craved during the first five years I lived here. Like Goldilocks, it seems I finally have found what is just right.

 

I may miss the carefree days where I could siesta for three hours and never have to worry about what to do on the weekends but how to fit it all in and under budget, I freaking miss my friends.

but at 28, it’s not me anymore.Whenever the pangs of nostalgia hit, they’re quickly quelled when I reflect back on how much I’ve accomplished, how much of the world I’ve seen for choosing plane tickets over drink tickets, and remember that I’m where I intended to end up.

Do you get nostalgic for your study abroad days or college days? How do you cope?

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Filed Under: Auxiliar Program, bureaucrazy, culture shock, Expat Advice, expat life, Featured, Guiri Survival Tips, living abroad, moving abroad · Tagged: ,
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