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More quality time with daughter

Like many others, I had dreamed of living in Spain after many years of working hard both at home and at work and 'not getting anywhere' in England. Feeling constantly tired, stressed and unhappy with my life, there never seemed to be time to do anything as a family. Seeing some of the programmes on TV helped me make up my mind. I was sure that I could try a new start and have a better lifestyle. or two years, I went to night school to learn Spanish and finally I was lucky to get a transfer with the company I was working for. It meant a drop in salary but after investigating the cost of living etc. I knew that we could manage.

I initially moved out to Spain on my own into rented accomodation and brought my daughter out to join me two months later after feeling settled.

I had thought long and hard about whether to send her to an International school or to a local Spanish school and decided to try the Spanish school first, so that she could make local friends and learn on-the-fly. I'm lucky that I have a very confident and strong nine-year-old, I'm sure that this wouldn't be an easy task for some others. The local school was brilliant too, it provided a class room assistant for her to help translate for the first term. My daughter enjoyed being the center of attention and helping the other students with their English. The speed that she has learnt Spanish is incredible.

I have moved to a small village in the Asturias in the North of Spain, so there are very few English speakers here. The Spanish I learnt at night school was basic, sufficient for hotels and shops etc, but little else. I am lucky that the village I live in is friendly and everyone is very helpful and I have made friends very quickly. For the first couple of months, I could understand more and more of what people were saying to me, but had little confidence to use anything but the basics myself. But I have found that people here are happy to correct you and suggest other ways to say things.

There is a lot of hard work and red tape at first, setting up social security, residents cards, registering at a doctor, tax returns etc but it is all definitely worth it. It is said that with the EU, you no longer need a Spanish residence card if you are from the UK, but life is much simpler with one. Even just to obtain a discount card in a supermarket. I found it hard to find the information at a single source, and it took many journeys to several governmental buildings to finally get all I need.

But in the end I have now a more relaxed working life and better lifestyle in general. Even though I am a single parent, I have so much more quality time with my daughter.

Sent by: Julie

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