# Albacete, Tres Cantos, Alcobendas/Sanse, Madrid, other ideas?



## kdsb (May 3, 2015)

We are planning to move to Spain on a non lucrative visa with our family next summer, and will stay for about 9 months. I have 4 kids ages 3-11.

We are trying to decide where to live. My husband has some potential work connections in Tres Cantos and Alcobendas that may pan out (not actual jobs, but places where he may be able to do a sabbatical of sorts). But if they don't, we have the flexibility to decide where to live.

Madrid is appealing since I think it would a fun experience to live in a big city. I have also been reading up on Albacete since it seems like a nice small city with good transportation options.

The 4 places I listed in the title are just some possibilities, but I am open to other ideas.

Our priorities in choosing a place, in order of priority, are:

1. Language. We want a place where our kids will only be exposed to Spanish in school (not Catalan, Valenciano, etc.) They attend a bilingual Spanish school here so should be OK integrating academically into a public school in Spain.

2. Attitudes about expats. We want our kids to be accepted in school and make friends easily, and hope to make some connections in the community.

3. Car free living. We do not plan to have a car. At home, we have a car but rarely use it since we bike whenever possible. Being able to bike would be a huge plus, but at a minimum we will need a decent public transport network and/or a place small enough to be walkable. Albacete made it onto my radar since it seems to have good biking options and is compact city.

4. Activities for the kids. Our boys are into soccer and tennis and we hope to find a place where they can participate in these sports, ideally without having to travel far (which is a concern I have about Madrid -- I imagine sports fields, etc. are more on the outskirts). With 3 kids on different teams, it can get a bit chaotic if activities are spread out.

We are pretty flexible about cost of living since we'll be renting out our home for a high rate so can afford pretty much anywhere. We are also flexible about weather, though worry a bit about arriving in the South during the summer.

Please pass along any ideas or suggestions.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

kdsb said:


> We are planning to move to Spain on a non lucrative visa with our family next summer, and will stay for about 9 months. I have 4 kids ages 3-11.
> 
> We are trying to decide where to live. My husband has some potential work connections in Tres Cantos and Alcobendas that may pan out (not actual jobs, but places where he may be able to do a sabbatical of sorts). But if they don't, we have the flexibility to decide where to live.
> 
> ...


Personally I wouldn't choose to live in Alcobendas and that area (I suppose Sanseb = San Sebastian de Los Reyes?). To me they are ugly sprawling towns that boomed in the 1990's that are strung along the very very busy motorway. Maybe that's the problem. We had friends who lived out that way who we visited almost every week so we witnessed the growth of those towns which, as most construction in Spain was at that time, was out of control. However, I have never lived there and of course people live there quite happily and many families make their home there.
Madrid could be a very good option depending on the area and also Madrid is having big pollution problems now which may be all over by the time you get here, but it would be a good idea to check it out.
1. You could go to so many places including somewhere in the north like Santander, León, Santiago de Compostela, Lugo or maybe the south Málaga, Cádiz... I can see 2 possible minor problems with language. One is that you speak American English and I'm sorry to say that some people, including teachers see British English as the more correct and as rather "inferior" to British English. Sometimes it's a defence mechanism on the part of poorly trained teachers. Other times it's pure ignorance. How to handle it? Who knows, but probably with patience and a smile if you can manage it 
Secondly your children (and you?) probably speak South American Spanish. The same as the above about English can also apply and of course there are differences in the two languages.
As I said, possible minor problems.
2. Wherever you go I would anticipate few problems with attitudes towards expats. Americans and English speakers in general are welcomed as positive immigration. This is not always the case for others such as Maghrebis. 
3. Car free living is certainly a possibility in Madrid. They recently introduced a bike hire system with bike parks (with motor) all over the city. There are some problems though, not the least being that there are few bike lanes and drivers still have problems accepting bikes, but the scheme has been very well accepted. Even if you don't bike you can move around the city quite easily and compared to the UK it's very cheap.
4. There are loads of activities for kids in the towns mostly through the local sports centre and town hall (ayuntamiento) You have to do paperwork at the beginning of the school year and it will probably be pretty hectic going from the bank to the ayuntamiento several times, but there is plenty for them to do.
*
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## kdsb (May 3, 2015)

Thanks for the tips. 

I am not so worried about the language bit since I think the kids will pick up the local accent quickly. I imagine they will retain their American English accents but I don't see that being an issue since they won't be speaking much English there (unless they end up at a bilingual school, but even then their English may be stronger than the teachers'). They'll easily be able to pick up the spelling changes, etc. associated with British English.

I had not realized about Madrid and air pollution. I have asthma so that could be a real issue for me. I like the idea of living in a big city and taking public transport everywhere, but then when I think of the reality of shuttling kids to school and activities via public transport all over the place, I end up thinking that perhaps a smaller city that is more walkable would be better. For biking to be an effective means of transport, we would need a place where the kids could also bike, which seems to not be safe in Madrid, but likely is in Albacete.

I will check out the other small cities you mentioned. I have the same concern about Alcobendas, etc. being more suburban whereas much of Spain is more urban so it doesn't seem like the same experience, but at the same time those areas seem to provide a nice life for families (though are perhaps more difficult without a car). We probably won't consider Alcobendas, Sanse, and Tres Cantos unless my husband's job connections work out there, but they are on our radar for that reason.


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## Brangus (May 1, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> ... I can see 2 possible minor problems with language. One is that you speak American English and I'm sorry to say that some people, including teachers see British English as the more correct and as rather "inferior" to British English. Sometimes it's a defence mechanism on the part of poorly trained teachers. Other times it's pure ignorance. How to handle it? Who knows, but probably with patience and a smile if you can manage it


In Albacete you have to use Spanish to survive, and your native language or accent doesn't really register with people. The locals tend to be "tone deaf" in that respect.



kdsb said:


> I imagine they will retain their American English accents but I don't see that being an issue since they won't be speaking much English there (unless they end up at a bilingual school, but even then their English may be stronger than the teachers'.


Agreed, kdsb, your children might speak English better than the teachers, and they could be a welcome addition to the classroom. The language at recess will always be Spanish.



Pesky Wesky said:


> Secondly your children (and you?) probably speak South American Spanish. The same as the above about English can also apply and of course there are differences in the two languages.


Maybe another issue is: Would the OP want her children to pick up the Albacete accent?  

Here's the type of problem that arises with different varieties of Spanish: You go to the pharmacy and ask for _tapones_ and they give you earplugs. You have a laugh, tell them you need to plug a different bodily orifice, and learn that in Spain they say _tampones._ Real-life experience is a fun way to learn.

By the way, I would say the OP's kids are probably learning "Latin American" Spanish. In the U.S. we are taught that Mexico, Central America and most of the Caribbean are in North America, and everything below that is "South." And even though _vosotros_ isn't used on the other side of the Atlantic, they do teach the conjugations, so it shouldn't be an issue.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Brangus said:


> In Albacete you have to use Spanish to survive, and your native language or accent doesn't really register with people. The locals tend to be "tone deaf" in that respect.
> 
> Agreed, kdsb, your children might speak English better than the teachers, and they could be a welcome addition to the classroom. The language at recess will always be Spanish.
> 
> ...


+++


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## kdsb (May 3, 2015)

Pesky Wesky said:


> IME not always welcome. I know several Americans whose children are bilingual and they've had problems with non acceptance of "gotten" for example or "traveled".


Despite being very good students, my kids are young enough that their command of American English is not really so strong that they would pick fights over any of this. I've actually never been sure the correct way to spell traveled myself and use both forms interchangeably. I think if they saw colour written somewhere they would think, "Hmmm, I guess I've been spelling that wrong all my life" and adjust without thinking twice about it.

They definitely do speak Latin American Spanish so I am trying to familiarize them with the vosotros form. My older kids had a first grade teacher from Spain so at least they have some familiarity with the accent, etc., and I'm sure they will adapt quickly. I may still be speaking Spanish like a Mexican when I leave Spain, however.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

We live in central Madrid (next to the "river") with a 2 year old and a 5 year old and, apart from the pollution, it ticks most boxes. We could live without a car but my wife works in Alcobendas, which is about an hour and a half on public transport and doesn't allow her to enough time to pick up the kids from school. There are certainly football and tennis clubs located in the centre, however there are usually waiting lists to join them. I think central Madrid is so cosmopolitan these days that it doesn't really matter where you are from or what your accent is.

The main issue is probably finding a school which has places available in the respective years for each child. This may well mean going private and might dictate where you end up living more than anything else.


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## kdsb (May 3, 2015)

Yeah, school placement is a concern especially in a big city where kids could end up in different schools far from where we live. We have a similar system in the city I live in and I see what happens to late registrants. We are definitely planning on public school.

Although living in Madrid sounds awesome, I think the air pollution factor may be a deal breaker for me. I have asthma and there is no way to know how I'd react until I'm there. And I worry that we'll be shuttling kids on the metro to different activities all over the place, so right now I'm leaning towards a small city where we can easily walk and bike to where we need to go (Albacete is currently at the top of my list).


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Other, less polluted options near Madrid include Alcala de Henares and El Escorial. Both are pleasant towns with regular commuter trains running to/from Madrid, and there are plenty of villages dotted around with decent transport links.


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