# 4 months in, the ups and downs!!!



## chris (Jul 5, 2007)

please excuse the long post, so much has happened that i can't get it into 1 paragraph, here goes;

We arrived on the 10th of september and found no electric in the rental property, the pool was still a green mosquito infected pond and none of the jobs done. We were told to wait in from 8.00am to 10.00 pm for an electric guy that was never gonna turn up cause our rubbish english asian landlord had not sorted it out. Our agent gave us her holiday bungalow to live in for a few days, we got there to find it flooded out. After bailing and mopping at least we could have a hot shower. We hired our wonderful spanish interperator to sort it out bingo 2 days later electric followed by phone, internet. and the worst storms for 30 years, rained constantly for nearly 3 weeks the children where crying for the sunny uk!!!!. we had internet and phones for 24 hours before lighting took out the whole network sytem another month of waiting before we were reconected, oh and another bill for a new router which had burned out in the storms.

The pool cleaned and full the children cheered up. School has been wonderful, at first lots of tears but the spanish children have welcomed my children with open arms and 4 months later my children chat away in spanish very often the same word spoken over and over again, but there progress has been remarkable. The children age 6 and 7 have more friends here than they did in the uk, spanish, valenciano, dutch, french and german, all the parents encorage there children to play with mine as they wish there children to pick up the english language, works incredibley well for all.

We have stumbled from 1 disaster to another with the house and have no contact with the owner only via an agent who has been brilliant, she also has very limited contact with him. A couple of weeks before xmas we found out the bank will be reposesing the house, we can stay here but the house and pool need so many repairs we think its unlikley the bank will repair them so are looking for another house on the same urbinisation. In four months we have built up a far better life and friends than we ever had in the Uk.

I have private spanish lessons twice a week and spend many many hours translating my sons homework so i can help him, i try very very hard to learn spainsh as i feel embrassed and ignorant to not speak the language. I know many english people but the spanish and other europeans are my friends as i find there hospitality friendliness honesty and life attitudes more to my own. I had a new years party and after eating the grapes, we all sang auld land syne in our own langauges english, dutch spanish valenciano german and french, It was a start to a new year we never could have planed or wished for and 1 i will always remember.

There are still many hurdles to overcome and even the most basic of tasks are massivley complicated when you have limited language skills, but 1 by 1 we overcome all the hurdles with the help and support of all my wonderful new friends. At some point in the future we hope my husband can join us as we only see him evey 8 weeks due to work commitments, we knew this was going to be the hard part and it has been! Until we sell the uk house this is the way it will be. 2 mornings a week i help out voluntary at the local spanish dog shelter which has also helped me to intergrate into life here, for me looking for an english way of life in the sun was not what i wanted, what i wanted was to be part of the local community and feel that after not quite 4 months we have achieved that, i never ever would have anticipated our new life to have been so succesful after such a short period of time. There is not a single occasion when i can pop out to shops beach, restaurants, walks without bumping into some one i know. I feel more at home here than i ever did in the Uk, i have found my place, and if i have any advice to any of those that wish to try for a new life, just do it!!!!! if it don't work out you can always go home what have you lost (money) what have you gained, experince, the satisfaction and knowledge that you didnt just talk about it you did it! And also the peace you get in your own soul from not yearing for something.

I wish you all a happy new year and hope you all find what you are looking for XXXX:happy::happy::happy:


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

wow what a rollercoaster!!

and you're still so positive

whereabouts are you?


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## chris (Jul 5, 2007)

hello neighbour!

I am living in gata de gorgos in and out of javea all the time lovely hear isn't it


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Thanks so much for the update Chris, so many people come on here asking all manner of questions, then they tell us they're coming over and then nothing!!! Its lovely to hear what has happened to them, good or bad!

Glad you made it and have kept positive!!! Stay in touch and hey, you can answer some of those newbies now who are thinking about moving over lol!!!



Jo xxx


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

chris said:


> hello neighbour!
> 
> I am living in gata de gorgos in and out of javea all the time lovely hear isn't it


I have a student who lives in Gata:clap2:


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## chris (Jul 5, 2007)

jojo i can try to answer newbie questions but what i know i think i can write on a postage stamp lol still learning all the time.

Xabiachica have to meet up for coffee sometime


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chris, sounds like so far you've had a very hard, but rewarding experience. It also sounds like you're _*working*_ :boxing:at life in Spain, not sitting back and hoping that Spain will _*happen*_ for you, if you get what I mean, and that's probably the secret of your success so far.
I sincerely hope you get the house you deserve in the end and that you get your husband back full time some time soon.
Please keep up with the Spanish and the dog shelter thing (brilliant idea!!) and enjoy yourself!!:clap2:


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