I’ve found that when I read expat blogs, or blogs by people who are living in a different country than the one they were born and raised in, I often wonder WHY they decided to move abroad, and HOW they managed to do it.
So I thought, maybe you might be curious about me, too.
How does an ordinary, inured-to-the-cold, English-and-French- (but not Spanish-) speaking girl from an arctic country like Canada end up in Spain?
Ever since I was little I had always dreamt of living in Europe. I dunno, it’s just one of those things, right? I’ve read of people who have always dreamt of living in Italy, or Australia, or places like that. And when they grow up, they do just that.
Well I had always dreamt of living in Europe. The thing is when I was small I was convinced I would end up in France or England, the two countries that had always caught my imagination.
But I had also always wanted to know Spanish. We used to see Mexicans at the old international Expo fair in Montreal every summer, and I thought their language was the most beautiful and exquisite I’d ever heard. When they spoke it sounded like water bubbling in a stream. I LONGED to be able to understand what they were saying!
So as soon as I got the chance, at university, I started learning Spanish. Then I grabbed the opportunity to move to Spain to study more Spanish.
I enjoyed my time in Spain but as usually happens, the day comes when you think you’re too old to “bum around” anymore, and you think you ought to go back home and “settle down”.
But the problem was, I had fallen in love while I was in Spain. And even though I returned to Canada, all I wanted to do was to return to him.
So in the end that was what I did.
Unfortunately, after a few years, the relationship didn’t last, for a number of reasons. But we had a son, and I stayed in Spain.
And now, here you have me. My son is a teenager by now so you can see I’ve been living in Spain a number of years already. I have no family to return to in Canada and in addition, I have Spanish citizenship now (as the wife of a Spaniard).
So you can imagine that now I’m here to stay.
If you’d like to read the OLD “About Me” page click here: Old About Me.
The Seas of Mintaka 
Thanks for telling the story of the Almeria road massacre. In visiting Malaga, and when asking about this story, I learned that this history is not something that is celebrated ore memorialised by the people here. In fact I sense the wounds of civil war are still healing and even where healing has happened scars are still visible. For me as someone that visits the ‘tourist Spain’, I get the sense that to understand modern Spain you have to acknowledge that memories of war are not bound in the ‘good prevailing against evil’ narrative of typical British, American or Canadian perspectives. Rather, recent history stimulates complex, mixed emotions with no small amount of fear and wonder about what human society – ones neighbours, could do to each other when a genie escapes a bottle. There is much still I have to learn about Spain.
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Thanks for commenting Donald! War is very complicated and the more I live (and read) the more I find that the same things happen everywhere and in all wars, it doesn’t matter where in the world they take place. There are people who discover in a war that they LOOOVEEE to kill and hurt people, it gives them some sort of high, and now that there is a war and they can do so with impunity they just keep killing. And good people will always be good people no matter what is happening. And in a war everyone is just trying to survive.
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Hi
My name is Joyce, I am a marketing executive at expatfinder.com which is a leading expat information and services website.
I saw on your blog that you are and expat. I wish to interview you to further share some of your tips. The questions are mainly about the housing, the daily life etc.
It just takes 5 minutes (or more depending if you have lots to say 🙂
Of course, if you accept we can add a link to your blog or some of your website.
If you are interested to participate at this project, please send me an email at interview@expatfinder.com.
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