It is about time I dusted things off around here and got started blogging again. As we are on the cusp of another big move and the next phase of the journey we started 5 years ago - there is much learned and much to yet be discovered. While we pack up the house and get ready for our road trip to Spain where will make our new home, I am hit with a sense of awe. It barely seems possible, given how life has unfolded since we arrived here, that 5 years ago I was just arrived in this country. Still quite a tourist in what was to become our new home. How foreign everything seemed (I know - duh!) and how we felt under such pressure to 'get it right' when learning how to blend in. The smallest things that we had taken for granted were all new and had to be relearned. Even how one passes the time whilst the clerk is scanning your purchases was different. Or, as I would have said then - what one does when the checker is scanning what your are buying. Something so mundane as how one describes going to the store changes. These are things they don't mention in tourist books or even really go into on expat forums that I have lurked on. These are also the things that can add up and get under your skin very quickly and make those first 6 months a true test of stamina and commitment. It was during that time that I most regretted our move, and I suspect that I will find some of that to be the same with this move. We have some basic familiarity with the place we are moving, which will help tremendously, and we know a few people. But still it is a new language (even somewhat new for Axel who's Spanish is different in many ways than what is Spoken in the region) , a new culture, new government, new laws, new customs, new schools... It is all new. I wonder if the anticipation of so many things being so new will temper the transition at all, or if the level of newness will make it harder than it was the last time. I suppose it will in the end be it's own unique stress and it's own unique joy. That is after all what pretty much everything is in life. Hard to compare, probably pointless to try. Nonetheless there will be times when I try.
Today marks the start of the last full week for us here in England. The movers arrive on 3rd August to cart our belongings away. We will be off on our drive to Spain on the morning of the 4th. The plan is to book it down to Bordeaux as fast as possible and then to spend 3 nights and 2 days there doing some sight seeing. Next we will travel down to Madrid where we will spend a few days with friends and after that it is on to the finca, which is near Malaga. We may opt for another day on the road camping in Spain before we land at the finca. That will be decided as the time comes as we see how we are faring. I hope to arrive relaxed and ready to embark on whatever it is that comes next!
If you are not a friend or family member and have not heard about our plans, I will catch you up to speed in the next days and weeks. As you have gathered from this post we are heading to Spain, in the area of Malaga, and somehow a finca is involved. Sounds quite mysterious, eh? I'll leave it at that for now and let your mind wander. The project has the possibility to be many things so specifics will be forthcoming as they develop. You will have to wait and see what becomes right along with us!
