Lifestyle Blog- Before you move to Barcelona

Imagine this- you’ve been in the same job for five years. You’re ridiculously good at it, but because of a superior who doesn’t like you, you’ll never move forward. You have an apartment can barely afford in an area of town you hate. You and your spouse watch Netflix constantly, because you can’t bring yourself to read, and your cat knocks over everything in sight.

I know, it sounds depressing, and if you feel like I’m attacking you personally, I’m not really sorry.

I was here too. I felt like I was wandering down through a rut of “Just okay.” There wasn’t anything wrong with my life- I was decently happy, decently healthy, decently everything.

And then my wife blew decent all to hell and back by saying, “I want to move to Spain to study. And we would need to be there by September.”

Did I mention this conversation happened in March?

You’re going to cry. It sounds like I’m just being really harsh, but I need to warn you about this, because at first it’s going to feel totally impossible. You’ll get to your third week here, and everything is so different.

People aren’t nice on the streets, and will walk right into you if you’re not paying attention.

Finding an apartment is like plucking your eyebrows one hair at a time, followed by a lemon juice mask.

Some people are maliciously non-English, in that they won’t even try to understand you while you stutter through the little bit of Spanish you know. (Also important- it’s not just Spanish here. Barcelona is in Catalunya, which it’s own region. They are fiercely loyal to Catalunya, and some will get offended if you think they’re speaking Spanish.)

It’s so hot. All the time. You’re sticky constantly.

I’m not trying to be negative here, so those are just the top 4 things I cried about in week 4.

I’m not saying this to make you not want to move here, because:

The people here love to party. Everywhere you go you can hear laughter and happiness. And with party people comes party food. I am now and forever obsessed with tapas, and especially patatas bravas. (Potatoes with a spicy ketchup sauce. AMAZING.)

Once you find an apartment, living here is amazing. Grocery stores on every corner, nightly walks on the beach,the metro can take you everywhere, nightly walks on the beach, events every weekend, nightly walks on the beach, fascinating places to visit all the time. Did I mention nightly walks on the beach?

Lots of people speak enough English to help you limp through a transaction. Of those, some want to help teach you Spanish, and will teach you the correct way to say things.Because of this approach, I can now successfully say “One bag please, thank you. Card. Thank you. Good night.” I’m practically fluent.

It’s not negative 40 Celsius, like it is in my hometown as I write this.

And those are just the counterpoints to my earlier whining.

But your third week in, you won’t know all that stuff. You’re going to feel like this is the hardest thing you have ever done. You might even wonder why you did this in the first place.

And that’s why I’m telling you this. Because if I tell you this, when it happens, it won’t feel like such a big deal. You’ll say, “Oh yeah, that lady online said this would happen. Okay, let’s go get Patatas.”

Knowing the tough things coming for you will help prepare you for what’s coming. For me, that moment where I cried and felt like I couldn’t order a coffee correctly was the hardest.

You make it sound awful.

It’s not, I swear. Please see second paragraph of bullet points. I love living here, and I am so glad that we moved here. To that point, I want to share a couple of things I learned living in a country I had never set foot in before:

If you don’t speak Spanish, useGoogle Translate. Seriously a lifesaver. Not only could we translate any apps or street signs not in English, but it has an option where you can take pictures of packaging and it will decode it. Great for menus and grocery shopping. You can even record someone’s voice and it’ll translate it. It’s not the best for people who talk really fast, but asking them to speak slower (Lento)can make it easier.

Barcelona has enough tourists that there are lots of places with English speaking staff. However, not everyone speaks English. As aforementioned, some refuse to try. But I’ve found that if you learn a few key phrases (Ayudame, por favor in Spanish orajuda’m is us plau in Catalan) and actively stumble your way through the few words you know, most people will understand that you’re trying, and are more likely to try back.

There are lots of apps for travellers to use (Tiqets is one I use a lot) to get discounted tickets for places like the famous Sagrada Familia and other tourist traps. Barcelona is a very forward city though, in spite of the classic architecture, and there are lots of apps you can use to help you find awesome events for great prices (Fever is my favourite- they also have discounted rates for stuff like movie theatres). The underground train system has an app as well,TMB APP where you can map your trip from one end of the city to the other, as well as all the bus systems. We use that one daily.

These are just a few of the hard learned lessons I have to pass on.

But the most important one is that if you’ve decided to go live in a new country is DO IT. I cannot say enough great things about living here, and about having this super cool experience.