Ah Spain!

AI generated, please excuse any errors!

0:09
Hola, welcome to Aspain. I think maybe we have a mutual Ospain today. I think
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we might. The seasons are changing and um this Ospain hasn't affected me yet.
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Um but I'm next on the list, I think. Um I believe we're talking about mosquitoes. We are talking about the
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little mozzies. Yes. Which surprisingly I don't think that you have them year
0:35
round and we do here. We do not. At least I we we have not been affected by them year round and our windows are open
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quite often throughout the year and and and not all of our windows have screens.
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So there is that Well, that's a whole Well, they they did at one point. They did at one
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point. They just the one that doesn't doesn't now because it was one of those
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velcroed on but the screen itself had become so um disintegrated that I just
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had to take it down and then I bought more rigid screens so the cats can't get out cuz that other one the cats could
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open it and get out which we don't want them flying off the balconies in the middle. Oh, I see. That was more like a curtain type with a magnet that with the
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magnets. Yeah, I had those in the States. I have to say cuz we lived in we
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lived in Virginia like Alexandria Virginia like very mosquitoy. So I had tried to put one of those on the back
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door didn't did nothing. I mean it was so difficult. The wind blew and the magnets like I mean it was it was not
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very you know productive I didn't think but but you tried it. Well they came in
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place so they came. Okay. So what's going on in your house? Because then I'll tell you what's been
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going on in our house for mosquitoes. It's now it's now June 1st. It is June 1st and and the um the um I think the
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mosquitoes are playing a buffet. So far I've unscathed, but for the past few days my eldest has been complaining of
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these welts on her body from getting eaten alive at night. And then this
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morning, my youngest Paloma said, "Dad, I have mosquito bites." So they've they've made the rounds and and Omar
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hasn't complained in the past couple days about the mosquito bites. So, I think they found Paloma's um um uh scent
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more attractive now, and eventually they'll grow sick of her, and then they're going to make it to my room. But right now, I don't have any bites and
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I'm unscathed. So, it's an ah spade for my kids, but an apade for me so far. Oh,
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well, there you go. I guess you could look at it that way. I mean, I'll say from, and this kind of does lead in a
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little bit into what we're going to talk about today, which is the difference between living in the city and living outside of the city. Um because we do
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have quite different lifestyle experiences here, I think. Not that you we can't all
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experience both, but it's like your day-to-day life. And mosquito- wise, the
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reason why I was thinking about the the screens is because I mean, we I I leave all the windows and doors open to get
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the nice air and the breezes and stuff that are coming around. But when it comes to nighttime,
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everything gets closed and the only things that are open have screens on them. Okay? So that way cuz otherwise I
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will get eaten like just I they all come to me like everyone else is fine if I'm around you're all good cuz they're all
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just going to be eating me. So I am very very I have a whole system for mosquitoes which is that's the first
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thing which is at night only the windows with screens are open. And then also we've had mosquitoes really I
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mean I got bitten in December. I mean, it's not crazy at that time of year and you can probably find them and kill them, but it they are they don't ever
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really go away. Um, so for me, it's a it's a year round sport, let's call it,
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of killing mosquitoes. And and you're up in nature. I mean, you've got you've got all the room for mosquitoes to grow,
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breed, live, have their wonderful lifestyle and in the city. And I before I've moved here and I will see on the on
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the message boards and the groups of people complaining about the mosquitoes in the city and I will have to say we're
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relatively unscathed by the mosquitoes compared to Los Angeles. Now when we
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when I first moved to Los Angeles 20 some years ago there was no such thing as insects that bit like they just didn't have except for spiders. Nothing
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when I lived there except for spiders in the middle of Yeah. There were no mosquitoes when I was living there. That
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was one of the joys of LA in that climate was it it was the perfect climate without the mosquitoes. It was
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amazing. It was gorgeous. And then I don't know 10 15 years ago there was a shipment from China that had some
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mosquitoes and they have just they have invasive specied the whole area and um
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like you can't even walk around and all. So we're so used to when we got here like oh this is great. We're we we're
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mosquito free but not as the this last week. So that's a bummer. Yeah. I mean, I think,
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yeah, you're right. We're definitely have probably more of a environment for happy mosquitoes. I have I I am the
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person that runs around the house at night before we go to sleep and I have my tennis racket, my electric tennis
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racket, and I kill the mosquitoes and I'm like laughing as I'm doing I'm it's a sport. Like, I'm just like, I killed
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another mosquito. Not that everybody can't hear because those rackets are like it's like the electric shock when you kill one, right? So, I definitely go
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around like the rooms that people are sleeping in and kill as many mosquitoes as I can. And then obviously the screens
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are on the windows. We close we close things down as far as without screens once the lights go on in the house. And
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then um it's quite a thing really. And then we also have those um the thing
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that I found that works the best is the the things that you plug into the wall. Americana has them and they have the
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liquid and it's probably spewing out some really nasty toxic things. You mean like a room deodorizer or is it for
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insects? No, no, no. It's for It looks like a room deodorizer, but it's made for insects and Meodonna has it and I'm
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not I am not willing to look into what it is that it's doing because I can't live without it and I have to suffer the
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whatever the consequences are basically. So, I'm I am choosing to be ignorant, but it works really well. And I stick
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that one in my room and it stops the mosquitoes. Okay. Well, I do have basil and and mint and lavender on our
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balconies, which they say are supposed to be mosquito repellents. So, maybe maybe that's helping too. Or um maybe
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I'm just so bitter and nasty that the mosquitoes don't like me and my kids just I think maybe the ladder. The
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ladder. I don't know. I don't think they've proven what it is. There's so many theories of what people what mosquitoes
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like, but I mean at the end of the day, like if you are somebody that gets bitten there, there's some measures that
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can be taken, but I love the tennis racket cuz I sit there and I kill them and it's so satisfying. And you get your exercise in and you get your exercise
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in. Yeah. I'm running around the house waving the tennis racket for a good hour. So, do you go to the club and you're like, I can't play tennis today
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cuz I have tennis elbow. Right. Exactly. Do you tell your
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husband, please get that down from the the the from the cabinet? I have tennis elbow. Oh, exactly. Well, he does do all
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that stuff anyway because he's so much taller than me. So, yeah, he is a little tall. That is kind of that is kind of one of his jobs. Yeah. So, the
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mosquitoes we it's man it's manage it is manageable but it's it they are um they
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are many. So, I have a question then. Well, this is a city versus country
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topic that is as we transition. Um we're having roaches here now that are the
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size of school buses. I think I saw one carrying a school bus. It was so big. Oh, that's disgusting. Is
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that something that's come out in more parts of the city than usual or is it something I've heard that's kind of
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around anyway? Well, it's it's that season. So, according to my Spanish um bus mom, who's also named Paloma, by the
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way, but not my child Paloma, a different Paloma. Imagine that. And um so she I was telling her because I was
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literally laying on my bed and it isn't the peripheral vision my of my my of my
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eye caught this small Chihuahua claw crawling across my floor like it in your
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apartment. I was reading I was reading a book on my bed and I Okay. You have two cats. Is don't they have a job? They're
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busy catching the flies that are coming in because we don't have screens. Useful. Yeah.
8:28
I would personally put them on the cockroaches. So, and you're on the third Wait a minute. So, you're on the third floor. So, that's I don't like that.
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That's Well, these things are huge. And if you see the the backs of their legs, like the the hooks they have, I mean, I think they could I don't please no. I do
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not need to know. I'm never visiting you again. So, if that was the goal, success. So, we we we found three. I
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bought like rat traps last So, we found two this year. Last year, I found one. Put the rat traps. So, they must have been expired now. So, I got to put all
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the rat rat traps. What are they called? Roach traps. Sorry, the roach baits or whatever. I got to put that works. Well,
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we haven't seen them till this year, so I was like, is it seasonal or is it seasonal? And they've expired. So, I
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mean, it's probably a little bit of both. I mean, I do think in all fairness, this is the the life of living in apartment buildings in a city and
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it's hot and you know, all that stuff. I I don't think, as far as I have heard,
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this is a disgusting line of conversation. I don't think that we want to carry on. I've heard that Valencia is
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not big on rats, but it's it does have roaches. I that's what I heard in a lot of cities. I mean, that's good to know
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cuz I haven't seen a rat or a mouse since we've been here and I lived in LA and New York and other places where
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there are rats of plenty and and they'll stop and say hello. Like they're not scared of you. Yeah. No, no, no. And I
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don't That's what I heard. And I think if you're going to Yeah. So, at least you don't have everything, right? But yeah, I wouldn't up here. No, I have
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never God touch wood. I do not want to see a roach in my house. Oh my gosh. Um,
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we although we did, oh my gosh, we did have I don't think this is a this is not
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a well maybe it is a a mountain situation or it might be a pet situation or it might be a mountain and pet
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situation which is that um we have we have four cats and a dog and the the
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cats love to bring things into the house. Okay. And what they bring in are mostly um crickets and whatever those
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little cricket things and they bounce around and the cats it's like the most fun toy and I try to save them and take
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them back outside and you usually nothing too crazy. You don't get dead
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birds or mice on your doorstep occasionally. But what happened once in the middle of the night is I heard and I
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think one of the nice things about having cats if you do live out in the in the country is you live in the country
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so there's going to be field mice or little mice and maybe some rats running around in in in the wild. So if you do
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have cats they will take care of that and they're not going to be I've never seen a mouse in our house ever. And I
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wake up at 3:00 in the morning one morning and I I hear just shenanigans
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going on downstairs and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, we have a cat door that that reads
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the chip of the cat so only your cats can get in and out." Wait, what? Um, so
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yeah, it's really cool. That That's too much technology for me. No, no, it's awesome because when we So your cat has
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an easy pass basically an easy pass system. Yes. in their neck. Yes. Which
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you want when you live out in the country because there's other cats and when we first moved in and we didn't
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have that and we just had the doors open. Mhm. Other cats were like, "Oh, you know, they're like telling all their
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friends, there's food and water in that house. There's food and water in that. It's going around the neighborhood, right? And suddenly we have this like
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orange cat in our I'm like, we don't have an orange cat. What is this cat doing?" And our cats are like, "What are you doing in the house?" And they're
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starting to fight and it was chaos. And we and then I saw that um cat door and I was like this seems like a good idea
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because you know they're kind of nocturnal so right. So I so only our cats can get in and out of the house at
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night and I So they're telling you they could totally be opening the door with their tail let the whole party in. This
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is what I thought. Or holding the cat flap open. Right. Come on guys. Come on in. Party time. This is what I thought
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had happened. I thought maybe one of our cats had brought in a friend through the cat flap. Right. Right. And I mean,
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probably smart enough. I come downstairs and there's a mouse trying to it's quite
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a cute little mouse, but he's trying it. He wasn't cute. He was a small maybe a small rat like but he was he was
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relatively small. The cats had obviously brought him in to play with. He wasn't in the house because we don't have mice
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in the house. The cats what they do is they they find them outside and then they they bring their toys into the house to play with. Right. Right. So,
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one of them had bought in a mouse for everybody to play with. I mean, they're nice that way. That's very nice, right?
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Yeah. So, I come downstairs and there's Bla1 was still sleeping for some reason
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and the cats were playing with this mouse and this mouse was running and I'm like, "Oh my god." And I'm freaking out.
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And then finally, this mouse ends up under this chest that we have that has little feet. So, there's enough room for
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a mouse but not enough room for a cat. We've got four cats on each on each side of this chest and the mouse is
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underneath. Right. Just trapped and just trapped. Completely trapped. And I'm
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like, "Well, at least it's trapped, but they're playing with it, so how am I going to get it out of the house?" Right. Oh my god. And then it managed to
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run out and get into this. Um, so in we
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have this heater that takes a butane tank and it's on wheels and you attach the butane tank to the the heating
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things and then you can turn it on and it's like almost like a actual fire like the thing that heats and it heats really
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really well. But it's also on wheels which is really nice. So you can just take it to a portion of the house that's a little cold in the winter and and heat
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it pretty well. But this thing has like a hole in the back. This mouse managed
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to get inside where the tank sits and sit in there. And I was like, "It's on wheels." Perfect. Right. Right. Right.
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And this was the point where Bla1 woke up. So now Blae woke up and Blaze is running around chasing the cats because
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they're trying to chase the mouse. And I'm like, I'm in a cartoon right now and and you're trying to chase the mouse. So
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there's a whole there. I'm chasing the dog and the cats and the mouse. And I'm also trying to keep an eye on the mouse
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because I don't want this mouse actually let loose in our house for real because right now the cats have it. But if Blaze
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chases the cats away, I'm like really, you know, this is really not fun. So then I had to go wake up Jad. I'm like,
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I need help. So we roll this he rolls this thing out into the into outside the
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house and and then luckily I was like I don't know if this mouse is still in this thing. And then Blaze is like
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smelling. I'm like, okay, the mouse is still in there. And then finally the cats are gone at this point. They're like, "We're out. This is not fun
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anymore. You took our toy, right? We're out of this." And got the whole thing out the house. Luckily, this I see this
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mouse just leg it out of this thing out into the woods. And I was like, "Thank God. This was way too much for 3:00 in
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the morning." But this is this is country life. So if you want to, this is the thing you have to have to worry
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about. But also, I think you you brought something up that um should be discussed is that many of the houses in the
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country in the mountains don't have heaters and air conditioning and stuff. Correct. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I
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mean, we don't I mean, that's something, you know, that I'm I'm I mean, a lot of them do, but we did get an older house
15:34
that doesn't have air conditioning and heating, so we put in fans and we decided not to put in I mean, the
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heating it's not that cold. We've managed to take care of that quite well with just um just electric portable
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heaters and which is to which totally works. Um and I think ultimately if you
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were to try and heat a whole house and a you know air condition a whole house of the size that we have, it would be
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outrageously expensive. So you'd have to be very much prepared for that cost if you wanted to have that kind of luxury
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out in with a big house in the country. I think so. And in the summer, quite frankly, we have a pool, we have the
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breeze. There's that there's very few days where we're so unbelievably hot. It has to get to be like 100 and something
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for that to be really unbearable because we have a pool, we open all the windows, we put fans on, we there is a breeze
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coming from the water. So unless the air is so hot that the breeze is hot, right?
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It's totally totally manageable in my opinion. But depends on where you come from. We came from DC. It's a very very
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hot and humid place. Right. This feels cooler to us. You know, if you came from
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Norway or something, you might be like, "This is really unbearable." Right. Yeah. But you'd be swimming in the pool
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in the winter cuz you would think it was so warm. Yeah. Totally. I did that. I swam until I My last swim was in
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December. I made it all the way through to December and then I couldn't do it anymore. That's That's insane. Um but ugly. And I've been talking to some
17:02
hospitals, so you might get a visit about this, but you know. But you have you have heat and air conditioning and
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you have an apartment now. I we also lived in an apartment before and sometimes your air conditioning breaks.
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Like how long does it take for you to get that fixed? Okay. So last summer we did have this happen. Our air
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conditioner had had broken in July during the hottest month of of of the
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year. And um people think it's August. No, I've been here now two summers. July is much hotter. I don't also don't know
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if it's because it's it it hits you so hard and and No, I think you're right.
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I've had the same experience. It starts to I wouldn't say cool off in August, but if we have those really hot days,
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they're happening in July. Usually, the 104s are happening in July and and so we had those and thankfully our our
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wonderful neighbors upstairs, so I think I mentioned in last week's episode, Robin and Jan, our saviors, um they
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brought out of We all we all love you now. They let us stay in their apartment for
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the months and it took a month for our air conditioning to get fixed because it's the summer. I mean, of course, your
18:06
air conditioner is going to break down when everyone's breaks down. So, to get someone here um that wanted to do it and
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my big fear is if we and it was like taking weeks to get someone and I finally got someone and they did fix it,
18:18
but they had to order parts and it was a an air conditioner that they don't sell in Spain anymore. So, they had to order
18:24
parts from like China. It was all these these different levels of like I can't believe and I was like just I want it
18:29
fixed before August because I'm so fearful of like when August hits like everyone's like I'm sorry you don't have air conditioning I'm going to you know
18:36
Gambia to my apartment for a month and sitting at the beach. Right. Right. So that but it probably wouldn't take that
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long usually. I wouldn't imagine. I mean when we've had and when we lived in an apartment before we moved up here we
18:47
lived we didn't live in the city but we lived in a in a small like a a large village I guess town. small town, large
18:54
villagy sort of place that was kind of a rural place but had everything and that
18:59
I mean we could get things done pretty quickly but there weren't as many people right. Yeah. Well and the and the air
19:05
conditioner it was hard to get someone here first and then when the guy did come he was like if it was a different brand of air conditioner I could have
19:11
this fixed like in a couple days. It's just because these parts are coming from they don't they're just not here. So he
19:17
had to order everything. Yeah. So that was that was um problemsome and you know and and to our listeners know if they're
19:24
looking at places there are a lot of apartments also in the city that don't have heat and air conditioning. So it is a crazy thing to to to look for. And um
19:32
what do you think like what do you think it would be like to live in the city? I think heat is more of a priority than
19:38
air conditioning even though air conditioning is a priority as well. But um but the heat you can do with it's
19:44
easy to plug in some heaters. Couldn't manage that. I guess you could that's how we manage and it's fine. Yeah, I
19:51
guess you could do space heaters. I mean yeah I mean air conditioning is we did that month and it was pretty it was
19:56
pretty hard. I mean we were out of the house more and upstairs a lot more as well. There you go. That's true. But it
20:02
was that you had like we had borrowed we had they had fans we had all their fans from upstairs down here. So we also
20:09
wanted to be in our own place. So we didn't want to just be in their apartment. We wanted to be with our stuff and things. So we had all the fans blowing and trying to make wind tunnels.
20:15
Um the the one thing that I will say about being in the city and it it kind of goes with what you're saying about
20:21
you know the mountain and the breeze and stuff. Valencia itself and the mountains too. It's very windy here. Not like
20:26
Chicago windy but it's a very windy place. So even when it's like a 100 can be stifling the apartment but you go to
20:32
the streets and if you're in the shade and you're in one of those streets that's catching the wind coming down it feels 20 degrees cooler. I mean, you
20:39
will see people at the sidewalk cafes in those heat and as long as they're not in the sun, they're they're fine because
20:45
the breeze comes through, you know. So, you might not have that through breeze
20:50
in in your apartment, but you can easily find a cooler place, right, running
20:55
around the city. Yeah, there is. And I think and yeah, I think the city apartments too. I mean, I don't know
21:01
what kind of fans you have. I mean, we put fans in all of our bedrooms and in the living room and stuff so that we have air movement that kind of helps the
21:09
air moving. And so long as there is some cool air to be had, we can sort of force
21:14
a a bit of a breeze through our house, right? I mean, and we can we have a you know, our windows are in the front and
21:20
back, so there is a way to channel air through if it's going to come through, right? If it's not coming through, it's not coming through. And uh and um so so
21:30
we can do that. I will say there there's this kind of like you know uh saying about the city right our apartments are
21:37
colder in the winter than outside and hotter inside in the summer than it is outside and that's true. So like when
21:42
you're like when you go outside you'll be freezing at home in in the winter time you go outside and you're like it's
21:48
not that cold out here but inside the house it's so cold and then in the summer you're like dying in the house
21:53
and you go outside like it's not that bad out here. Yeah. So I would say I
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would say overall in from my experience living up in the mountains here outside of the city um and you can live outside
22:06
of the city in a town, you know, somewhere where you're not up in the
22:12
hills. So this is just my experience from living sort of outside up in the hills where we where we do have a bit of
22:18
a breeze and all this kind of stuff. It's both both are manageable with sort of space heaters and a pool. I mean
22:24
we've been and fans from from my opinion. Would I love to be I mean the the the issue that I have with air
22:30
conditioning is if you decide to air condition your house now you can't experience the lovely fresh air and the
22:37
smell of the jasmine that's in your garden floating through your house and all the things that I love. Right? So I
22:43
wouldn't be able to enjoy the lifestyle that I wanted living up in the mountains if I was to air condition my house. So
22:49
there is an aspect of needing to have a little be a little hotter than maybe you would like to be sometimes in order to
22:56
have the lifestyle of being outside, having your windows open, having these like winds and breezes. I mean, it's
23:02
just there's a there's a portion of the year where it's perfect. Well, and your house is very that indooroutdoor
23:08
lifestyle, too. I mean, your your your house begets going outside. You know, it it you know, you've got the terraces and
23:14
the views and and we can talk about that. That's another pro of living where she lives. She, you know, I'm gonna say
23:19
you sound bitter with that little bitterness that maybe this that repels mosquitoes. She has a view from her
23:26
house that you cannot obtain in the city. And that is no, it is it is a dream view. You're on her patio and you
23:33
see all of Valencia and the Mediterranean and mountainscapes and it is it is quite impressive. It's it is a
23:41
very good reason to live up there. That is for sure. Thank you. Yeah, is it was
23:46
a selling point for sure and we so we live literally in the mountains um as
23:53
opposed to kind of down sort of outside of the city. So we can also one of the benefits of living I mean when you think
23:59
of Valencia I mean not to speak of other Spanish cities but when you think of Valencia you can live in the mountains
24:05
very close to Valencia. So, we are about 25 minutes from you um driving and I
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think we can also I can walk out of my house and I can we're in an urbanization
24:16
so we have neighbors and we have a community but we can't really walk to anything other than hikes so and
24:24
neighbors. So, we have a community and we have neighbors, but it's like, you know, you're not walking to a c we we
24:29
have a little cafe that's sometimes open, but I mean, you're not walking to to the post office or for a coffee or
24:35
for, you know, your groceries. You have to get in your car to do all of those things. And I think that is something
24:41
that it it's that that's the pro and con really because like I can walk out of the house in the morning with my dog, walk up into the mountains, hike for 2
24:48
hours and come home and have a beautiful time which of course if you're living in the city you would have to own a car to
24:55
have that experience. So that means owning a car in the city which is a whole other thing I can ask you about. But so that's probably one of the
25:01
greatest joys is is this kind of very refreshing life of having fresh air and
25:08
ability to and and space and ability to walk around and do stuff, but you don't have access to all the great things you
25:14
have in the city. Right. Right. I mean, and that's I mean, and we love living in the city. This was when I had first
25:20
thought about moving here with the girls, I had promised them a house in the suburbs with a pool and a dog. That was kind of my That was
25:28
So did we. We delivered. You delivered. Yeah, you delivered. I I have failed. Um
25:34
but we then came to visit and then we decided that no, we should like all we all decided that we wanted to live in
25:39
this city because we I just knew it would be isolated. I was like, let's live in the city for a year and then we
25:44
can figure then we'll know the city and that way when we move out of it, we'll know the city versus if we would have
25:49
moved straight to the country and then again isolated or like in a village outside or one of the suburbs um outside
25:55
the city that I would feel um isolated. maybe I would never connect with the city. And then after a year that we were
26:02
all like, we don't really want to leave. You know, we have a friend in the mountain that has a pool, so we don't need to have a pool. They have a dog, we
26:08
don't need a dog anyway. So, yeah. And you have access to things, I think. And I will say from
26:16
very, you know, if you come to visit us, it's a whole thing, right? Logistically.
26:22
And I, you know, and I've had people that I not, not not close friends, but acquaintances that I've hung out with
26:28
that have moved to the city and I no longer hang out with them. Like there is a logistics that makes it hard to really
26:34
You're the only person that I know that we've actually maintained and built a a
26:40
friendship with who lives in her city. A isn't that nice? That's so sweet. Yeah.
26:46
For all our sins. So, so I mean it takes a lot I think to
26:52
to maintain a relationship with somebody that's in the city somehow because your life outside of the city is very carb-
26:58
based, right? And I will say that um and being in the city, we're we also have a
27:04
trapped that you don't have because we don't own a car. We can't go to the waterfalls. can't go to these things or
27:10
if we do find the public transportation option, it's like a it's a three-hour ordeal, which would really be a
27:16
30-minute car trip because that's not going we have to go to this other town to get to this like there's no direct
27:21
way because it's a weird site that we want to try to see. So, we're trapped by exploring Spain via train and and plane.
27:29
So, we can't go see a lot of these areas around here. And I I haven't driven in
27:35
Spain yet, and I know that's a that's a hurdle I need to get over, but I also don't have a license. I've been here long enough that I should have a license
27:41
by now. So, um it is but that's legit. That's a legitimate thing that people need to think about is if you're coming
27:48
from America specifically, you cannot transfer your driver's license. So, you need to take the test here. So, you
27:54
know, yes, you can live in the city and rent cars and go do stuff, but you need there's a lot of things that need to happen before that's a legitimate
28:01
management way of you're living your life, right? And I've seen, you know, I know a lot of people that are like, "Oh,
28:06
I don't have it. I just still rent my car. No one cares, you know, blah blah blah. But if you get caught, there's huge fines. I think they can even
28:12
impound the rental car. I think someone told me. I mean, I don't know. It's a think. It's a think. I think I read that somewhere. But there are That's not how
28:20
you'd want to be living. No, that's not how you'd want to be living. And and but also, it is very expensive to get a
28:25
driver's license here. You're looking at around 800 to,000 or more even because
28:30
you have to take the test. You have to take the written test. You have to take the driving test. And many people will
28:36
fail the practical test. Um, even Spaniards, it's it's it's kind of a catch. It's a it's they want they want
28:42
you to fail kind of thing. I don't know. And um and you have to take the courses. It's expensive and and the license
28:48
itself is expensive. So, it's it's something I haven't done because I'm like, I don't really feel like spending
28:53
a€1,000 euros like anytime soon. And it's a process of several months of taking these classes and preparing
28:59
yourself, right? And as somebody that's living in the city, so we're friends and you know it would be nice for you just
29:04
to come to our house, right? But you can't you have to, you know, the logistics of it is you have you take a
29:10
metro all the way out to Beta and then we come and get you and it's it's only 50 minutes. It's not like a big ordeal, but it means that we have to pick you up
29:16
and bring you to our house and then when you leave we have to take you back down to Beta to take the metro and then you
29:23
can get home. So, we're stuck with you. And you're stuck with us until until we
29:28
want to drive you and and then the metro only runs so late. So, if we miss that, we're either going back up the hill and
29:34
spending the night or or you're driving us to the city or Yeah.
29:39
Oh, you didn't think sleeping at the train station was an option? No, that's not an option. Sorry. Um, and also, you
29:45
know what's you know, Uber. Can I spit that out? Okay, get the words out. the
29:50
Uber, the Capify, the the the the driving platforms, right? The shared car
29:56
service things um is, you know, in the city very available, but once you get
30:01
outside the city and the further you go, it's not it's not possible. So, like where my daughters go to school, I can
30:07
get a cab there if I've missed the train or I I just want to get there quickly or
30:12
I need to get there emergency, I can get I can get a car to take me there, but once I'm there, getting a car back, not
30:18
going to happen. It's happened several times that you're like, "Oh, dang it." You know,
30:28
[Music] and I think this is one of the reasons that it is re realistically, I mean, for
30:35
me anyway, realistically, my friendships have fallen mostly with people outside
30:40
of the city that also have a car. So, if we want to do something, we go to each other's houses. We can come and go, blah
30:45
blah blah. If we want to go into the city, we go into the city. I don't go into the city that often. We go into the city to go to the bank or do something
30:51
that we need to do or I might have a day where I come and meet you or or another friend from out here. We go into the
30:57
city and do something, but it's like that takes up like half of my day or more. So, it's not something that I'm
31:03
doing super regularly to be honest because my whole life is out here really. And I go into the city very
31:09
sporadically for things. So, I would say when you live outside of the city, even though it's super close, which is very
31:15
convenient, um, and the hospitals and all the things that we go to are all in the city if we need them and it's close
31:22
enough for that to be the case. Our life is outside of the city with other people outside of the city for the most part, I
31:28
would say. And and and for us city folk, when these when kids have birthday parties in these suburban laser tags and
31:35
go-kart places and those kinds of thing, uh city folk who don't have cars, it can be an ordeal. And I'm I'm on the
31:42
WhatsApp groups begging other parents. I'm like, is anyone going that has a car? Do you want to share a cab? Because
31:48
some of them are not accessible by the subway or the bus. Or if you have to take a bus, it is two hours, which could
31:53
be a 15, 20 minute cab ride. But you know, sometimes you're like, we're not thinking we're not thinking about you guys when when we have a party out here.
31:59
Not at all. And I look at like I looked at one party. You also put your Yeah. You put your kids in a school outside.
32:06
Let's be honest though, you did put your kids in a school outside of the city. Your kids could have gone to school in the city and then you probably maybe
32:11
wouldn't have had that. Well, not really because there there's only one school in the city that you could send your kids
32:16
to as a as a private public school and conot school. So, there are a lot of schools. I'm just saying there is a
32:22
culture in the city where people are living there and their kids are going to school with other kids in the city and you might not run into that as much. Um
32:29
yeah, probably. But but then again, all these laser tech places are all outside the city because they are in warehouse districty kind of places or big malls,
32:36
right? But yeah, there is only one real private school in the city that's in an
32:41
international English school. So for us, there was no option. All the most of the private the private schools that I think
32:47
a lot of expats would be looking into are going to be in the suburbs and the in the outer towns most likely. Yes. And
32:53
so that is something to think about if you're moving here and you want to move city country. Does the school have a bus
32:59
to where you want to live? Does it not have a bus to where you want to live or do you want to drive it? Like that those
33:04
are those those kinds of things to think about. Um and but I mean we're very
33:10
happy we live Yeah. No, I mean it's great. It's a it's a logistics issue really and the birthday parties, you
33:15
know, that is a that is a thing. But I think you probably also, I would
33:21
imagine, mostly hang out with other people in the city versus I mean, how many people like us are you hanging out
33:27
with that are living outside of the city? No, I mean, yeah, we hang out with city folk. We do. And my daughters, I
33:33
mean, you know, unfortunately, a lot of them have friends outside and they make their playdates work and, you know, but it is it is a it is a it is a
33:40
scheduling. There's a maneuvering, a navigating thing if you will of like um my oldest is at a party in Gillette
33:47
which is like what 45 minutes from the city, 35 minutes from the city and you know there's one girl that lived in the
33:53
city who has a car and and she's doing the car pool for the kids that are going up from the city and then bringing them
33:59
back. So it does Yeah. So, I mean, my point my point, I guess, is that even though on the map it looks like, oh
34:04
yeah, I'm going to live 20 minutes outside of the city and go into the city all the time and all this kind of stuff or I'm going to live in the city and I'm going to spend a lot of time going back
34:10
and forth out, it just doesn't that it's not what happens. And we moved I lived in LA for a long time. We moved from
34:16
Alexandria, Virginia. We were very used to driving everywhere. Like even in
34:22
Alexandria where we were, we had a few things close to us, but if we wanted to go to Target or or Home Depot or
34:27
something, we had to get in a car and do that. There was no it was a very car and sort of focused lifestyle and I drove my
34:35
daughter to school there as well for like it took maybe 15 minutes to drive her to school. I was like well prepped
34:40
for that and that aspect of it didn't really bother me but I will say your
34:46
lifestyle seems much more convenient that you just do that and after being in LA and having driven for 20 something
34:52
years in LA when I moved here I was like I don't want to ever drive again because it's gotten so bad that you know just to
34:57
go two miles could take 45 minutes you know and you're like oh gosh yeah well LA is special yeah and then and then
35:04
we're here and I'm like we're walking to places we used to drive to right like this we would have never want that part,
35:10
right? Which is really good. Yeah. But I will say there's no traffic here. I mean, there will be occasionally some
35:16
traffic for something, but there most likely at that point there's been an accident or something or a soccer match
35:21
like that's orfall as we say, football match. So, I will say I never hit I never hit traffic
35:28
going back and forth from school. So, I know exactly how long it takes and I've never hit any traffic that way. Um, we
35:33
drove into CU one evening and there was something going on and there was not
35:39
only was there an insane amount of traffic. There was no parking in any of the parking lots or anything and it was
35:45
like oh my god. So, you know, it's not always practical to drive into the city for for one festival or football or
35:51
another and and the city has like I feel like it has just two or three entry points because I feel like there's only
35:57
a couple ways in and out and that one that you come through is right by the stadium. So that always if there's
36:03
something there that's your bottleneck right there. Yeah. Yeah. But it's but even the city is very easy to drive
36:08
around. So I will say like if I want to drive into the city and out like it's super easy. So we're very car obviously
36:14
very car focused. We need a car to do everything here. Um and you're obviously very public transportation. But other
36:20
than that I would say you know one of the reasons that we picked want wanting to be up in the in outside of the city
36:26
is we did want a pool and we did want a garden. Jawad wanted to grow vegetables and have a bit of a vegetable garden and
36:33
all this type of thing and we wanted to get a dog and so this all kind of centered around us needing to live
36:40
somewhere where it was houses and gardens, right? Um, so we did manage to
36:45
get all those things and I think the it's probably like that's a that's a I
36:52
mean we really enjoy all those aspects of it and there it's hard to complain about where we live because it's very
36:58
nice, but it's definitely connectivity is is an issue. I mean we're limited and
37:03
you're limited, right? Every area is going to have its limitations. We can't explore nature as freely as we'd like to
37:09
and and not that we really wanted to anyway. You do,
37:14
but if we wanted to, we we really can't. Is that world where that was something
37:20
that everybody wanted to do? Like we dragged Zena out of the house this morning cuz we're like, we're going down to the beach to take the dog for a walk.
37:26
We're going to take a nice walk down the prominard. And it was lovely. But I mean, you know, teenage girls, it's a little it's a little harder to be like,
37:32
we're going out for a walk. No, you need to be going to a shop or to a thing or to a thing for them to be like, "Well, my kids don't even want to leave the
37:38
house." They're like, they because they don't they don't like shopping. They don't like clothes. Like, they don't like that stuff. And then I'm like, "Can
37:45
we go to the beach?" They're like, "No, they don't want to go to the beach. Grant would go." They end up having a good time. And they're like, "We should
37:50
go to the beach more often." But then the next morning, like, let's go back to the beach. Do we have to? I'm like, "Can
37:55
we leave your caves, please?" I mean that is that is the other thing about living in this city too is that you we
38:01
have this very bright apartment on either end but in the center it is dark and that's where their bedrooms are. So
38:07
their bedrooms are on the air shafts so they don't get any light. You know Valencia's apartment buildings and even
38:13
the newer apartment buildings even though their towers are still built similarly where these you know the apartments are front to back through the
38:20
building. They're not like in America like an apartment will like go span one side of the hallway and here there's
38:27
like an elevator shaft and only two doors and even though the apartment building might be wide there's like six elevator shafts that provide for two
38:34
apartments per floor. So you have a lot of you have a few rooms that don't have out outside windows, right? They have
38:40
air shaft windows. I mean you can open them and and fe you know theoretically get fresh air or fresh air but not light
38:46
but not light. No. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a I mean that is one of the things that's nice about having a house and
38:53
being out right in the country is that we have very bright, right? Love it.
38:58
Love the amount of air and the light and everything make it's it's really really nice. And I have to say it smells better
39:04
than the city. Let's be honest, the city smells just fine.
39:10
The city is perfect. We don't sell none of that manure they used to to to
39:16
fertilize the fields. So there we do get that. I will say Valencia does not smell bad as a city, but it obviously a city
39:23
is going to smell more city-ike than living in the country. And Valencia does have a sewage smell that's not constant.
39:29
And it's weird because it will waft by you. And it's worse in the summer in the heat of the summer, but I've smelt it
39:36
sometimes in in the winter. And it and it'll come out of nowhere. And our apartments will smell like sewage
39:42
sometimes, too, cuz it's the drains. They don't have S-curve drains here and all these different kinds of things. And
39:47
and then you won't like in our apartment, we haven't smelt it for months, and I know we'll smell it one day and be like, "Well, how did like we
39:53
haven't done anything different. Why is it coming up now? You know, all of our drains are being used. Yeah. And and
39:59
it'll come sometimes just be in the street and you'll smell it and it's it can be bad. But I mean, I've also lived in New York and I've lived in LA and
40:06
they can smell very bad and we don't have that. Yeah. No, that's a that's a thing in a lot of places, I think. And
40:11
they do wash the sidewalks every night here, you know. Oh my gosh. It's very clean here. Very clean. Yeah. We have a
40:19
um one of the other reasons that we that we wanted so when we lived in Alexandria there was a rule of some sort. I'm not
40:25
going to get the numbers right but I think 100 feet or 200 feet is you if you wanted to get chickens they had to be x
40:32
amount of feet from your the edge of your um property line. Okay. Right. And
40:38
we lived in an area where it was sort of rowous and gardens and houses and gardens. Right. So you had a small
40:45
garden with your either your whole house or your or your half house or whatever, right? And the whole the way that it was
40:53
the the way that they had calculated that number meant that nobody had the space to put a chicken. Okay. Because of
41:01
the distance of the of the width of your garden, right? Okay. So So when we moved here, what that was one of the things
41:07
that Jawad wanted to like I want to have chickens. So, we did set up the whole we have a whole section of our garden that
41:12
has the kitchen garden and he's grown like tomatoes, which I don't eat. He can grow tomatoes. So many tomatoes here,
41:18
right? And he's grown broccoli, which has been amazing, and like um uh
41:24
radishes. I mean, really delicious things. Um and we haven't we then we moved the fence to put the chickens in,
41:30
and we haven't put the chickens in yet because we do have four cats and a dog. So, I don't know if how they would survive. These chickens are going to
41:38
they might last a day. So, we haven't had the guts to actually
41:44
put them in yet because we're a bit worried about what the outcome might be, but we have the space for it at least. Um I mean, you talk about this garden.
41:50
Have your have your either of your any of your animals dug up your garden? Are you able to you've grown for the most
41:57
part or Oh, it's been that. I mean, we could probably interview Jawad for an
42:02
hour on the shenanigans that our cats have got up to in the garden and him trying to stop them from sleeping on his
42:08
plants and eating them. But really, the snails the snails are the problem. Oh, really? So, he will go out in the middle
42:14
of the night with a little light on his, you know, with a little light on his head like he's mining like a coal miner.
42:20
Totally. and he goes down there with a bucket and like pulls all the snails and puts them
42:26
in the bucket. So, does he sell them to the paella restaurant down the hill? He
42:31
could totally make a business. Just just leave them at the front of the of the restaurant here. I mean, snails are are
42:39
very very like um uh what's the word? I'm can't think of delicious. Destructive. Destructive. Destructive.
42:45
That too. I don't find them delicious. I feel like we've had this discussion before because you you have you have
42:50
snails on the pa down there in the city. But um yeah, so that I think has been the biggest problem has been the snails
42:56
and managing the snails. But we've had some really nice food from the garden and that has been a huge like benefit of
43:02
like eating your the food that you've grown has been I mean delicious. Very very different. Well, I have a garden. I
43:08
have like I said before I have basil and mint. You know, you could have a garden in this city and I made capresi
43:14
sandwiches on a baguette and use our fresh basil. So, you know, us city folk could be country, too. Absolutely. And
43:21
you probably have the little um fr and and um vegetable places that um probably
43:27
are selling maybe some things that are grown around in Valencia as well. Some
43:32
local produce I would imagine there. And there's a level. I mean, there is a there's a there's a cast system on the
43:37
on the fruit and vegetable markets, you know. Yeah. And we have a we have a um
43:44
there's a van that comes around our town and all the urbanizations in the summer
43:49
um on certain days and they it's like a farmers market van and they're selling and they have a little thing and they've
43:56
got their little loudspeaker and they're like we're coming. Yeah. And you can buy like whatever they have like, you know,
44:01
garlic and onions and fruit and vegetables and stuff and you can buy it right outside your house. So that's kind
44:07
of So there's some little like like like rural things that are quite cute. There's also a van that comes around if
44:13
you want your knife sharp. I was just going to ask you that. Do you have that band? Cuz we have that band too. And
44:18
that do you that'll that'll drive a dam crazy because when you're just trying to relax at home and it's like and it
44:24
sounds like it almost sounds like to me when I first heard it I thought it was like some opposition party like someone
44:30
like running for office or something and like warning us at the end of the world was like because it's this weird siren
44:36
sound and then this really loud voice and I don't speak Spanish and I still don't understand what they're saying and
44:41
then I asked I think they're doing it in Valencia and up here for sure and I I thought it was like an ice cream truck
44:47
or something because that's all I could imagine. that was driving around. But yeah, like a political party like sounds
44:53
really loud and I was like what do we need to leave? Like are we being evacuated? What's going on? Right. And
44:59
I'm like I'm looking on my WhatsApp group because we have a WhatsApp group for our ur organization and I'm waiting for somebody to post something, right?
45:05
Cuz things happen around here. So we have like there was an adjustment just like learning like so there's hunting
45:12
season. So, I woke up one morning and I heard like, you know, shotguns, okay, going cuz cuz we're in the mountains, so
45:18
it's it's echoing. They weren't actually anywhere near our house, but they were up in the mountains. And I think between
45:23
October, I want to say between October and February or something. Um, you do have to get a license and all this kind
45:29
of stuff when they I think maybe rabbit and pigs, maybe the wild pig, I would
45:36
imagine. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe deer. I have seen deer here once, but I've never seen them again. Okay.
45:42
So, I don't know if they're allowed to shoot. They used to hunt deer. They got the last one. They got the last one,
45:48
maybe. Sorry. But sorry. Yeah, I saw one. But I think you know that those are
45:54
I mean that was like one thing. And then also like you were saying with these little vans and stuff that go around. I
45:59
think almost surely they're speaking in they're they're doing their announcements in Valenciano because the
46:05
Valenciano is kind of what they've probably been doing for like a really really long time. So when they are when
46:11
they've got that and it's not a great loudspeaker. So when they're speaking on that loudspeaker in Valenciano, I I like
46:17
you, I don't understand what's going on. And I I always go back to my WhatsApp group to see if anyone's saying anything because it's like, is it normal or is
46:23
something new happening? And usually it's something totally normal that I just don't know about. Right. Right. Right.
46:29
But it works. But it's nice to have the farmers market ban that comes around because we
46:34
haven't been able to grow everything. Right. Right. Yeah.
46:39
And and I was going to say the cast system of the of the fruit and vegetable markets here is it's we know there's the
46:45
ones that you go that's the like the cheapest ones and that's where you're going to eat vegetables today. Like
46:51
you're not going to buy them for tomorrow. Those are the here and now. I feel like they've gotten all the ones from the grocery stores. Like this is the resale. Oh, I see. And then there's
46:58
the ones that have like the fancy um salad dressings and little maybe they're not bottles that look like salad
47:03
dressings and it's like a more curated shop that have like gifts and things. gifts and things and they have fruits
47:09
and vegetables that are more expensive, right? And then there's like the then there's the grocery stores that have
47:15
their own selection of produce, but it's limited. And then if you want more section, you have to go to like the central market, the Rustafa market, the
47:20
bigger market markets, but those tend not to be cheap. So like, you know, the That's true. You know, I mean, you know,
47:27
people back in the Oh, I have to go to the farmers market. Well, if you're on a budget, the farmers market is not it's not the cost effective way to go. And so
47:35
our big markets here, they'll have things that you can't get. So you don't have a choice. But if I'm going to buy
47:40
apples, sometimes I'd rather get them at at the grocery store because they're going to be cheaper. Um, and interesting
47:46
cuz we have I mean we have one grocery store. I mean likely if you live outside the city somewhere, you'll have one
47:52
grocery store. Um, and and then we have a couple of those um fruit and vegetable
48:01
little tiny shops. We have maybe a couple of those. And then at certain times of year when things are harvested,
48:07
some people just open their front door and they have some crates of things of whatever has come from either their back
48:12
garden or their cousin or I don't know where they get this stuff from, but there'll be people sitting at their
48:19
front door with a few crates of a certain thing. Okay, that's that's in season. So, you can literally buy
48:24
things. If you go into town here, you can literally like just, you know, buy it buy something off of the old lady
48:31
sitting in in the in front of her house. And I I don't know where that stuff comes from, but you know, that's there.
48:37
So, there are very That's kind of cute, though. I mean, that's like that's kind of I kind of like that. I was like, and I haven't compared the prices, but I
48:43
would imagine her stuff has to be cheaper. There's a place down there's a place down on the way into town where
48:49
they sell bags of oranges every now and again. So there are like a lot of individuals just making a little bit of
48:54
cash I think selling some things and right I think some of them have communal gardens in different places where they might be growing things. Some of them
49:00
might have a farm and they just took a couple of crates home to sell to the neighbors. You know that type of thing.
49:06
So that's really I I really like that too. I think it's really cute. Jawad's harvests ever get big. Will he be
49:12
outside your gate selling some broccoli and tomatoes that you don't eat? Well, we literally just give them to all the
49:18
neighbors. So we have so it's kind of it's it's kind of like a bartering system. So our neighbors on one side
49:23
have lemons, our neighbors on the other side have oranges and pomegranates. Jad's growing loads of tomatoes and
49:29
cucumbers and and he grew a cucumber these cucumbers one time that got so big it was ridiculous. And I was like I
49:34
think they must have been overgrown. And I was like they're going to be taste disgusting, right? Because when
49:39
something overgrows it's it's going to lose it flavor and bitter and gross. And I opened it up and I was like this is
49:45
amazing. this is an amazing cucumber, but it's going to take us three weeks to eat this one cucumber. So then we were
49:50
giving these enormous cucumbers to our neighbors who thought we were all crazy until they started eating them and they're like, "Oh my god, this is really
49:56
good." But it took us two weeks to eat it. But so we do, you know, you grow weird things when you start growing your
50:02
own stuff. It doesn't look like it does in the grocery store always, you know. So you have that experience too. But I
50:09
would say the best thing the best positive I think about living outside of the city versus inside the city is
50:15
having a pool. I'm going to just put that right out. I would agree that's your best positive of living outside the
50:20
city. And and I think our best positive is being able to walk to just everything
50:26
like so we don't miss like the fact like if there's fireworks at midnight, we'll just go to it because it's it's two
50:31
blocks from the house and we're home and and so that that has been really nice. And if we ever decide to leave the city
50:39
for the greener pastures of the villages and suburbs, it will be something that we would truly truly miss. Um, so yeah,
50:46
and I think that is definitely that's the pros and the cons I think of you
50:52
can't have both those things, right? There is not a place that I've seen anywhere that I've lived where you have
50:59
space and air and nice gardens and a pool and also super duper easy access
51:06
and walking ability to everything and everything that you need so that you don't have to use a car because those
51:12
are the two things you would want. Right. Right. You would want accessibility to go get anything you want on foot whenever you want and fall
51:19
accidentally into a festival and things like that, you know, which is really fun and access easily for everybody just to
51:26
walk over to their friends houses for dinner and walk home and that's and also have a pool and a just doesn't exist.
51:32
So, you have to kind of Yeah, I think maybe you can have that. Well, maybe like in the suburb suburbs like the
51:38
Godas, La Kenyattas, I think people there may if they've met their neighbors
51:43
enough because there is they're they're a little tighter, right? You're in country mode where those suburbs are
51:49
more densely populated. So maybe they have that kind of that kind of country club life, as I want to call it, where
51:55
you know, you walk around the neighborhood and you have people, but it isn't the city, but they also have accessibility to the um the subways. And
52:02
for me, for my daughters, I wanted them to be, you know, and now what now that we're here, the independence that
52:08
they're gaining from living in the city. And if we were to move to a town, I would definitely I would think about a
52:13
town with subway or train accessibility or a good bus system. And I mean, I think Nacker like if Zena gets older, if
52:19
she gets older, I mean, she's going to get older. I mean, when she gets older, I mean, there I think there's if she
52:24
wants independence when she gets older. Or if you want to kick her out of the house when she's older, she I mean,
52:31
there's buses that get you to the city direct from Nakaro, though, too. I don't think Oh, so never mind. There isn't. I
52:36
thought there was. No, but but what she could I mean, she she can take a bus down to to Beta and take a metro. She
52:44
can. It's it's doable. But to to what you were talking about before, you know, if you're living I would consider still
52:51
Liliana and and Godello and that those areas like part of the flats area around
52:56
Valencia, you're not getting the breezes and the views and all the things that we have up here. So when you're you might
53:05
find an area where you might find an area where you have a bit of a community and you can maybe walk into a kind of a
53:11
high street that maybe has a few things. That might be possible. You're missing probably like you were saying earlier,
53:18
if your kids are in private school, their friends are everywhere. We might get lucky and they have a good friend that lives close by, but like Ch Zena's
53:26
friends are everywhere. There is no one place where we could live where all of her friends were. Right. Right. That doesn't exist. We might get lucky and
53:33
have one friend or two friends close by, but because you're not in a public in the public school living in that, you're
53:39
not getting that. And I think one of the things I love about like if you're going to live outside of the city, living up
53:46
somewhere where you can have a pool and you do have fresh air and you have the mountains is really really nice. The
53:52
middle part of that like you said would be like in the Godella like Lilyana area where maybe you have like a more of a
53:58
town home situation with a small pool and maybe you can walk into a high street maybe you might still need a a
54:05
bike or a car to get to the metro station. You would definitely need a car to live there. Like you would definitely
54:11
have to have a car in those places, but they're still have a car. You'd still have a car, but your child could have some a little bit. You know, children
54:17
are willing to walk a little bit more to get away from their parents. So maybe they would. That's very true.
54:22
But it's also extremely expensive to live. If there is an area where you can have a house and a garden and a town in
54:29
a like a town home and a and a pool and be walking distance to the metro and a
54:34
town, it's going to be very expensive. So let's also mention that it's not something that's like accessible to
54:41
everybody, you know. And then granted expensive is relative to this area. I mean people coming from over here are
54:46
going to be like that's not expensive. And after living here I think it I think it depends on who you are. Yeah. I think
54:51
and I mean after living here for two years what's expensive what wasn't expensive to me before is now expensive
54:57
to me because you get acclimated to the prices of everything and you're like oh this isn't you know um you it's not as
55:05
cheap as I thought it was because now you're living that life right it's not you're not on your old income you're now on this on this new but I still I still
55:12
think six seven 8000 for a house is expensive oh no I do too but obviously
55:17
in LA it's and I think if and and additionally if you're paying that and you're here on a non-lucrative visa and you're not working there, you need to
55:24
have a certain amount of income to be living somewhere with kids, putting them in a private school, right? Buying a
55:30
house at that level, being able to maintain that for 5 10 years while your kids go through school. Like that's a
55:35
that's an that's an amount of funds that are needed. Yeah, for sure. For sure. That's more I think than the average
55:41
person has generally that I know, right? Um, but yeah, definitely there are
55:46
people that can afford that and they might be able to live in that sort of little pocket, but it's quite a tiny pocket in each in each town. The pocket
55:52
around that's walking distance to a metro station or the town square is Well, yeah. Cuz some of these both,
55:59
right? Yeah. Some of the metro stations aren't near the town square. It's at the skirts the edge of where the town meets
56:04
the orange grove. And so you're like, "Right, there you go." So you might be close to the metro but not close to where all the shops and restaurants are.
56:11
It gets it gets a little it can be funny. But yeah, so I mean it's it's definitely I would say overall um
56:17
without spending a ton of money that thing that we're talking about doesn't exist where you literally have a house
56:22
and a garden and a pool and metro and restaurants. You know what I mean? Like
56:28
you have it all here. That's I think anywhere. I mean, we were that we were living close to a main
56:34
street in Alexandria and all this, but then we still needed a car to go do big
56:39
things, you know, um and also to get the kid to school. And so, yeah. So, you need to have definitely need to have a
56:45
car. We do have friends that live in um other areas that are they have a you
56:52
know, some sometimes in some areas the bus system is a little better than others as well in directly in and out of
56:58
the city. Um but you know it's definitely a different type of lifestyle
57:04
that is you know sometimes like this is not how we lived in America. So this has
57:09
been an adjustment for us and you know the pros just the pros and cons you know I think we would like to be more
57:16
connected but we also enjoy being in the mountains. So it's like ah you got to
57:21
like at some point you do have to pick it. I mean I would love to have a like not a garden like you have because that's just too much work. But I would
57:28
like I would like to I would like a pool. I mean, I can go without the pool. I would like it out a more of an outdoor space.
57:34
I mean, we have a balcony and a terrace, but it's not huge and we can host parties on it and but I would love to
57:40
have a little a little grassy area to like sip a coffee in the morning and, you know, and and have that kind of
57:46
lifestyle with greenery all around me. That's something I wouldn't mind having. And who knows, you know, who knows when
57:52
my kids leave me what what what I'll move into. Who knows? I I just want to
57:57
be a bitter old man alone in my townhouse in my garden. Don't talk to any of the neighbors. Who knows what who knows what tomorrow will bring. Oh my
58:03
gosh. I'm sure you'll be delightful. I'm sure. Yeah. It's it's it's a Yeah,
58:11
definitely different. But you can have it all here. Just you have to pick one. Exactly. You have one and then the
58:16
other. You can't have it all at once. You can't have it all. I think I've heard that before. I mean, I think people have wrote the books that you can, but you really can't have it all.
58:23
I've tried. You really can't. You got to pick. You can have it this and then you can have that, but you can't have it all at once. You can't have it all at once.
58:29
So, when you if if you uh are thinking about moving to Spain, we're Don't tell us. We didn't warn you. You can't have
58:34
it all. And if you haven't heard that before, I'm sorry.
58:40
But it's funny because you think you can. You're like, "Yes, you definitely. You keep thinking that you can." I do anyway. I'm like, "Yes, I can. I can
58:46
have it all. I want it all. Let me try." Well, on that note, I think we probably should go because we can't be here all
58:53
day either. We have things. We have lives to do. And I And it is hot and I do need to go jump in the pool.
58:59
That's my response to her. My inner my inner mad cat just came out.
59:06
So well until next time. Aasta leego.
59:11
Aasta leego. Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us
59:17
on Instagram and Facebook at Ospain Podcast and on our website.com which we
59:22
will be updating with exciting new things as we grow. We would love for you to message us with any topics you would
59:27
like to hear about. See you next time. Bye. [Music]

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