Hi I’m Liz from Memoirs of a Young Adventuress. I am from a small town in Virginia but I have spent the past few years drinking red wine and eating tapas around Spain. Most recently, I called Logroño home, capital of the beautiful wine region of La Rioja in the north. Living amongst the vineyards and unchanged medieval villages, I truly felt at home in Spain for the first time.

1. Why did you move abroad?
Like many of my fellow classmates, the job market in the USA after graduation was abysmal. I spent a year in college studying in Salamanca, Spain, one of the best years of my life. Traveling around Europe and north Africa, I loved the lifestyle of an expat and I knew as soon as I was done with my studying, I wanted to go back.

2. How do you make a living?
There is a program through the Spanish department of Education called auxiliars; they place native English speakers around Spain and you work part time in public schools helping out in the English classes in exchange for a student visa and a stipend. It’s one of the few ways Americans can come to Europe to work and live, and it makes for a great opportunity for young people straight out of college, though many older people do the program as well. I also worked a lot in the afternoons tutoring kids and adults to supplement my income. There is a huge demand for native English speakers in Spain nowadays.

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
I would Skype with my family a few days a week, which is a great way to stay in touch. When I first studied abroad in Spain, few people used Skype, instead I would call home from payphones on international calling cards! I can’t even imagine doing that now! Another great way to communicate with home is the mobile App WhatsApp. Wildly popular in Spain and Europe, it has pretty much replaced standard SMS text messaging. It runs off of your data plan, and it syncs all of your phone contacts so you can instant message anyone with the same app around the world for free. Between Skype, emails and WhatsApp, there is no shortage of ways to stay in touch with my family and friends back home in the US.

4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Spain?
Where do I even begin? I love everything about Spain, from the history, the food, the people and the culture. Learning and speaking Spanish is really fun for me, and I really enjoy going out and meeting new people and being shown around by locals. Though if I had to chose one thing, I would say my favorite part of being an expat in Spain is getting to travel everywhere. Europe is so much smaller and better connected than the US, so it’s fairly cheap and easy to hop on a flight to any major city or destination for a quick getaway. Spain also has a lot better holidays, so I have much more time to travel when I am there as opposed to the US, where I get a grand total of 10 days’ vacation a year.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Spain?
Though this doesn’t happen very often, sometimes I feel that people treat me differently or badly for being a foreigner. Sometimes people are inpatient when I speak Spanish and don’t want to listen to everything I have to say, which is awful.

6. What do you miss most?
Apart from bagels, to-go coffee and having a dryer in my apartment, I really miss customer service, which is next to non-existent in Spain. It drives me insane sometimes.

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
Before I arrived, I made sure to get in contact with people in my new towns, whether coworkers or people active online to ask lots of questions. Once I arrived, I made sure to go out all the time, whether to sit at a café and have a cup of coffee or go for walks. If someone invited me somewhere, I always said yes. I even signed up at the local youth center for events to meet people my age. A great way to meet new people in Spain is to do intercambios. Basically you sign up and you meet someone for an hour and split that time speaking Spanish and English.

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
This is completely random, but so many people in Spain, especially the older generation would fault the weather for colds and sickness. It’s insane! At my schools if I got sick, teachers would blame the cold or the wind, especially in summer and yell at me for forgetting a scarf. Many people hate air conditioning because they blame the breezes for causing a sore throat or a cold. I would get strange looks if I left my apartment with wet hair and my roommates would chastise me for walking around with bare feet inside, chiming in that I was asking to get sick. Um, no. In this day in age, colds and viruses come from germs not the wind.

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
There are a lot of myths about Spain, but some of the big ones are around flamenco, laziness and siesta, and bull fighting. Flamenco is a traditional dance in southern Spain, and it’s not representative of Spain at all, same goes for bullfighting. None of my friends in northern Spain know how to dance flamenco. It’s not very popular anymore. The one that bothers Spaniards the most is the stereotype of laziness and the infamous siesta. Most people I know don’t have siesta, and certainly don’t take a nap. It’s just important to remember that Spain is a traditional country and the schedule of meals is very different. Lunch is served around 2 or 3 and it’s the biggest meal of the day. Work is scheduled around it and most people come home to eat at midday and then go back to work in the afternoon. Of course lunch is longer, and especially on weekends in the summer, you want to rest for a few minutes after a big meal before going out again, though most people just watch tv or read. Though unemployment is high, people who do have jobs work very hard, especially because Spain is still very small-business oriented. This means that many people work 8 hour days for 6 days a week, not 5, because they can’t afford to hire extra people.

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
The cost of living in Spain is definitely a lot lower than in the US, and it’s wonderful! Teaching English in Spain can give you a great income which means you can usually live in a nice apartment, eat and go out and travel around Europe in your free time if you budget accordingly.

11. What advice would you give other expats?
Have a plan when you move but be sure to keep an open mind. The expats I know who always had issues were the ones who just couldn’t accept their new adoptive culture. You have to force yourself to be outgoing and try new things. Isn’t that why you left home in the first place?

12. When and why did you start your blog?
I started my blog in the spring of 2010 while traveling in Peru. I had been traveling around the world for years at that point, and I thought it was high time I started recording my adventures. My blog became my outlet for me when times were rough, and now I am working towards turning it into a career and to be able to travel long-term indefinitely. Though no easy task, I definitely encourage anyone who enjoys writing to start a blog, though no matter what it’s important to follow your passion and never give up.

Liz Carlson called Spain home for three years, always on the hunt for the best tapa and glass of red wine. Temporarily back in the US and suffering from Spanish cured ham withdrawals, she runs Young Adventuress travel blog about life abroad and roaming around the world.

Liz's blog, Memoirs of a Young Adventuress

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