6 Surprising Reasons a Spanish Village Might be Right for You — Part 1
10 years ago I was living in a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. I rode my bike to my job teaching at an international high school every morning and shopped at a farmers’ market on Sundays.
5 years ago I lived in Sendagi, Tokyo. I rode a super efficient train to work. I went to Ueno park on Sundays to see the changing flowers.
Now I live in a tiny village in the mountains of Southern Spain. I go up to my bedroom to teach on-line classes and on Sundays, sometimes I go skiing with my daughter.
Why did I choose to move from the most exciting cities in the world, where I was making pretty good money to a place where cherry and olive trees reign?
I was getting burned out working all the time
New York and Tokyo offer so much (job opportunities, entertainment, shopping…) but in exchange for all of that, I worked really long hours. I love teaching so I never resented planning classes, evaluating student work or teaching but almost all of my time went to my job.
I was at school every day all day, then in the evenings, I was planning and getting ready for the next day, on the weekends between those wonderful trips to the farmer’s market, I was grading papers.
That meant I wasn’t spending time with my daughter, I wasn’t playing sports (aside from riding my bike to work), I wasn’t in the dark room printing photographs or binding books, or even reading very much of them and I wasn’t spending time with my friends, let alone making new ones. I love all of those things and many more, but my life in the city was restricted to making money.
In Tokyo, my daughter was a little older, so I was determined to take advantage of being there. Most weekends I would bundle her up and take her somewhere. We did so many amazing things like visit amusement parks, see a live volcano in Hakone, visit a million museums, and go to the Snow Festival. I was exhausted though and felt like the many Japanese fathers I saw sleeping on benches while their children played.
Now in the village, I am somehow busier than I ever was in the cities, but I am busy doing all the things I love. I don’t have to work quite so many hours because the cost of living here is so much less. So now, my time is filled with creating a garden, writing, skiing, reading books, having tapas with friends, and having the occasional party at my place.
I have to admit, I am still tired but now, it is my choice if I want to work on the weekends or stay up late writing an article.
A Spanish village might be right for you if you want to work less. I do recommend that you figure out your finances before you get here though because it is hard to find work in Spain, especially in a village. If you expect to rock in and start working locally you might find yourself struggling.
I was overstimulated
Cities are by their nature crowded. Not only are they crowded with people, they are also stuffed full of noise, visual stimulation, smells, and extreme temperatures. I see people walking around with headphones, trying to block out the noise with more noise. They ignore the flashing lights, enticing advertisements, even airplanes pulling messages overhead. They tolerate and take exhaust fumes, sewage odors, and cooking smells, both good and bad into their bodies .
All of these sensory stimulations require us either to pay attention or block it out. Both of those drain my energy. After a day in Manhattan, I would find myself needing to lie down with my eyes closed in a dark room just to recover some sense of balance. Unfortunately, this was rarely possible with a toddler.
As I sit here typing in my village, the only sounds I can hear are birds singing and the sound of the keyboard. Neither of these is very loud and it is not sucking my energy.
A Spanish village might be right for you if you want more peace and quiet. Having said that, choose your location carefully. Dogs in Spain are generally not kept inside, at least not the hunting ones. They are left outside all the time in all weather to bark and bark and bark. Also, make sure you are not located next to a bar or the main plaza as those are social hubs and can get quite loud even in a village.
My social life wasn’t exactly inspiring
You would think that with all of those people running around in the city it would be easy to meet people and make friends. I found the opposite to be true however. In New York, I met plenty of people I would have loved to have known better but because of the aforementioned work/life balance problem, I had a hard time connecting with them. I would have one great conversation and then it would be months until I could see them again.
In Tokyo, I had some great friends but mostly from work. We were at work so much of the time, we became a sort of sometimes functional, sometimes dysfunctional family. That was great, but it meant that I spent even more time talking about work related things. I wasn’t connecting with people in other fields, with different outlooks on life.
Here in the village, there are people from all over the world. With a population of only 3,000 people, there are 35 nationalities represented. There are artists, athletes, cryptocurrency people, builders, and so many other talents I can’t even begin to list them here. Because it is such a small place, it is impossible to step out my door without bumping into someone I know well.
Almost every day I have some kind of social event I can choose to attend or not. Sometimes I just stop by someone’s house for a cup of tea, sometimes I go to a huge party and sometimes I go camping further up in the mountains.
A Spanish village might be for you if you want to get to know your neighbors. If you like casual impromptu social gatherings, afternoons by the river, multi-generational get togethers involving wine and beer, you are all set. If you really value your privacy and don’t want people to know anything about you you are going to have a hard time. Secrets rarely remain secrets here for long, people talk and they know who you are.
There are so many reasons I love living in a village that I wrote too much. Check out part 2!
