Immigrants on the Move

When I moved to Spain my knowledge of the country was limited. I knew I loved the people thanks to memories of visiting my grandfather in Jimena de la Frontera. I was all of four years old, in my recollections I was wondering the little town he lived in alone, I honestly can’t imagine this was true but with hippy parents you never know. There was a sweet shop which I wandered into, and the Spanish family who owned it welcomed me and brought me into the back room chattering away to me in a language I didn’t understand whilst feeding me sweets. I was in heaven, I didn’t care that I didn’t understand the language, I just knew I liked sweets.

The two years prior to my arrival in Spain had been challenging, with a death in the family occurring just the week before the big move. Suffice to say, I was in a bad place. My husband was working and trying to fit into a new company, and I was mostly alone. I took the opportunity to sign up for an online writing course to try and keep my spirits up. They paired you with a partner on this course to share your work with and collaborate. A few conversations into our communication and the conversation of where you’re living, where you’re from naturally comes up. She was American and I revealed to her that I was living in Spain.

At this point she told me that she lived in Spain for two years when she was younger and if I ever got the chance to go to Cabo de Palos, it was a fabulous little town. I pulled up my Google maps to see where in Spain it was and to my surprise it was only 45 minutes down the coast. This place became one of my favourite towns in our area to visit. I took every visitor there and fell in love with the charm of its secret coves, and proud lighthouse. What were the chances of someone I got randomly paired with on a writing course, who lived in the US recommending somewhere so close to me? Many could argue whether this was pure coincidence, or was it fate? For me I was reminded how small our very large planet can be and felt lucky that she introduced me to such an amazing place.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence. Paul Auster

This isn’t the only moment of coincidence I’ve experienced living overseas. My now best friend and the mother of my goddaughter and I met through a Facebook advert. She posted on our local group page asking if anyone was willing to meet up for coffee to help her with her English. I needed help with my French, so we agreed to do a language exchange and meet for coffee. We spent an hour chatting before taking a walk around the local chateau, then our true personalities came out and we spent the second hour exchanging swear words in our respective languages and laughing like I hadn’t laughed in a long time. Just like that the friendship was cemented.

This for me is one of the most exciting and beautiful aspects of living overseas. The chance meetings, the contacts you make, the friendships you form. The life lessons people teach you and the shared experiences you have. All these things make living overseas a rewarding experience, despite the challenges that you are faced with daily. With the right support around you, those challenges are diminished greatly.