Hello everyone,
You probably have vivid memories of your first weeks as an expat in Spain. Indeed, moving to a new country is a milestone in someone's life.
Today, we invite you to share with the community how you experienced your first steps in this country.
Excitement, joy, worry: What was your main feeling when you arrived in Spain?
How has your state of mind changed over time?
Have you called upon expatriate support associations? If so, what was their role in your local integration?
What was the impact of your new environment (climate, setting, professional environment) on your mental health?
Is it easy to socialize in Spain? What advice would you give to newcomers to meet people, make new friends and build a strong professional network there?
Thank you for your contribution!
Have a nice day,
Diksha,
Expat.com team
First impressions after moving to Spain
Great weather! Smiles, happy faces and the country is open - unlike France which is closed most of the time. That's the good bit.
After 7 years of living here, here's the bad bit. Spain is corrupt from top to bottom in everything! It is awful. The Spanish think they live in a democracy. They don't. They live in a corruptocracy. If you are bent, happy to pay whomever for whatever and by-pass all laws then Spain is for you. If, however, you believe in democracy, laws, principles then it's not for you.
For holidays it's absolutely great. To live here? No.
Spain is really nice. But to my mind people there are a bit lazy or better to say 'relaxed'
keep it in mind
It's strange, I arrived nearly 16 years ago and I remember very little of the first few days except that it was a nice warm evening as I got out of the car when I first arrived at our rented flat.
I do remember the effort I put in to finding out about my new home. Trying to memorise key points of the geography, working out how the politics of the country worked, trying to catch up on all those cultural cues that I didn't have because I was from somewhere else and a whole lot more.
I remember, for instance, going to the end of term party for my wife's school. When the meal was over part of the "fun" was a sort of singing contest between the tables. Say there were 200 people at the meal and 10 tables with 20 on each table. On each table there was a list of popular songs and the idea was that the diners on each table sang their song and someone judged the winner. Obviously it wasn't really a competition but it was designed to get everyone in the mood for dancing. My wife and I knew none of the songs on the list! I hope I would now.
I'm British and generally we Brits seem to be quite happy to keep to ourselves. Obviously that's not true for everyone but I often wonder about the people who live in Malaga or Alicante and listen to British broadcasters, go to events with other immigrants and know nothing of the history or culture of the place they live. It's a perfectly reasonable thing to do I suppose but I'm not sure a sunny climate for a fair part of the year would be enough for me. Besides which it's horribly cold inside in Winter here.
Without learning Spanish, castellano, it's very difficult to experience anything of Spain at other than a superficial level. I've been trying hard with Spanish for all the time I've been here and I still struggle. I don't have that bent for languages that some people have and the lack of Spanish is definitely the worst thing about my life here in Spain. I don't have much trouble saying what I need to say but I have a lot of trouble saying what I'd like to say.
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