A new life in Spain

Siobhan Brenner’s Story of how she ended up in Spain

My 19 year old daughter Ciara sat her Leaving Cert exams last year (similar to the English A Levels or Spanish Bach) and she decided she would like to have a gap year as she was not entirely sure what career choices to make. In September 2013 she travelled to Madrid to work for the Antolin family as an Au-Pair. Her duties included giving English lessons to two little girls, Nuria and Elsa and to help them with their homework. She took Spanish lessons herself twice a week and embraced the culture and lifestyle. Such was her enthusiasm for the language and the country she expressed an interest in staying on to become more fluent.

I began to think about the possibility of joining her for a new life in Spain. Would it be possible for the whole family to relocate? What part of Spain would we live in? Would there be a job opportunity for me? What about the language barrier?

Ciara had seen first-hand how driven the Spanish were in educating their children to be able to speak English. She also told me that by 2018 the Spanish government want all the teachers in Spanish schools to be able to speak English. Rather than being a drawback having English as a first language it was beginning to look like a distinct advantage! I discovered that there were plenty of opportunities to teach in local academies and give private lessons to both adults and children. Things were looking up!

Next we needed to decide what part of Spain to live in. We opted for Alicante on the south-eastern coast for a number of reasons:

1.  According to the World Health Organisation It has one of the healthiest climates in Europe with about 325 days of sunshine
2. As my husband would be commuting we needed a place with excellent links from Ireland/UK to Spain and Alicante fitted the bill due to the many budget airlines flying here.
3. My parents, who live in Ireland, can fly directly to Alicante, and vice versa, a two and a half hour flight, faster than the 6 hours it would normally take me to drive to see them!

My next job was to find a school for my two younger children ages 7 and 8. In this part of Spain there is a one week window in April to enrol the children at school. After visiting several schools in the area and speaking with numerous residents I chose one that had a good reputation locally and which also offered extra Spanish classes within school time which I hoped would help the children integrate faster once familiar with the language. I discovered that there were other ex-pat and bi-lingual children attending the school also. Once I had submitted the form along with the relevant paperwork I was informed to ring the school on June 2nd to find out if we had been successful in our application.
We made that call and were delighted to learn the children had established a place at the school! The dream was becoming a reality!

We packed up and moved on the 8th of July 2014.  We are now happily settling in and the children are integrating really well at school and are content.  The Mediterranean climate ensures plenty of healthy outdoor activities for the children and us as a family. We are looking forward to exploring other parts of Spain and having the opportunity to travel across mainland Europe.
Ciara is playing hockey for the University in Alicante and has made some great friends. She hopes to begin a teacher training degree there in September 2015. As for the language barrier, living among the welcoming local people and experiencing all things Spanish is most definitely the speediest and most rewarding way of acquiring those linguistic skills!

I hope that by sharing this experience with you it might make you think seriously about taking that first step in relocating to this amazing country and the lifestyle that goes with it. It may well help you to realise that potential barriers can be overcome and moving is not as daunting as you might think. Next, you can look forward to finding your own little piece of heaven, right here on the Costa Blanca!!