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Living Abroad: An Epiphany

January 6, 2011 in Integrating Abroad, Living in Spain by Paul Allen | No comments

One of the great things about living abroad is the exposure it gives to different cultures, the countries’ traditions and their way of thinking.

Festivals and public holidays are a prime example.

For instance, in Spain – and many other Christian places around the world – the major gift-giving ceremonies associated with Christmas do not happen on December 25. Instead, they are reserved for today, the Feast of the Epiphany.

The Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the son of God, when the Magi – the wise men from the East – present their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. For this reason, in Spain it is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings).

In towns across the country, the evening of January 5 sees the three kings – Melchior, Caspar (or Gaspar) and Balthasar – parade through the streets, the children flanking their route straining to see and touch them. As with Santa Claus, the Magi then deliver presents during the night while the children sleep.

And when they awake the festivities begin!

 

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Celebrating the Holiday Season Abroad

December 6, 2010 in Integrating Abroad, Living Abroad Pros and Cons, Living in Spain, Moving Abroad Tips by Paul Allen | No comments

The Holiday Season is well upon us. But if you live abroad you’ll need to get used to a whole different category of celebrations.

Take today, December 6. For many of us it may be another dreary Monday at work. But not everywhere …

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

December 6 is a special festival for children in many European countries, as well as some American cities – for it marks Saint Nicholas Day.

In the Netherlands in particular, Saint Nicholas’ Eve is the equivalent of Christmas Eve, when Sinterklaas (the original Santa Claus) brings gifts for all the good boys and girls. Similarly, in Germany children traditionally put a boot out for St Nicholas to fill with small presents and sweets.

Advent of Democracy

December 6 is a special holiday in Spain too, albeit for different reasons. This is Constitution Day, marking the Spanish public’s vote in 1978 to approve the Constitution of Spain, and thus the country’s formal transition to a democratic state.

As a citizen of the UK, with its long democratic history, it is easy to forget how recent the establishment of such political rights was in Spain. If I was a Spaniard, however, I would have been born in a dictatorship.

In the developed world it is easy to see democracy as a right, one we take for granted. But days like today remind me how blessed we are.

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What Quality of Life Can You Expect Abroad?

October 8, 2010 in Expat Advantages, Expat Locations, France, Living Abroad Pros and Cons, Living in Britain, Living in Spain by Paul Allen | 4 comments

We’ve long suspected it, and now it appears to be true – the French, those lucky blighters, have the best quality of life in Europe.

Or, at least, so says a new study by consumer comparison service uSwitch.com[1].

Its research examined 16 quality of life factors – such as net income, food and fuel costs, life expectancy and working conditions – across 10 European countries to see how they stacked up.

France emerged with the best overall score, followed by Spain. The UK came ninth, with Ireland propping up the bottom of the table.

The reason for the UK’s poor score, said uSwitch, included its high living costs, below average government spending on health and education, shortage of holiday entitlements, high retirement age and lack of sunshine.

France, by contrast, was found to have the lowest retirement age, the longest life expectancy and the highest healthcare spend.

Meanwhile, Spain benefited from low living costs (especially for alcohol and cigarettes!), the highest number of holidays (at 43 days per year) and most sunshine hours.

The firm went on to note that three in ten people in the UK believe now is a good time to emigrate[2]. Given the low quality of life it seems they can expect to enjoy, is it any wonder?

The Full Picture

Yet before everyone starts packing their bags for France and Spain, it is important to remember that while such surveys make for attention-grabbing headlines, they don’t show the full picture.

For instance, the uSwitch report gives no consideration to the countries’ current or expected economic growth rates. Or what about the 20% unemployment rate afflicting Spain?

It gives no weighting either to the burdensome red tape that is so often cited as a feature of life in France and Italy.

The percentage of GDP spent on health is a blunt tool too by which to measure and compare the efficacy of countries’ systems. The United States, for one, spends a considerably higher percentage of its GDP on health, yet millions of its citizens remain without adequate, or indeed any, health cover.

The uSwitch survey also takes it as given that the greater the hours of sunshine the better. Yet the impressive sunshine quota seen in southern Europe – as well as places such as California and parts of Australia – bring with it high summer temperatures that frequently provoke raging forest fires, water shortages, pest infestations and crop failures.

In addition, the summer heat may force residents, especially the elderly, to spend weeks of the year trapped indoors, and can even lead to spiking death rates (as seen in Europe during the 2003 heatwave).

In short, these types of reports and surveys – a plethora of which are produced around the world each year – can give some helpful indication of the life you can expect to find when moving abroad. But to get a real picture, don’t forget to consider all the elements, the pros and the cons, and what they mean specifically to you.

[1] UK and Ireland Trailing the Rest of Europe for Quality of Life, uSwitch.com, 22 September 2010, http://www.uswitch.com/press-room/press-releases/uk-and-ireland-trailing-the-rest-of-europe-for-quality-of-life-1769.pdf.

[2] uSwitch.com Consumer Opinion Panel, May 2010, amongst a sample of 3,640 adults.

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May Day!

May 5, 2010 in Repatriating to Britain, Working Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

It had a certain inevitability. The UK’s May Day bank holiday weekend beckoned, but after a surprisingly warm and sunny April what happened? A washout.

The bank holiday was supposed to see us picnicking in the local park, catching up with old friends, many of whom we hadn’t seen for years thanks to our expatriation. A chance for us to meet each other’s kids, reflect on how we’ve all changed in the seven years since we moved to Spain.

But the rain, whipped up by a north-east wind and chilled by 10°C temperatures, put paid to that. Time for Plan B. So we found ourselves splashing through puddles en route to a tenpin bowling alley in a desperate attempt to find some indoor activity to keep the children entertained.

The usual British holiday routine, in other words. Welcome home!

Mind you, it’s no better in the corner of Spain where we used to live. From the Catalan meteorological bureau I see much of the Pyrenean region is being layered in fresh dumps of snow at the moment. And the Costa Bravan coast – normally basking in warm Mediterranean sunshine by now – is stuck with maximum temperatures of just 13°C, while being pummelled by rain and the fierce northerly wind known as the tramuntana.

Seems the cold winter so many parts of the world experienced this year just doesn’t want to let go. What will summer bring, I wonder?

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Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2008 in Living in Spain by Paul Allen | No comments

It’s a fiesta today here in Spain, the feast of the Immaculate Conception (Día de la Inmaculada Concepción). It’s a Roman Catholic holy day, which marks the conception of the Virgin Mary, a point from which she started and remained throughout her life free of the Original Sin that stains the rest of us. Or so the Catholic doctrine says.

 

Having been brought up in England in a Protestant household – albeit with a Roman Catholic father (although that is another topic in itself) – it’s not a holiday I was familiar with until moving to Spain. But then so much of Roman Catholic theology and practice remains something of a mystery to me, despite it’s communality with the UK’s ‘national’ religion. Which I suppose is what makes living in Spain – or for that matter any other country – so interesting.

 

And I have to say, I quite like the idea of squeezing another public holiday in before Christmas too …

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Giving Thanks

November 27, 2008 in Uncategorized by Paul Allen | No comments

As if you needed any reminding, it’s Thanksgiving in the States today.

 

It’s a celebration that I always viewed with a degree of envy as a boy growing up in England, something else to look forward to in those interminable months between the end of summer and the fever of Christmas. And what a great tradition – lots of hearty food shared with the family, and then licence to spend the rest of the day lazing in front of the television.

 

So although it felt almost like a betrayal to my nationality to be doing so, when I moved to New York at the turn of the millennium I determined to take part in the festivities. We braved the freezing temperatures with the thousands of other people to watch the inflatables bob down Central Park West, and then returned to our apartment to cook up a passing resemblance to the traditional feast that would be laid on millions of tables across the States.

 

Unfortunately my wife had come down with flu the night before, so it wasn’t the liveliest occasion. But just being off work and sampling the experience in the flesh was good enough.

 

So I can see why for the millions of expat Americans around the world this is a day when homesickness is at its keenest. It is, after all, a peculiarly American holiday that is meant to be shared with your nearest and dearest.

 

Still, while it’s a day to miss home, it’s also a day for gratitude for all the things you do have, right here and right now, wherever that happens to be.

 

And so in some small way I too have been trying to appropriate this tradition by remembering those things for which I can truly be grateful: my wife and daughters, my health and theirs, the love of family and friends, having a roof over my head and food to eat, having the opportunity to live in Spain and experience first hand and in detail a different culture, with all its joys and frustrations.

 

Plenty to give thanks for I feel.

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Vive La France

August 1, 2008 in France by Paul Allen | No comments

“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France.”

 

That may have been the sentiment of Napoleon’s great adversary the Duke of Wellington, but two centuries and two world wars as allies on and relations between the Brits and French have become – mostly – more amicable.

 

Certainly I detected no animosity during my family’s recent foray into France on holiday. Instead, despite my barbarous misuse of their beautiful language, we were greeted with smiles and warmth wherever we went.

 

Likewise, today’s Brits seem to hold their neighbour and erstwhile foe in particularly high esteem (although for some reason my grandmother, who I’m sure was not alone, harboured a lingering resentment towards France, and refused to buy any French produce in the supermarkets until the end of her life!).

 

And we Brits are not alone. As the CIA’s World Factbook observes, France is the most visited country in the world, to the tune of 82 million foreign tourists in 2007.

 

With good reason too. For it is a breathtaking country, as I was reminded on our recent journey across the Pyrenean border from Spain and up through Aquitaine into the Charente, near the Atlantic coast.

 

I have to confess, our time in the country made me a little envious of the French and anyone else who lives there. Not enough to want to upsticks from Spain and move perhaps. But I can certainly see why its appeal for anyone else thinking of relocating abroad.

 

So here are my top five reasons for moving to France:

 

1)      The Countryside

As Meg Ryan exclaimed in the movie French Kiss, while admiring the French countryside passing by her train window: “Err, beautiful!”

 

Oh yes. Think of the Loire, the forests of Fontainebleau, the Bordelais and Burgundian wine regions, the Alps, the Côte d’Azur. France has it all.

 

2)      Towns and Cities

Is Paris the most beautiful city in the world? It’s got to have a claim. But even in the smallest provincial towns and villages it is easy to find a delightful shaded square, an arched bridge across a meandering river, a bustling market, or a maze of narrow cobbled lanes.

 

3)      Climate

France encompasses all three European climates: maritime, continental and Mediterranean. And while this contributes to the beauty and variety of its geography, it also brings an abundance of leisure opportunities, whether for adventure sports like skiing or surfing, or more gentle pursuits such as golf, walking or painting.

 

4)      Wining and Dining

Need I say more?! Just picture yourself kicking back with a glass of claret after a sumptuous four-course French meal. I rest my case.

 

5)      French Living

And all of this is wrapped up in something that is at once intangible and yet very real: the whole mode of French life, its attitudes and cultural mores. The beauty that seems to imbue everything French, whether in its art or architecture, its language, music or their inimitable sense of style. And, perhaps most importantly, a cultural emphasis on pleasure and appreciating the good things in life. Indeed, like chic, the French expression has even entered the English vernacular: joie de vivre. Who could say it better?

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Holiday Season

July 4, 2008 in Living in Spain by Paul Allen | No comments

So we’ve hit July, which marks the high summer season on the Spanish costas, and indeed all round the Mediterranean.

 

The beginning of the month sees the start of the school holidays in France, and so we get the French influx as people hop across the border. They are followed by ever growing numbers of Dutch and Belgians and Germans. Then, at the end of July, the Brits start to roll in. And once we get into August it’s the Spaniards, many of whom stick to tradition and have the whole month as vacation.

 

From now through to August 31 the beaches will be packed, the restaurants and bars mobbed, the roads chock full of cars with foreign plates driven by people who haven’t a clue where they’re going.

 

It’s both a boost and a bane.

 

I hate the fact that I can’t even get in the car park at the local supermarket, and that the check-out queues will stretch back to the ends of the aisles. That the idyllic and almost deserted beachside pathway we stroll along most days out of season will become so crowded that there’s now a 50-50 chance of getting run over by a cyclist or out of control roller-blader.

 

But I like the life the summer, and its tourists, bring to the place. Like so many coastal places, our little fishing town can be somewhat ghostly through the winter. But in summer it’s pulsing.

 

And of course we get to enjoy the blessed golden days and balmy nights that attract the tourists in the first place. It’s the price, I suppose, of paradise.

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Spanish School Holidays

June 20, 2008 in Education Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

My daughter broke up from school for the summer holidays yesterday. That’s twelve weeks of glorious freedom ahead.

 

It’s probably just in time too. After an unusually wet and cool spring in our north-eastern corner of Spain the weather has taken a sudden change. Summer has arrived with a vengeance – cloudless skies, little more than a zephyr of breeze, and soaring temperatures. And the forecast is for more of the same, only getting hotter.

 

The full heat of a Spanish summer therefore makes the long vacation something of a necessity. And of course it’s fantastic for the kids. When I was growing up our six week summer break from school seemed like forever. But three months! And being able to spend it on a Mediterranean beach … it makes me green just thinking about it.

 

Still, it’s not so great for the parents, for two reasons.

 

Firstly, three months is a long time to be out of the school routine, with its timetable and the habit of learning that comes with being in the classroom. So how are you going to keep them from going crazy with boredom and in that learning mindset through the extended break, so they’re not hardened against school and all it represents when they go back in the autumn?

 

And secondly, if both parents go out to work, as is increasingly common, what are you going to do about childcare? Foist your little angels off on the grandparents for three months? Get a nanny? Quit your job?

 

Or maybe do what many of the Spanish parents seem to and enrol the children in summer school for the duration. Makes you wonder then though why the education department bothers having the long summer break!

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