Hasta Luego...

A quick note before we dive in: I hope all of you currently affected by snow, ICE, power outages or other menacing phenomena are safe and well! Reading the news from afar it seems like quite a lot is going on at the moment. 

Anyway. So Hasta Luego is a phrase they use all the time in Spain to say goodbye. It means roughly "see you later." (Literally: "until then/later.") But the Spanish will use it for goodbyes even when it's unlikely you will ever see them again. It just sounds nicer: like they're already looking forward to the next time they'll get to share your delightful company, even if they are a taxi driver who just took you to the airport.

As it happens, my wife and I are on the cusp of needing to say a whole lot of "Hasta Luegos" to people we really care about. But we're not exactly sure when Luego will be. It could be a long time from now.

Facing hard goodbyes is wrenching, and we hate it. But we're mature adults, so we know exactly how to handle it:

We're just pretending it's not actually happening.

Anyone got any better ideas? How do you all cope when you become fond of people, and then end up living very very far away from them?  My wife and I have been doing various versions of this for our entire 35 years together, so you'd think we'd be better at it by now.

A Few Reasons You May NOT Want to Move to Spain

Here's the context, in case you accidentally googled your way here: My wife and I spend half the year in Valencia, Spain, and the other half in Provincetown, Massachusetts. (Although that may change soon, which is a whole other story).

So which country will we ultimately end up in?

It's an ongoing debate. Not between us: we're always on the same side. It's just that we constantly change "our" mind, because after so many years together we only have one brain between us.

Given the terrifying future that the US president and his cronies say they have in store for us, we understand there are quite a few others considering their options as well. And Spain comes up a lot.

In the last blog post I shared a few good reasons to move to Spain. And honestly, that was just the beginning of a very long list, which someday I might elaborate on.

But you can't debate Pros and Cons without even looking at the Cons. So here's my very subjective take on a few reasons you might not want to choose Spain as your forever home. 

A Few Really Good Reasons to Move to Spain

So we're back in Valencia Spain again, where we live half the year. Why were these people outside our door yesterday? We don't know, there are too many parades here to keep track of. 

And while we're still on the fence about going full-time, it's hard not to notice that there is a lot to like about living here.

I realize that not everyone is as alarmed as we are about the bizarre and horrifying changes happening in the Good Ol' U.S.A. I'll refrain from any sort of recap, because I don't have the thousand or so hours it would take to even get started. Let's just say the political climate is not to our liking.

I also recognize that we're coming from a place of privilege: there are not a ton of folks who can just pick up and move to new country. If you're just trying to make ends meet, or have overwhelming work and family obligations, it probably sounds like debating whether or not to hop on a rocket ship to the moon.

Of course this post will be followed by Reasons NOT to Move to Spain, because I always have a long list of "cons" for any proposition more complicated than "shall I have another cup of coffee?" But let's start with just a few of the most obvious factors that make Spain an appealing choice when compared with the United States.