Perhaps I should have flagged it instead of gently mocking the content. It was a bit too spammy, it seems. The last three posts are suddenly very decontextualized indeed.
Yeah. Totally spam. Discourse rejected my report as waay too much of a good thing.
Albania might indeed be a pleasant and cheap place to live. Net of political uncertainty.
So I’ve definitely picked Spain as my goal. I haven’t applied at the consulate yet. The whole process is a bit of a pain, including just getting an appointment for the consulate requires you refreshing the appoint maker all day because they just randomly dump a few appointments at odd hours 2 months into the future and you just have to be the first one to grab them. That, and I’m worried that I’ll end up getting rejected because my income alone doesn’t qualify, I need income+savings, which is apparently totally fine to do, except that consulates can just make up their own rules and you have no choice which one you go to. So if Los Angeles (for example) decides you can’t combine savings + income to meet the requirements, well, you’re just screwed now even though you meet the actual requirements of the law.
But after having looked into it on and off for a while it’s clearly the best option. The climate is amazing. The culture is very cool. They are more welcoming towards immigrants - at least Americans - than most of the Med countries. I love the designs of their cities. I love the public transport (I’m not planning to get a car at first, I’m going to see how well I like it without one - I’ll probably get one of those 125cc motor scooters though for quick trips around town). I love the culture of having cafes, bars, and restaurants out in beautiful streets and along the coach. I love the density and walkability of the cities. I love the coffee (and I’m not a coffee person), the food, the bar culture. It meets all the requirements I have as far as infrastructure and stability and civil rights / quality of police.
Only downside is English is not very widespread. I’m working on improving my spanish but I’m struggling to process fast enough to hear people talk at a normal rate, especially if they have some crazy Spanish accent. I can understand people from central America pretty well but Spain’s accents are all over the place.
I didn’t know when I started this search that you can get permanent residency after 5 years which opens up a lot of options like working a job if you want, and getting enrolled in the public health system for free (you can buy your way into it before then for 60 euros a month) and much easier to move to another European country if I so choose (though I doubt I will).
After much deliberation I even picked where I think I’ll live – somewhere along the Alicante to Denia area along the Costa Brava. It’s a string of really beautiful cities with great seaside promenades, very nice city centers, great beaches, below average costs for coastal Spain. They’re all connected by tram lines too - for like $2-4 you can travel to a dozen different beautiful cities. The climate is pretty much perfect, warm all year round without getting too hot, and they even have some beaches that get some of the beautiful torquoise water that look like the water around tropical islands. At least certain times a year.
I had a hard time deciding because there are just so many cool areas in Spain. You could just pick a coastal area at random and it’ll probably be amazing. But I really love that stretch in particular.
I tend to procrastinate and an international move is pretty intimidating. Prepping to move, selling my car and a bunch of other stuff I’m not taking with me, all the hassle with the consulate, finding a specific place to live there, it’s all pretty intimidating. But I also should get a move on this whole thing. I’m concerned the political climate may end up affecting Americans fleeing to other countries before long and I need to get out while I can.
Can I recommend Spanish-language audiobooks? You can practise with a bit more control: you can slow the speed down or speed it up, and it REALLY helps to re-listen. Plus, the lack of visual cues force you to rely on the sounds alone, but also, with a narrative it doesn’t matter if you miss the odd bit here and there.
And good luck!
Well, first, Spanish accents are not crazy. All the other accents are crazy, but not the Spanish ones.
Not that we got that out of the way, I would recommend you watch Spanish movies and series on Netflix. Watch them with subtitles, either English subtitles to get the gist of the conversations, or preferably Spanish subtitles, to get which words they are saying. You don’t get it? Wind back and watch again, with English subtitles, then you’ll get it. Then watch the same scene with Spanish subtitles, now you’ll understand it. Better than consulting a dictionary all the time, trust me. There are a lot of Spanish series from Spain on Netflix: start with Money Heist (La casa de papel) perhaps, it is fun and has lots of conversation. The Cristal Cuckoo is nice to watch too. Gangs of Galicia, Billionaire’s Buncker, Infiesto are also watchable. After you have watched those Netflix itself will suggest more.
I fear this assumtion is too optimistic. Winters can be cold and august is hot. But Mediterranean cold and Mediterranean hot are bearable.
Good idea. Good luck!
That’s actually a great idea, listening to audio at reduced speed. Could work for podcasts too, or TV shows even.
You can reduce the speed on Netflix too, but you should be able to get to normal speed soon. Otherwise it will take langer than you think (but we are used to that in the Dope…). Half speed is slow.
In central America the accents are relatively consistent, but in Spain there are about 200 different accents. I was referring to the diversity of accents rather than one particular Spanish accent.
I had to have a conversation with a guy in rural Andalucia and I literally couldn’t understand a word he said. I had to have a third party “translate” not by speaking English but just repeating what the guy said in Spanish in an accent I could understand.
It’s sort of like the US vs England. The US has a few different accents, but they tend to go over huge regions. In the UK, you can get a different accent by driving 5 miles down the road. Spain is closer to the UK – lots and lots of accents.
It’s hard enough to understand well-spoken, clear, normative accents in another language, like broadcast accents. Start throwing in dozens of different accents and it becomes way harder.
And I was speaking tongue in cheek.
Of course you didn’t! 
You had no chance, don’t worry about that.
ETA: But the rest of my post is serious, and pretty good advice, if I may say so myself. To learn a language, and I have learned several to a professional level, read many books, and watch TV.
And talk to people, of course.
I went to beach in Barcelona in February one time. There were a few people swimming and one nude sunbather by the boardwalk. She was like 75 and I still cannot remove that vision from my head
We had two buddies from Australia come over for a week. One was “Uni educated” the other was working class- sometimes the working class guy would say something with his broad accent and heavy “down under” slang that I had to turn to the Uni guy to translate. A “Ute” is a pick up truck, I learned.
You may be aware or using already, but I really like language exchange apps. You can meet ordinary people and text or have phone or video calls.
Ewwwww!
These posts really bother me. People shouldn’t have to hide their bodies when they get old, or be attractive in order to be nude in places where that’s appropriate. It’s quite reasonable not to feel a sexual attraction to them, but beyond that, why say anything unkind?
Ditto, thanks for posting this. It was bothering me, too.
And I agree with you, too. Thanks for posting it.
Megadittoes. People don’t go to clothing-optional beaches in Europe to display themselves for other people’s pleasure and appreciation, and it’s gross and rude to behave as if they are.
Thank you. Another voice that felt troubled that someone was singled out for body shaming due to age and gender. People who don’t fit our definitions of beautiful/sexually attractive are all around us. No need to remark “ooh, I saw a kid with pimples today, it was gross” or anything like that.
Same.