I remember the day Ross asked me that question and honestly
my first thought was ‘I have never really thought about it’. I mean I have known friends to go there on
vacation, I have wanted to go to Barcelona ever since I saw Vicky Christina
Barcelona, and I have heard that Ibiza
is crazy fun but otherwise going there has never really crossed my mind and
certainly living there had never occurred to me. I had never been overseas but Europe was a
place I had always wanted to go. So I
didn't really know what to say so I said, ‘OK’.
I vaguely remember Ross telling me he was applying for a
research position there but it was months beforehand and he had applied for so
many jobs I was not keeping track of them.
We knew we would likely be leaving Vancouver since there really isn't
anything for him to do in his field but I was thinking maybe California or
Manchester. Ross said he had not been
expecting to hear from this company either but the offer was on the table so
maybe we should do it. We wanted to
travel through Europe anyway and this seemed like a great opportunity to do
that. We are still youngish, we don’t
have kids and Ross really wanted to do something temporary before getting a
career. Two years to just explore and be
free. We knew I wouldn't be able to work
there unless I was teaching English (I would die if I had to do that. I am the least patient person I know) so Ross
said I could take this time to work on my writing.
Of course it was an insane struggle getting all the paper
work together and having Visas approved.
My advice to anyone from Canada who wants to move overseas, anywhere not
part of the commonwealth, start the process early. Of course it may be different depending on
what country you go to and what exactly you are doing there but we had a hell
of a time getting it done. It was
especially difficult because we had to speak to offices in Toronto which are 3
hours ahead of our time in BC. Now that
does not seem too bad but those offices were only open during business hours in
Madrid which is 9 hours ahead of our time – and they were only open like 3
hours a day. So if we did not get a hold
of them by 8 am our time we couldn't talk to anyone until the next day. It was incredibly complicated. But once it was done it was an amazing
feeling!
Then there was the bombardment of questions,
curiosities and advice from everyone I had ever met. We told people as soon as we knew for sure
because we were excited and it was a big move for us but after the first few
weeks I wished that I had waited until much closer to the actual
departure. I worked at Starbucks and
served like 500 people a day, most of whom I was close to or at least had a
friendly relationship with, so of course they all wanted to talk to me about my
move. Now do not get me wrong I love
that people were so excited for me but I felt like a broken record for 6
months. All I ever talked about at work was Spain. I must have driven my co workers insane. I was going crazy. Each customer came in every day and asked
me something about Spain or whether I spoke Spanish (which I did not - Still don't). Spain Spain Spain Spain all day long at work,
Spain Spain Spain Spain Spain on the phone with my family, Spain Spain Spain
with Ross trying to plan our move. By
the time we were actually getting on the plane I didn't ever want to hear the
word again.
It was 6 months before we actually left Vancouver once we
had decided to go ahead with the move and had everything sorted out. It was a tough 6 months. We had to say goodbye to the place that we
had called home for so many years, say goodbye to our friends – who were our
west coast family and sell everything we owned (mostly – Mom and Dad McCulloch
were nice enough to road trip out to BC to pick up a few boxes we stored at our
friends Alf and Nhis place). I quit my
job, which was bittersweet. We packed
our three camping bags with all we were bringing and we left. We spent a few weeks in Ontario saying good
bye to our families there and we got on a plane to our new lives. We really had no idea what to expect. We were excited and terrified but we were
together and that was the most important part.
Saying good bye to our home.
Good bye party with my family. This photo is more representative of us then I think we all like to admit.
Ross, his sister and parents before dropping us off at the airport.
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