 At Seville's Feria de Abril with my friend Lynnette, who caused quite an uproar one memorable night. It’s not easy for anyone, let alone a foreigner, to cause a sensation at Seville’s Feria de Abril (April Fair). The whole event is already wildly over the top, with half a million women dressed in gaudy, ruffled gowns, beribboned horses and carriages weaving through the crowd, and everyone dancing day and night all week. They say the average Sevillano gets two hours of sleep a night, and I’m surprised it’s that much.  Seville's Feria de Abril is held two weeks after Easter and requires a flouncy dress, a rose in your hair, and incredible stamina. Feria perfectly embodies a favorite expression of some bad-influence friends of my youth: “If you’re going to do something, you might as well go too far.” And then one year my American friend Lynnette showed up at Feria in an outfit that had Sevillanos pouring out of their tents, roaring with laughter, and begging to have their picture taken with her. A howling sartorial success. I felt lucky to be there when it happened. As is so often the case in Europe, it all came down to fútbol — or as we Americans like to call it, soccer.  Here Real Betis celebrates a victory. Their checkerd history inspired their slogan "¡Viva el Betis manque pierda!" (Long live Betis even if they lose!). This city has two teams. Sevilla Fúbol Club was launched in 1890 by aristocrats who made it clear that lesser mortals need not apply. In 1907 the city’s scrappy underdogs formed their own team called Betis, from the old Roman name for the Guadalquivir River that runs through town. The word Real (Royal) was added to the Betis name seven years later when they won the patronage of King Alfonso XIII. Take that, Sevilla FC snobs! Both play in the top-level La Liga, and the years have done nothing to dim the intensity of the rivalry. One of the first things you learn here is that Sevilla FC wears red stripes, Real Betis wears green ones, and there are plenty of bars in town that you’d be extremely unwise to set foot in wearing the wrong colors. Trust me on this. So when Lynnette strolled through the Feria de Abril in 2007, eight-and-three-quarters months pregnant, wearing a traditional Feria dress in bold green Real Betis stripes, wrapped in a shawl with the team’s logo, Betis supporters cheered and raced over to take selfies with her. For me, it was like walking into a party as Marylin Monroe’s wingwoman. Heady stuff. Lynnette had come a long, long way from the life that was expected of her in the conservative small Missouri town she once called home. Like so many expats, she didn’t move here as part of carefully constructed strategy. “It was all a whim, with zero plan,” she recalled, laughing, when we were reminiscing recently about our early days in Seville. She’d lived in various parts of the US — Oklahoma, Texas, New York, and finally Las Vegas — but she felt her life wasn’t moving in the right direction. Or really any direction. Then she went to Spain on a ten-day vacation, not expecting much beyond a little good weather and affordable wine. “I’ve got to be honest, I was clueless. When I came to Spain, I just fell in love with the country. It knocked my socks off. The Mediterranean, the mountains … it was just so beautiful to me.”  Playa del Postiguet in Alicante, Andalucía Lynnette moved to Seville in 2002 and survived by teaching English and sewing Feria dresses (or trajes de flamenco, as they’re properly called). Eventually she met and married a Spaniard named Fran, and they had a son, Andrew. And that’s when things started unraveling for Lynnette. “I had considered myself bi when I moved here,” she said. “I felt it was equally possible that I might have fallen for a man or a woman. I loved Fran dearly. But after I had Andrew, there was something like a biological shift in my body; in the course of the next few years, it just became more and more clear to me that I was just not interested in [marriage to a man] anymore. I was raised in a very traditional home; even though I consider myself a liberal feminist woman, there was expectation in my head that I needed to be a good wife and a good mother. Your kid needs two parents.” She stuck it out until Fran finally said to her, “This isn’t working.” And they agreed to call it quits. “I was devastated,” she told me. “It took me about a year to say, ‘I am a lesbian.’”  Lynnette in August, 2024 “How did your friends and neighbors react? Was there any pushback?” “Oh, God, no. Never.” She considered a moment. “Here there’s a close family bond, and I feel like it's reflected in the acceptance of people who are different. You've got so many different kinds of people in your family and you accept them. People who are queer or have disabilities are really welcomed into every part of society. People are more empathetic.” I’ve often observed this during Sunday lunch, when many generations of a Sevillano family will gather at long tables in neighborhood bistros. Everyone is expected to converse with everyone else. Yep, even the doddering ancianos, the kids with Down Syndrome, the awkward teens, the grumpy dads, the distracted moms, the shy cousins, and the tiniest babies.  Rich and I don't have relatives here, but we hold big, noisy Spanish-style meals to celebrate the holidays. This is Thanksgiving 2021. And this, I believe, is one of the truly remarkable things about Spain. The word nosotros (us) means everybody, the whole mad mix of humanity that makes up the nation. That’s the basis of a socialist society — and theoretically of our democracy as well. “We the people…” is supposed to include all of us. Not just the ones we agree with about sex, religion, and politics. Not only those who look like us and live in a “nice” house. Not exclusively folks who are free from illness, strife, or bad luck. Everybody. Of course, human nature is human nature; get a few Sevilla FC and Real Betis supporters in a room and you’ll see sparks fly. But you’ll also see Sevilla FC fans grinning along with everyone else at Lynnette’s famous Betis dress, which she wore to Feria again when the team won the 2022 Copa del Rey. Only this time with the waist taken in and her hair in an asymmetrical bob, shaved on one side. And people still cheered and rushed to take selfies with her. An influencer shot this TikTok video of her, and it went viral. Open-heartedness begins at home and spreads out into the world. “Knowing that your parents, your grandparents, your family supports and loves you no matter what — I think that that really does make a difference in how people behave in general,” says Lynnette. Mother Teresa agreed. "What can you do to promote world peace?” she asked. “Go home and love your family." Amen to that.  Our family and amigos at a party in 2024. Ya gotta love them. THE AMIGOS PROJECT This post is part of my ongoing exploration of how living and traveling abroad can enrich our lives and help us find fellowship, avoiding the isolation that's become a global epidemic. See all my Amigos Project posts here. DON'T MISS OUT! If you haven't already, take a moment to subscribe so I can let you know when I publish my weekly posts. Just send me an email and I'll take it from there. [email protected] SUBSCRIBED BUT NOT GETTING POSTS? Check your spam folder. Internet security is in a frenzy these days. If you still can't find it, please let me know. WANT MORE? My best selling travel memoirs & guide books Best of Cheap & Cheerful San Francisco Cozy Places to Eat in Seville GOING SOMEWHERE? Enter any destination or topic, such as packing light or road food, in the search box below. If I've written about it, you'll find it.  A Seville coachman takes his siesta during a lull on a warm afternoon. “Nothing is permanent in this wicked world — not even our troubles.” — Charlie Chaplin “I always feel younger here in Seville,” Rich said at breakfast Friday morning. My husband looked remarkably chipper for a man who had been out till all hours watching live cabaret in an old warehouse on one of the city’s more obscure back streets. And why wouldn’t he? According to recent research, novel experiences abroad fend off the effects of aging. If so, I’m all in. The researcher, Edith Cowan University’s Fangli Hu, says it all comes down to entropy. Digging deep into my hazy memories of high school science classes, I recalled that entropy refers to the tendency of the universe to unravel into chaos then hurtle inevitably towards death. How does that help us exactly? According to Hu, positive new experiences build physical, emotional, and psychological resilience. More resilience means we’re less jittery. And when we’re calmer, she explains, “Organs and tissues can then remain in a low-entropy state." Meaning we aren’t plunging quite so rapidly into the whole chaos-hurtling-toward-death scenario. And if I say so myself, Rich has a gift for throwing himself into novel experiences ... and carrying me along with him. The health benefit of novelty is excellent news for those of us who live abroad. Because every day our brains are stretched like Silly Putty. Rich often illustrates this point with the Screwdriver Story. During our very earliest days in Seville, he needed this simple tool for a minor repair and looked up the Spanish word in his dictionary (this was in the dark days before smartphones). He then walked to the hardware store muttering to himself, “destornillador, destornillador, destornillador,” ignoring all the odd looks he was getting from fellow pedestrians. Stepping confidently through the door, he strode like a lion to the counter. And that’s when his mind went completely blank. Groping desperately, he found something that sounded almost right and blurted out, “Ordenador!” The Spanish word for computer. Confusion reigned. His attempts to elucidate and pantomime only made things worse. Eventually he fled, returning home to consult the dictionary before trying a different hardware store. He never showed his face in the first one again.  Now, a pessimist might consider this a high-stress, entropy-boosting situation. To an optimist like my husband, it was exhilarating. “In these situations,” he explains, “you’re not on automatic pilot. Everything is a challenge. Every day is full of accomplishments.” Eventually, he did manage to return home with a screwdriver. And by now this small purchase had taken on mythic significance: it wasn’t just something to check off on his to-do list, it was a triumph. Filling your life with such modest but thrilling victories helps you feel more confident, less stressed, and — according to Hu — better able to fend off that old devil entropy a bit longer. So if stress is bad for our longevity, where in the world can we go to find a relaxing, life-prolonging haven?  I decided to look up the Global Peace Index for 2024. (Find the entire list here.) Even in these troubled times, some nations still manage to achieve stability and tranquility, starting with these standouts.
This is Iceland’s 17th year in the top spot, thanks to a small, close-knit population, a robust economy, and so little crime cops don’t carry guns.  Icelandic police officer Heiðrún Huld, shown here with Buster, never carries firearms. "We’re such a tiny country, we have an excellent support system and zero tolerance for violence within the community." Out of 163 countries on the list, Spain came in at a respectable 23rd, while the US showed up at 132nd — just above Iran and Lebanon. I suspect if the poll was taken this week, we might score even lower on the tranquility scale. Don’t get me wrong — America is doing lots of things right these days. We have the lowest unemployment in half a century, slower inflation, a manufacturing boom, record-breaking gains in the stock market, and crime plummeting to historic lows. “The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust,” says Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist. “A relentless dynamism is the essential characteristic of the American economy and the ultimate force propelling it forward.” But while relentless dynamism is great for our economy, it does nothing to soothe our collective nerves, frayed by constant upheaval at home and abroad. American’s organs and tissues are clearly in a high-entropy state right now.  Is it any wonder that the latest polls show 50 million Americans (15% of the population) are currently planning to move overseas? Not everyone will follow through, of course. But it’s easy to see the attraction of a less stressful environment. I don’t know how life arranges itself in Iceland, but I can tell you that in Seville, the pace is slower and far more civilized. Here, very sensibly, the day revolves around the twin pleasures of food and conversation.  Second breakfast at El Castillo, a café in Rota, Spain, last January First breakfast is at home with family and typically includes café con leche (a small, strong coffee with milk) and toasted baguette with a drizzle of good olive oil and slivers of jamon (cured ham; prosciutto's toothier, more flavorful cousin) and possibly a slice of tomato. Second breakfast takes place mid-morning. If you’re working, you put in a solid hour or two at the office then repair to the nearest café for another round of toast and coffee accompanied by lively conversation with colleagues. Lunch is a leisurely and substantial repast at 2:00, if possible taken at home with the family and followed by a siesta. Merienda (afternoon snack) may be enjoyed with family or friends and often involves coffee and a sweet roll — yes, essentially a third breakfast — around 5:00 pm. After that you head back to the office for another three hours. Dinner is served at 9:00 or 10:00 and may be just beer and tapas or a full meal. If you have friends around, it can last until 2:00 am or later.  Rich in our Seville kitchen, making paella with amigos Julie and Lonnie Spanish healthcare experts insist five meals a day are essential to keeping your weight down, as it prevents overeating at meals or — horrors! — snacking. “To lose this traditional schedule,” warned a MujerHoy article darkly, “is to throw open the doors to indiscriminate nibbling.” Egads, not that! In ways too numerous to mention in one post, I find life in Seville encourages me to pause frequently to smell the orange blossom, sip espresso, ponder the meaning of life, and enjoy the companionship of amigos from around the world. You may discover that you resonate best with the daily rhythms of Iceland or Portugal or Singapore. Or some less frenetic corner of America, for that matter. Finding or creating a peaceful sanctuary, with an unhurried pace and congenial company, can sustain us through even the most turbulent times. “We need, above all things,” said philosopher Alan Watts, “to slow down and get ourselves to amble through life instead of to rush through it.” Or as Mae West put it, “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”  Einstein was right; time is relative, as this Seville clock shop demonstrates. So why hurry? THE AMIGOS PROJECT This post is part of my ongoing exploration of how living and traveling abroad can enrich our lives and help us find fellowship, avoiding the isolation that's become a global epidemic. DON'T MISS OUT! If you haven't already, take a moment to subscribe so I can let you know when I publish my weekly posts. Just send me an email and I'll take it from there. [email protected] SUBSCRIBED BUT NOT GETTING POSTS? If you ever miss a post announcement, please check your spam folder. Internet security is in a frenzy these days. WANT MORE? My best selling travel memoirs & guide books Best of Cheap & Cheerful San Francisco Cozy Places to Eat in Seville GOING SOMEWHERE? Enter any destination or topic, such as packing light or road food, in the search box below. If I've written about it, you'll find it.  Expat friendships often start in the long, long lines inside the Plaza de España office that handles residency cards. Here Rich arrives early with a backpack full of documents. “What surprises people most when they first move here?” I asked my friend Gabrielle — Gaye, for short — as we lingered over late-morning coffee in one of Seville’s back street cafés this week. Having moved from the US to Spain in 1963, marrying a Sevillano, and raising a family here, Gaye has been my go-to expert in cultural matters ever since we met in book club two decades ago. “That people take children everywhere, even late at night to bars,” she answered promptly. I had to laugh, thinking how often I’d fielded the horrified questions “What is that little kid doing in a bar? At this hour?” You’d think we were frequenting an opium den or particularly sordid brothel instead of a café-bar where somebody’s grandmother was cooking a late supper in the back. “My visitors freak out,” I told her, “when they see little kids running around playgrounds at midnight. They keep insisting children should be in bed at that hour, no matter how often I point out that in these sizzling temperatures they need to exercise when it won’t give them heatstroke.” Seville is the hottest city in continental Europe, with heat waves so severe meteorologists now name them, like hurricanes. For much of the year, it’s only sensible to siesta in the afternoon and venture out after dark. But it’s not easy to convince American guests that taking children to a playground at night is a practical necessity, not parental neglect.  Sevillano children also stay up very late at night to march in religious processions. In vain do I point out that Spain is the most family friendly country in Europe, according to US News and World Report; worldwide it’s second only to New Zealand. The US was ranked an underwhelming 26th, just below Turkey and Thailand. Who are we to judge other people’s childrearing techniques? Letting go of our pre-conceived notions of How Things Are Supposed to Work is one of the first and most essential challenges expats and travelers must grapple with. We have to mentally unpack our bags and throw out great gobs of assumptions we’ve been carrying around for years. This makes room for fresh introspection and, with luck, greater clarity about who we are and what we’re doing in the world. And that, according to a recent report in the Harvard Business Review, is a very good thing.  Being an expat means plenty of fresh new experiences, such as sampling caracoles (snails) with a toothpick in a backstreet tapas bar. The Harvard report analyzed six studies involving 1,874 participants to see how living abroad affects people. Not surprisingly, the authors found it generally makes you more creative, tolerant, and competent. They zeroed in on something they called “self-concept clarity,” which means having a deeper, keener, and more consistent understanding of yourself. Apparently this quality blossoms during the expat experience and offers all sorts of benefits, such as boosting psychological well-being, job performance, and the ability to cope with stress.  Rich's ability to cope with stress — and his legendary ability to sleep anywhere — helped him survive during the pandemic lockdown, during which we often picnicked on the roof of our Seville apartment building. At the end of their report, the authors rather surprisingly included this lovely quote from Michael Crichton, “who captures the spirit of our research in his autobiographical book, Travels: ‘Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am … Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines … you are forced into direct experience [which] inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience.’” You don’t need to move abroad to have more direct experiences, of course, but it helps. Everything around us is so new and interesting it’s easy to put away our cellphones and simply be here now (something the Buddhists have been advising for centuries). While Spaniards love digital devices as much as anyone, they use them considerably less. Spanish 18-to-24-year-olds are on their smartphones 3 hours and 40 minutes a day — which seemed a whopping number until I learned American youngsters are on them half their waking hours.  At our holiday dinners in Seville, the kids agree not to use their cellphones, and we introduce them to low-tech fun like this memory test (Kim's Game). One reason for the difference in cellphone use: Spanish families don’t assume kids will disappear into their rooms and their devices when relatives gather. Youngsters are expected to spend time with various generations of adults, holding up their end of the conversation, and giving grandparents proper attention and respect. (I know; what a concept!) But times, and Spanish families, are a-changing. For a start, the birthrate has dropped to 1.19 per woman, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1941. It was nearly triple that back in the 1960s and early 1970s, when birth control, abortion, and divorce were illegal, and the government and the Catholic Church promoted childbirth as a civic and spiritual duty. “During the Franco era,” Gaye recalled, “they used to give prizes for large families. Fourteen or fifteen kids, that wasn’t uncommon.”  In 1968 this Barcelona family won an award for having 16 living children. The caption in the newspaper El Pais mentions only the name of the father, Oriol de Riba, as if he alone deserved all the credit. Spanish homes may be less crowded now, but they remain the cornerstone of the culture, and the matriarchs who run them often command serious respect. Today nearly half of Spanish women (47%) work outside the home, and more than half the parliamentary posts are held by women, giving the government “a marked feminist accent,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Comparing modern Spain to the Franco era she first knew, Gaye said, “There’s more equality now. You can see it, for example, in the clothing. Clothes were much more expensive in the past, so there was a big difference in what was worn by the very well-to-do and by the working class. Now everyone dresses the same.” She gestured toward the window, where we could see people strolling past in the international uniform of jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers — a look equally at home anywhere from Seville to Singapore to San Francisco. “When I first came here,” she added, “women wore dresses or skirts — never pants except for sports or the beach. Blue jeans?” She glanced down at her denim-clad legs. “Never.”  Everyday fashion has changed, but during the big festivals, such as the Feria de Abril and the Rocio pilgrimage, Sevillanos still wear traditional outfits like these. Nobody blends seamlessly into a new culture. I wore all the wrong stuff to all the most important occasions for years. I remember sitting next to the only other non-Spanish member of my painting class at a Christmas party, both of us hopelessly overdressed. She said with a sigh, “I will never get this right.” Maybe, but it does get better. And let’s face it, we provide our new Spanish friends with a lot of innocent amusement at our expense. Of course, the real guffaws come at the way we butcher the language. I’m reliably informed that nowadays my vocabulary is decent, my grammar occasionally shaky, and my accent appalling. Having made all the classic bloopers — using embarazada to indicate embarrassed when in fact it means pregnant, for instance — I have become nimble at delivering graceful apologies and quickly changing the subject. Learning a new language and culture creates countless opportunities for error, but also for reaching out to those around you for advice and assistance. You rely on the kindness of strangers every day and receive lifesaving support from neighbors, colleagues, and your fellow befuddled foreigners. Perhaps the biggest surprise of expat life comes the day that you realize you are no longer alone; the former strangers around you are fast becoming true amigos.  ¡Salud, amigos! (To your health, friends!) THE AMIGOS PROJECT This post is part of my ongoing exploration of how living and traveling abroad can not only enrich our lives but help us learn how to avoid the isolation that's become a global epidemic. DON'T MISS OUT! If you haven't already, take a moment to subscribe so I can let you know when I publish my weekly posts. Just send me an email and I'll take it from there. [email protected] SUBSCRIBED BUT NOT GETTING POSTS? If you ever miss a post announcement, please check your spam folder. Internet security is in a frenzy these days. WANT MORE? My best selling travel memoirs & guide books Best of Cheap & Cheerful San Francisco Cozy Places to Eat in Seville GOING SOMEWHERE? Enter any destination or topic, such as packing light or road food, in the search box below. If I've written about it, you'll find it.  This is my "Rich, I've just had an Absolutely Brilliant Idea" face. The first thing that struck me when I arrived back in Spain this week was how much less invisible I feel here. People pay attention to each other. It’s one of the things that makes Seville — a city of 700,000 souls — seem like a village. For instance, there was the time I discovered a pickpocket had slipped his hand into my purse. OK, I know that’s not the kind of attention anybody wants. But as I wrenched my bag out of his grasp, a nearby stranger instantly began berating the thief in a furious barrage of Spanish that had him fleeing at top speed. I got the impression she would have liked to chase him down and clobber him with her own purse, and I appreciated the sentiment. Of course, sometimes you can be too visible. Like the time I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and grabbed Rich’s arm for support. Which would have been fine except that as I lurched forward my foot came down directly on top of one of his, and we both pitched forward onto the ground in a tangle of arms, legs, and embarrassment. Everyone in the vicinity shouted and rushed about until it was clear the only thing injured was our dignity.  A New Yorker cartoon shows how Americans might handle the situation. Madeline L’Engle once asked, “Have you ever tried to get to your feet with a sprained dignity?” To which I reply: Often. I’ve spent two decades floundering through the pratfalls and misunderstandings that come with living in another culture for six months every year. “How long are you going to keep this up?” everyone used to ask me. “When are you coming home for good?” But nowadays they are peppering me with practical questions about residency visas, Spanish medical insurance, and the difficulty of learning a second language. Everyone I know seems to be considering — or at least fantasizing about — a move abroad.  Planning — and dreaming — can be half the fun. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned. The lessons are valuable, even if you’re one of the (apparently rare) Americans not contemplating a move to Europe. For a start, living overseas teaches you why and how to make new social connections. And that’s an area where most of us seriously need to up our game. In 2023 US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote, “I embarked on a cross-country listening tour, where I heard stories from my fellow Americans that surprised me. People began to tell me they felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant.” Even pre-Covid, he says, half of all Americans reported feeling lonely. And that’s worrying. “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling — it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.” Yikes!  Dr. Murthy, surrounded by family during his swearing-in as US Surgeon General, is determined to help fight the loneliness epidemic. Most of us no longer live in our original home towns, hanging out with chums we met in kindergarten and generations of extended family. In our increasingly isolated society, how do we reach out to new friends — or amigos, as they are known here? Can we find ways to come together, boosting our daily fun while pushing back against the loneliness epidemic? I was mulling this over during lunch today, and inspiration struck as I was spearing my first forkful of carilladas (pig cheeks). "Rich, I've just had an Absolutely Brilliant Idea. This can be the focus of my blog this fall and winter. I can explore how members of the expat community find creative ways to jump-start their social lives. I'll call it 'The Amigos Project.' I can start by sharing the tips I always give newcomers." What tips? Find a book club (mine’s part of the American Women’s Club of Seville). Join an international social club such as InterNations. Dine with a local chef in their home via EatWith. Sign up for a language class, even if you have absolutely no aptitude for it.  Mladen and Lidija, our EatWith hosts in Zagreb, Croatia, are now long-standing friends. What have you got to lose but your loneliness? For those moving abroad, choose a destination known for its congeniality. Below are the results of InterNations' 2024 Expat Insider Survey which evaluates quality of life by studying leisure, mobility, health care, safety, and climate. Spain has held the number one spot for two years in a row. Not bragging, just saying.  Four years ago I wrote: The decision to move abroad often comes as a sudden, blinding, rapturous epiphany, when you realize you actually can — you should! — you will! — boldly change the course of your life forever. I’ll never forget Rich sitting me down at a sidewalk café in Seville and earnestly trying to persuade me that we should live here “for a year” while I kept attempting to break into his monolog long enough to gasp “Hell, yes!” But, as the Buddhists are fond of saying, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” When the first giddy thrill wears off, the mundane details need to be addressed. And when I say “mundane details,” I actually mean the staggering mountain of large and small tasks required for any major move, plus the added legal complications of foreign residency.  Future expats all have a folder like this, bursting at the seams with legal, medical, and financial documents. To get you started, here are stories I’ve written about the three biggest “mundane details” you’ll need to tackle early on. How To Get a Residency Visa Without Losing Your Mind. A residency visa will let you live year-round in the country of your choice. Getting one can take 200 hours of paperwork; you may want to hire help. What I've Learned About Finding Medical Care Abroad. The US ranks 23rd in quality of health care, so you may be pleasantly surprised by the options (and prices) you find overseas. I'm a Foreigner Here Myself. Learning a new language doesn’t get any easier with age, but it’s a great way to make friends and learn about local customs and attitudes. At the very least you’ll do better ordering beer at the bar.  Soon you, too, could be saying, "Dos cervezas, por favor." “Travel,” wrote author Andrew Solomon, “is a set of corrective lenses that helps focus the planet’s blurred reality.” We get even greater clarity when we settle down abroad for an extended period of time. Just as going away to college gives us fresh perspective on our family dynamics, leaving the US to immerse ourselves in a foreign culture illuminates our understanding of our nation and our world. We make friends with a whole new range of people. And while we're getting to know them, we discover exciting, totally unexpected aspects of ourselves and how we fit into the global family. Stay tuned! In the coming months I'll be visiting different parts of Spain, talking to expats and locals to learn about ways they have managed to engage more fully with the culture around them. Got questions? Let me know in the comments below.  DON'T MISS OUT! If you haven't already, take a moment to subscribe so I can let you know when I publish my weekly posts. Just send me an email and I'll take it from there. [email protected] SUBSCRIBED BUT NOT GETTING POSTS? If you ever miss a post announcement, please check your spam folder. Internet security is in a frenzy these days. WANT MORE? My best selling travel memoirs & guide books Best of Cheap & Cheerful San Francisco Cozy Places to Eat in Seville GOING SOMEWHERE? Enter any destination or topic, such as packing light or road food, in the search box below. If I've written about it, you'll find it. |
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I'm an American travel writer dividing my time between Seville, Spain, and California. I travel the world seeking eccentric people, quirky places, and outrageously delicious food so I can have the fun of writing about them here.
I am just wrapping up The Amigos Project, an exploration of expat life and how it helps fight the epidemic of isolation. Don't miss out! SIGN UP HERE to be notified when I publish new posts. Planning a trip?
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