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Transcript

Small Town Wisconsin to Seville Sun | A Returnee's Global Journey | Journey Home - Stories of Cultural Explorers and Returnees · Whereabouts Tales | Stories of Belonging and Immigrant Experiences

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  Hello and welcome back to Whereabouts Days.
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  Today I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with
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  Stephanie Young, an incredible human being who made a huge leap
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  from the quiet towns of Wisconsin to the sunny streets
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  of Sevilla, Spain. Stephanie shares her truly
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  captivating story, from her initial semester abroad when she
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  fell in love with Spain, to building a new life and even
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  your career path as a relocation specialist.
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  We dive deep into the fascinating challenges of
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  mastering a new language, especially a unique dialect, and
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  how that shapes your identity. Plus, we explore the stark and
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  sometimes hilarious cultural differences between the US and
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  Spain, touching on everything from supermarkets to the rim of
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  the daily life. If you ever dreamed of a big
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  change or just love a candid conversation about life abroad,
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  you won't want to miss Stephanie's inspiring journey.
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  I'm Paul and this is whereabouts this enjoy.
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  It couldn't have started better. Hi and welcome.
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  Thank you for taking the time. Yeah.
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  Oh, good to be here. Maybe, maybe before we start to
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  go into the story, you can say in a few words, where are you
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  originally from and when? Where are you living at the
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  moment? Yeah, so I'm American.
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  I'm originally from Wisconsin and now I live in Seville,
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  Spain. Nice Wisconsin.
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  I I was a big fan of life with Louis.
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  I don't know if you know the the TV series.
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  Most probably you don't. Life with who, Louis.
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  Life with Louis, Yeah. No, I don't know that one.
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  Is that from Wisconsin? No, there was an it's an
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  American TV show made by Louis Anderson, the comedian.
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  He was a stand up comedian and he was telling actually the
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  story of his childhood and they were going to a lake in
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  Wisconsin during the summer holidays, but I I don't remember
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  the name unfortunately. And there.
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  Was like Geneva I bet. Most probably, yeah, most
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  probably. But it was a was a nice one.
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  I was growing up in how how was it to grow up in Wisconsin, in
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  Milwaukee, if I remember it correctly right?
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  So I didn't grow up in Milwaukee.
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  Milwaukee is where I lived for a few years before I moved to
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  Spain. I'm originally from a very, very
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  small town closer. It's in between Milwaukee and
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  Madison. Madison's the capital.
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  But it was great. It was wonderful.
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  You know, it's one of those, I think most of us, if you, if you
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  grow up in a small town, it's the most boring thing on the
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  planet. But then afterwards, you know,
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  like, oh God, this is so boring. I wish there's more options.
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  I wish you had more things to do.
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  But in the end, now as an adult, I look back, I reflect back on
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  that experience and I'm really grateful to have grown up in a
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  small town because it really allowed me to try more things.
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  You know, And in my school, if everyone had to participate in
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  everything, otherwise it didn't exist.
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  So there really wasn't, you know, that as it wasn't nearly
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  as clicky as you see, you know, on films, on TV series.
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  And of course, yes, there was. But it was, I think I had a very
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  special high school experience in that way.
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  So I'm grateful for it. I mean, my upbringing was
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  wonderful. Yeah, Wisconsin's great.
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  Was it the was it the community spirit still there?
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  Like, like not the, I don't mean this high school now, but I mean
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  just the, the local communities. Did you have the feeling that
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  you know everyone in the in the in the city?
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  Oh my God, yes. You know everyone.
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  Everyone knows you. You know everybody's parents
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  names, what extracurricular activities the kids do.
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  I mean, when I say small town, I mean small.
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  We do not have a stoplight. We don't have a grocery store.
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  The closest thing we have to a grocery store is ABP gas
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  station, which has a decent selection for your, you know,
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  the essentials you need some milk, some eggs, some bread.
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  Not fresh baked bread. Not OK, I know them.
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  We're talking to Europeans here. So you know your processed
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  sliced bread that you know you have every day you're able to
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  get those kind of. And then, of course, there's a
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  walk in cooler of different types of beer.
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  So that's where our focus is lie.
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  We don't need the the fresh produce, but you do need to play
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  a few. Which makes.
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  Sense your beer for the weekend. I mean, one type of present
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  enough, but one type of beer. Who hurt that?
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  Nobody. I mean, you cannot have that.
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  No. Gosh, no, no.
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  No. No, no, actually it it's, I'm
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  sorry. Well, I was just going to say it
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  was kind of funny that I just went home for Christmas and I
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  went to go visit a friend of mine and, and we were just going
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  to go, OK, well, let's just go stop somewhere, grab a bottle of
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  wine on our way to your house. And then, you know, we'll go to
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  dinner, get the wine and go home.
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  And she goes, OK, well, we could go to Woodman's.
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  I think they have a decent alcohol selection.
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  And we, I'm like, OK, because I can't remember.
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  I mean, I know the store, but I haven't been there in years.
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  And we go there, I genuinely get in there and I look around like,
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  Oh my God, it was as if you walked into a full supermarket,
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  but it's just alcohol. Like each row.
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  I think in the wine department, there was a whole aisle that was
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  said Spain and another whole aisle that said Italy and a
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  whole I I mean, I'm at California, whatever.
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  And I'm just wow, just wow. And there's a local beers and IP
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  as and then the these and then the so yes to say priorities.
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  And the other section of the whole store was the grocery
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  store. I was now we go, we went on this
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  record, but I have to tell you something about the my
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  impression about the US Mark US supermarkets generally, I was
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  shocked how much how small is the food area and how big is the
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  non food area. I was really impressed because
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  you have the, the, let's say the place where you can buy food
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  products, which is I was in Walmart.
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  I want to say Tesco, but it's not Tesco is Target.
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  Target. Exactly.
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  Thank you Target. Target and I had the same
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  feeling like you have one good aisle of food and the rest of
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  the store is non food. But that's a little different.
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  That's kind of an unfair example of of supermarkets in the US
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  because though both of those stores, they are department
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  stores, they're meant to be for clothing, for things, for
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  electronics, for whatever life. And then there are some that
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  also have then started getting giving food, offering food as a
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  grocery store as well. But it's not a supermarket
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  first, it's a department store. 1st is meant to be for clothing
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  and HomeGoods. Now if you were to go to a well,
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  the ones by me are the Piggly Wiggly or the I love the name.
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  What are some big ones I I'm trying to think?
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  I know I was in North Carolina and I know Food Lion, for
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  example. Food Lion was.
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  There, I mean, and regionally they're quite different, right.
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  So in in where I am that are not going to be if you talk to
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  someone from North Carolina, they're going to be like Piggly
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  wait, what are you talking about?
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  But you know, up in the dairy state, well, you know, we focus
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  more on those farm animals. What is that one called Meyer?
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  That's a good one. That's like a big grocery store.
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  But anyway, so there's there's many different ones that is a
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  grocery store 1st and then they may sell and they have that one
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  aisle kind of how little or well we say that has how we say it in
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  Spanish and the little I don't know how you pronounce the
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  grocery store. It's German.
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  How do you pronounce it? Little, little.
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  There we go. Well, so we have that in Spain.
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  We don't have that in the US, but you know, they have that one
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  aisle that's in the middle of not food, house goods, right?
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  So yeah, for example. There is also in the US by the
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  way. I have to say they opened in
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  2017 on the East Coast. OK, yeah, again, I'm, I know I'm
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  a little, I'm a little removed and I live under a rock.
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  So we do have an ALDI though. I know we have an ALDI.
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  True. Yeah, that's also true, but I
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  think ALDI had a big footprint in the US because of buying of
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  Trader Joe's. They bought 3 draws years ago
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  and I think that was the big footprint in the US.
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  I'm a big fanboy of US, as you can see.
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  I know a lot of random things about US.
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  Nobody knows why, but I like that that place.
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  How was the move to a big city, Stephanie?
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  Well, so for me, so I moved to Milwaukee before I moved to
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  Spain, right. And Milwaukee is the biggest
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  city in, in Wisconsin. I mean, it is not New York City,
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  it is not Chicago. It's not, I mean, but it's the
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  biggest city that we have and, and actually ironically enough,
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  it's very similar in size to Suiga.
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  And so to me it's about 700,000 ish people.
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  And so it feels like a city or in a city.
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  And I would actually say Milwaukee feels more I mean,
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  metropolitan is a bit generous, but you know what I mean?
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  It more like city city living then city yeah, does which I
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  could talk about that in a second.
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  But so it wasn't when I moved to city.
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  Yeah, it wasn't like oh wow, the first big city because I had
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  already been living in in Milwaukee.
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  But but wonderful. I mean, I'm, I think my, my best
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  friend from growing up and I, we would talk about it all the
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  time. Like it's just, you know, it's
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  fine. Our little small town is fine,
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  but it's just not, we're not small town kind of people.
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  So I, I, I love that. I, like I said, I reflect back
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  and I really appreciate that experience.
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  I just, I feel more comfortable, you know, I want that
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  liveliness, the things going on, the buzz, the, you know what I
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  mean? Like I that's, I like that.
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  So, yeah. So then moving to Milwaukee,
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  that was a great fit. I loved my life in Milwaukee.
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  You know, was there was, I didn't move because of anything
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  that was wrong. I moved because I really wanted
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  to learn Spanish. I really, really, really wanted
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  to be bilingual with Spanish. And I wanted Spain because I
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  wanted Europe to be able to travel Europe and do that whole
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  thing. And I had studied abroad.
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  And so, yeah, in, in college, in university.
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  So that's kind of how I got to say yeah.
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  I I have to say, you're the first person who is saying that
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  sentence. I moved to Milwaukee because I
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  want to learn Spanish. I mean no.
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  No, no, no, I moved to Serica. Sorry, I probably didn't explain
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  that very well. I moved to Milwaukee for a job
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  and, and my boyfriend at the time and that's why I was in
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  Milwaukee. And then I just kind of
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  established my life here. But I had studied abroad in
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  university for a semester in civigan and it was always
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  remembering that experience and knew that I wanted to go back.
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  So I well everybody in now. I have to go back a bit.
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  So you, you studied, you studied in you've, you've done the, the,
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  the primary school and maybe the beginning.
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  So the primary school I would say you did in your hometown,
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  right, Because you just said it and then high school as well.
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  As well, Yeah. Exactly.
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  And then you switch for university to Milwaukee.
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  No, no. OK, all right, so this is my
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  here's my life story. I'm from, I was dead.
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  All of my schooling, my, you know, elementary, middle and
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  high school in my small town college.
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  I went to a town called Oshkosh. It's a university called UW
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  Oshkosh Go Titans. And then after that, then I
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  moved to Milwaukee. I graduated from university.
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  OK, understood now it. Was my first job and I was there
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  for a few years and then after I was there for.
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  OK, 4. Or five years.
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  Then I moved to Spain. And your first contact with
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  Sevilla was you when you had the most the semester abroad.
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  Yes. And it was directly civilian
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  like you you, you, you you are able to choose and you choose
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  pain or how how was the process of of doing this abroad
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  semester. Yeah, So I, so I for I as a part
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  of my degree, I had to, I had to study abroad.
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  I mean, twist my arm, OK, Because I have two degrees.
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  I have a business degree and a Spanish degree.
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  So I was a marketing major, global business, minor sales
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  emphasis on one side and then Spanish on the other side.
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  Put it all together. I want to be an international
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  salesperson when I grow up. But so a part of my Spanish
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  degree, I had to study abroad. And like that's where I, I was
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  kind of going earlier is I knew I wanted Spain because I needed
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  to be Spanish, you know, but I wanted Spain because I wanted
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  Europe. I wanted it to be in Europe.
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  To be able to travel Europe and see Europe has always fascinated
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  me because, you know, being from the US where we don't have a
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  whole lot of documented history, it's, it's a very young country
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  in that sense. So it's, I see Europe and it's
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  so rich in history and culture and, and everything, you know,
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  every country is the size of one of our states.
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  So we have big States and small states in Europe.
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  There's big countries and small countries.
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  There's a whole new world. The language, the culture, the
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  the food, the people, the everything.
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  So I just, I've always found that really fascinating and I
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  always wanted to go and explore. So that's why I decided decided
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  on Spain. We had a little study abroad
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  fair in my university. So I went to Spain and there
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  were two options, Salamanca or Civilla.
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  And it just happened to be that the person from the Salamanca
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  stand wasn't there when I happened to pass by that stand,
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  but the person from Civilla was there.
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  And so. And she was telling me how
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  wonderful Civilla is of the people, the culture, the
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  language. Well, the language too, but the
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  the weather, the history, everything.
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  I'm like, oh, my God, that sounds to me.
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  Where do I. Yeah.
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  OK. Where do I sign?
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  I had never even heard of Suea before at that point.
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  You know, I'm 19 years old. So I had heard of Madrid and
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  Barcelona. And it was neither one of those
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  talk. Talk about good salesperson that
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  that woman that sold to Sevilla, really good salesperson.
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  Absolutely. The program is Sai i.e.
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  Spanish American Institute Institute of something.
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  But they were great. It was it was a wonderful
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  experience. And how was the?
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  Was it the first Europe experience as expected or was it
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  different? Well, I had no expectations
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  because I had absolutely again, I was a night.
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  I was 19 years old. I had no idea I was still
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  discovering the world beyond Wisconsin versus the world
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  beyond the US, you know what I mean?
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  And so I was just this little, little baby just discovering the
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  world. And I would say so I, I
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  genuinely went in really without expectations.
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  I was just like, OK, well, I'm going to go.
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  I'm going to hopefully improve my Spanish, have this wonderful
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  experience and come home. And that's basically what
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  happened. You know, I, what I did when I
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  came, I was there in 2011, was there a a hot minute ago.
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  And when I was at it's very, it was very different than than
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  what it is now. There wasn't nearly as much
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  tourism there, wasn't it? It was just a completely
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  different. It was very I, what's the word?
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  I don't know, untouched, I guess you could say undiscovered will
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  probably be a better word. It's still kind of like this
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  hidden gem. So I was this exotic person like
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  you're like, Oh my God, who are you?
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  Where are you from? This blonde thing, this tall
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  blonde person, like, oh, I haven't, I haven't seen someone
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  that looks like you before. I mean, I'm exaggerating, but it
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  was, it was, you know, and now it's very, it's very different
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  present day. It's still wonderful, wonderful,
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  wonderful, but in a different way.
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  But yeah, I didn't really have expectations For me.
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  I guess the biggest impression that was that kind of stuck with
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  me was that people, I was there in the fall semester, so from
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  September to December and everyone told me springtime is
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  the time to come to Seville. And I'm like, oh, well, cool,
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  I'm here in the fall. And they said you have to come
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  in the spring because it's same on a Santa, which is Holy Week,
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  the fair. That's when the flowers are in
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  bloom. The all the beautiful orange
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  trees are all in bloom and the whole city just smells amazing
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  that this and that and this. And I'm like, OK, well, I guess
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  I'm going to have to come back in springtime.
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  And I tried to stay, extend my, my semester abroad to being the
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  whole school year. And I remember saying to my
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  sending an e-mail to my advisor saying hello, because this is my
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  second year of university. I mean, I, I still had a long
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  ways to go, but I was, I had two degrees going at the same time.
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  So I said, hello, I'm, I'm willing to be in, in college for
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  five years, but not longer than that.
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  Can I stay another semester? And he said, I mean, you can,
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  you would have to drop one of your degrees though.
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  I'm like, OK, well, I'm not going to drop my business
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  degree. And I feel like it'd be pretty
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  silly to drop my Spanish degree in order to stay in Spain
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  another semester. So I'm but so in that moment I
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  decided, OK, that's fine. I guess I'm just going to have
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  to come back. I'm going, I'm going to come
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  back here. But when I came home, I told
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  everyone in my life, my friends, my family, future employers,
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  that I then would have go on to have like, hey, just yeah.
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  I don't know when, I don't know how, but I'm moving back to
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  Spain. Not ever my little speech, not
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  forever, just a year or two, you know, learn the language, travel
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  Europe, come back being bilingual.
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  That's my plan, just FYI. And, you know, so mostly, like,
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  OK, Steph, I'm sure. OK.
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  Yeah. Have fun.
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  I'm sure that a strong majority, if not every single person was
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  like, she's not going to do it, she's not going to do it.
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  She's just dreams. Yeah.
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  She's young. No.
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  She's young, she's a dreamer. It's fine.
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  Now, Stephanie, how was the how was the impression of the
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  language learned in school compared to the language from
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  Spain that you have seen in Sevilla when you were there
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  during your college? Oh, I mean very different, but I
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  mean, it's just like anything, right?
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  You, you can't really learn properly.
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  You can't learn a language from a textbook.
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  You just can't. I will say that you know
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  everything. I had been studying Spanish for
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  years, years and years and years from since when I was 13, all
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  through my Spanish degree. And, and so I had, I had a base
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  of grammar and vocabulary, a very rusty base the time I moved
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  because then I hadn't had contact with the language for,
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  you know, four or five years, but it did, it was very helpful
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  to have had that. But I thought that's what I
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  would say. It's a really great way to give
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  yourself a good foundation for when you move and properly learn
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  the language. Right.
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  Like I would say that I had studied Spanish for many years,
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  but I did not learn Spanish. If that makes it early to speak
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  Spanish, maybe it would be a better way to say that.
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  But it's a nice way to sing. You're studying, but you don't.
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  You don't actually learn it until you are speaking it with
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  some natives that made you feel that you the language that you
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  speak is not actually the one that they speak.
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  I had. To, I mean, I do have to put a
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  caveat though. My, that's my experience growing
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  up in a very small town where my Spanish teacher was American who
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  went to college to say, I'm going to be a Spanish teacher.
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  And she did. And so she, I mean, everybody's
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  different. And my particular teacher that I
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  had taught us in English, I'm sure there are plenty of
• 20:06
  Americans that do that same path.
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  That cut and they're wonderful, wonderful teachers.
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  Not that mine wasn't, she was great.
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  But the thing was I, I learned from her, but she taught us in
• 20:16
  English, said, OK, today class, let's learn about fruits and
• 20:19
  vegetables. Today apple is La Manzana.
• 20:22
  And so it was one of those where I got to college and when I had
• 20:27
  native, native teachers, like one of them Venezuela, one of us
• 20:32
  in Spain, one of us from Mexico. So they all have different
• 20:34
  accents as well. And it was a rude awakening
• 20:38
  because I realized I understood nothing.
• 20:40
  I had zero listening comprehension.
• 20:43
  And so I felt that I personally, I'd been kind of playing catch
• 20:47
  up the whole time. So going to Spain for that
• 20:50
  semester, it put me to where I think I probably should have
• 20:54
  been at that point in my schooling.
• 20:56
  Do you know what I mean, after having studied for that many
• 20:59
  years? But again, everybody's,
• 21:01
  everybody learns differently. And also some people go
• 21:03
  somewhere for six months and they become fluent.
• 21:06
  I'm not one of those people. I've had to fight tooth and nail
• 21:09
  for every single word that I know.
• 21:10
  So it again, I want to, I want to pump that break because it's
• 21:14
  not to say that every single like that's just language
• 21:16
  learning, or even to say that that's how language learning is
• 21:19
  in the USI mean, do we have room for improvement as a general
• 21:23
  statement, 100%, but I'm not, I don't want to knock other people
• 21:29
  as I'm sure there's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful teachers.
• 21:32
  It was just my personal learning experience of the teachers that
• 21:34
  I had and how my brain works in language learning, right.
• 21:38
  So just want to. I think that the, the language
• 21:42
  learning is an is a process itself.
• 21:44
  And I think what what you said that studying is not the same
• 21:48
  with speaking or or or learning. It is not the same because that
• 21:51
  you, you always have the, the exercise, the habit of speaking
• 21:55
  the, the, the, the, yeah, the habit.
• 21:59
  I think the habit is the best, the best way in you in which you
• 22:03
  can call it. Because if you, whatever you are
• 22:06
  learning in school, if you don't practice it in private, if you
• 22:09
  don't use it for the conversations, it's still
• 22:11
  useless. It's because you know the rules.
• 22:13
  You know how to build a sentence, but you never know how
• 22:16
  to actually build a sentence, if you know what I mean, because
• 22:19
  you know the rules, but you never had to build it.
• 22:21
  And I think that's the most important, I think, languages.
• 22:24
  I do honestly think that if you want to speak a language, after
• 22:27
  you learn the bass, like you said, you learn the bass.
• 22:29
  You know, some you, you can come go.
• 22:33
  Let's say they're not able to sell you.
• 22:35
  Yeah. And you know the base of words
• 22:36
  and you know how to build the sentences, that you go there and
• 22:38
  you realize, oh, I don't know that much.
• 22:40
  And you, I should listen more. And I think the biggest part of
• 22:43
  listening, and I see it with you see it with kids a lot, is
• 22:46
  listening. It's enough to listen it a lot,
• 22:48
  to get the habits, to understand how they build the sentences,
• 22:50
  how they use the words and so on.
• 22:53
  No, absolutely. And that for me was the biggest
• 22:56
  difficulty moving to Spain. Well, and particularly moving to
• 23:01
  Andalusia in the southern region, because here their
• 23:04
  accent, dialect, whatever you want to call it, it's it's
• 23:09
  tricky. They speak extremely quickly and
• 23:13
  they don't pronounce the whole word most of the time.
• 23:16
  So I'll never forget my very first day in Civic.
• 23:19
  Yeah, not the first time, but when I moved back, I actually
• 23:22
  was doing like a little scouting trip with my my best friend came
• 23:26
  with me and just to scout it out, make sure that because I
• 23:29
  was going to be signing up to do this TEFL course to learn how to
• 23:31
  teach English as a foreign language.
• 23:33
  So I wanted to come before I put all my eggs in that basket,
• 23:36
  like, let me just come there. First of all, let's make sure
• 23:39
  that that school really exists. It's like a real thing.
• 23:43
  I'm not getting totally stammed before I put all of you know
• 23:46
  what I mean? Like, OK, let's just take one
• 23:48
  step at a time here. Went to a couple other places is
• 23:52
  great. But so we get to say, yeah,
• 23:54
  obviously I'm the communicator because I'm the one that's
• 23:58
  trying to move here. She doesn't speak Spanish.
• 24:01
  And so and I, my horrible Rusty, rusty broke in Spanish.
• 24:07
  We were looking for the metro and it was and it was one of
• 24:12
  those where and now come to find out the metro or from where we
• 24:15
  were. It's such an hilarious
• 24:17
  situation, but knowing what I know now, but in the moment, OK,
• 24:20
  it's pouring down rain. So we just wanted to get to try
• 24:23
  to find the metro to get to where we needed to go.
• 24:26
  Whatever. And so I'm in my in my very
• 24:30
  strong American accent, broken Spanish perdona Sabe's donde
• 24:34
  esta El metro. And like, do you know where the
• 24:38
  metro is? Right.
• 24:40
  And they said CCC Tapaya. What?
• 24:45
  Como like tapaya? OK Tapaya.
• 24:51
  You know how there's like that rule?
• 24:54
  You can say what, 2 times? And then the third time the
• 24:57
  person says whatever they say. You just have to accept that
• 25:00
  you've understood whether that is at all true or not.
• 25:02
  Well, I did that process with three separate people.
• 25:05
  OK, Tapaya, what is that we're speaking in about karate terms
• 25:10
  by. Yeah, I don't like.
• 25:11
  What does that mean? I don't.
• 25:13
  And so it turns out what they were saying esta para aya, which
• 25:18
  means it's over there. Very basic Spanish tapa.
• 25:25
  Yeah. Oh my God.
• 25:27
  So it's one of those where I'm like, OK, this is going to be
• 25:31
  fun. I have no idea how this is going
• 25:34
  to go. And it's one of those where
• 25:37
  Andalo, which is their accent. It's really it's very
• 25:41
  challenging, but once you get it, you got it and it's really
• 25:44
  wonderful. I actually really I love it.
• 25:46
  I think it's really beautiful and it's fun.
• 25:49
  It's like a fun, I'm not going to call it a language because
• 25:51
  it's not it is still Spanish. It's Castillano, but it's it's a
• 25:57
  fun language to fun, you know, dialect to have learned.
• 26:03
  I, I moved to Germany, I think you most probably I, I told you
• 26:07
  that I live in Germany, I'm not originally from Germany and I
• 26:09
  moved in a village like. In.
• 26:12
  A village in a in a Swabian area of Germany which has a heart
• 26:18
  accent. And besides the fact that German
• 26:21
  is not an easy language to learn, that doesn't help me the
• 26:25
  my Latino heritage, which helps me in Spanish, in Italian,
• 26:29
  because I mostly understand most of the words and I can somehow
• 26:32
  connect the terms, doesn't help me in German.
• 26:35
  Moved here and moved in this village and the, the neighbor
• 26:39
  from in front of me was a family.
• 26:42
  There was a couple. He was 95, she was 92 years.
• 26:45
  Old SO. The youngest of the youngest,
• 26:48
  they wanted to talk because they were alone and, and I was like,
• 26:54
  I know this because I smiled when you said you can ask what,
• 26:57
  2 times and then the third time you just pretend you understood.
• 27:01
  And all my conversation was done.
• 27:02
  What? I think they think I was crazy
• 27:05
  or something because every time when they were saying something,
• 27:07
  I was because I didn't get the word from what we're saying.
• 27:12
  I think it took me about 3 months.
• 27:13
  I did, I did. I managed to understand what
• 27:15
  they were talking to me because they wanted to talk.
• 27:18
  Right. Oh, well, three months.
• 27:19
  Hey, good for you mine. My process took a lot longer
• 27:23
  than that. I was very it took it took me a
• 27:26
  a long time. I was there.
• 27:28
  People will often ask me, so how long did it take you to become
• 27:33
  fluent? It's like, I think that's a,
• 27:36
  it's a difficult question to answer because also all of us
• 27:40
  are our own toughest critics, right?
• 27:43
  So it took me years for me to say I am fluent in the Spanish
• 27:48
  language because, you know, I still make mistakes and there's
• 27:51
  still going to be things that I don't understand or that joke
• 27:53
  that I didn't get or, you know, whatever.
• 27:56
  And I'm learning new words all the time.
• 27:58
  But then you have to just pull yourself back a step and say,
• 28:01
  OK, but even in English, I don't know every word there is in the
• 28:04
  dictionary. You know, it's one of those
• 28:06
  where we're constantly learning throughout our whole lives and
• 28:09
  you have to be easy on yourself. But you are more confident in
• 28:13
  your native language to ask what do you mean by that?
• 28:16
  Right, right. This is so, it's so interesting.
• 28:19
  I cannot explain it to anyone because if someone is telling me
• 28:22
  in Romania, I can understand. I'm really confident to say what
• 28:24
  what they want to say makes no sense or I'd say it in a
• 28:27
  different way. But if they someone is telling
• 28:29
  me something in English or in German, I don't get it.
• 28:31
  I'm you feel like why should I ask again?
• 28:34
  Yeah, I've seen that actually. So I've, I wear many hats here
• 28:38
  in Syria. I am because I'm a relocation
• 28:40
  specialist on the real estate side, but I'm also a gastronomic
• 28:44
  tour tour guide. So I'm, I do a tapas tour here
• 28:48
  in Syria and I've seen that quite a bit with some of the
• 28:52
  other guides is if they're those that are native in English and
• 28:58
  those that are not, it tends to be that and not, again, there's
• 29:02
  obviously there's a range here, but a lot of for me, if I make a
• 29:06
  mistake in English, I make a joke about it and it's, it's
• 29:09
  totally understood. You know, I will constantly say
• 29:12
  the same little joke. I'm like, OK, well, because it's
• 29:15
  true. I'll say, listen, my English has
• 29:17
  gotten worse. So I may have to lean on you for
• 29:19
  some vocabulary. I've got the information up
• 29:21
  here, but it is going to be teamwork, exercise.
• 29:24
  OK? I have to lean on you for some
• 29:27
  words. And then we all laugh about it
• 29:28
  and it's fine because, because like you said, because I'm a
• 29:31
  native English speaker, so I have that confidence to say,
• 29:34
  hey, I'm going to make a mistake.
• 29:35
  And that's fine. And it's almost kind of funny
• 29:37
  because then they said, Oh yeah, because you have all these other
• 29:39
  words in your brain. And most of the other native
• 29:42
  English speakers there probably don't speak another language,
• 29:45
  right? Not, of course, again, not
• 29:47
  always. But whereas with non-native
• 29:50
  speakers, then that can sometimes be an obstacle you
• 29:53
  have to overcome, right? And we both have different
• 29:56
  obstacles. So my obstacle as a tour guide
• 29:59
  is what is this American person going to tell me about the
• 30:01
  gastronomy and culture of Thea? Like, what does she know?
• 30:05
  So I have to prove myself that no, I actually really do know
• 30:07
  what I'm talking about. But the language piece is easy.
• 30:11
  And for them it's the opposite because they've got the stories
• 30:13
  this, you know, Oh yeah, my grandma used to make this when I
• 30:16
  was little and then we used to do this.
• 30:17
  And they've got that, that confidence all automatically.
• 30:21
  And they have to get over the language hurdle.
• 30:24
  So it's, you know, there's pros and cons in, in both ways.
• 30:27
  But that's, it's interesting that you say, because I, I
• 30:29
  totally agree with that. You're always going to be more
• 30:31
  confident in your in your native tongue.
• 30:34
  I, I have AI have a work colleague who she's originally
• 30:38
  from Spain and she's, she was saying a sentence that I, I
• 30:41
  still love to this day, she said, Paul, you have no idea how
• 30:44
  funny I am in Spanish. I've got a I've got a story like
• 30:49
  that too. So I met my current partner, We
• 30:53
  were teammates and and so we, we, we met in Spanish because we
• 30:59
  speak in Spanish on the team. But when I first started playing
• 31:03
  where I, my first year, so my Spanish was absolute trash.
• 31:07
  I understood nothing. They're like, Oh, good, because
• 31:10
  it's a, it's a Co Ed team. So they were just really happy
• 31:14
  to have a female who was athletic, decently athletic, you
• 31:18
  know, And they're like, Oh no, no, no, we need her to say.
• 31:21
  To increase the quota. What exactly I mean to me, I had
• 31:25
  no idea. I'm just sitting here.
• 31:26
  Oh, well, I've I'm a lifelong athlete.
• 31:28
  I would love to learn that vocabulary in Spanish, right?
• 31:31
  These different terms and how to talk about your body and muscle,
• 31:34
  muscles and all that stuff. And they were so patient with
• 31:39
  me. But so with my horrible broken
• 31:42
  Spanish, I understood nothing. They would explain the exercise.
• 31:44
  I beg. I'm like, what do you want me to
• 31:50
  do? And so they're like, OK, go, you
• 31:53
  go there like, OK. And it was such a process and
• 31:58
  they were so patient with me. But then so little by little,
• 32:02
  you know, I'm getting better, my Spanish is getting better and
• 32:05
  all these things. And then probably about, I mean,
• 32:09
  probably about a year. I can't remember how far it was
• 32:12
  like towards the beginning of our relationship, but I mean, we
• 32:15
  so we know each other pretty well at this point, but not
• 32:17
  crazy and obviously not to it is now.
• 32:21
  And we went to a party. I went to my friend's birthday
• 32:23
  party in London and he's he, it's so funny because he would
• 32:28
  come back. He's like, Oh my God, she was
• 32:30
  the life of the party. Like she was, she was so funny.
• 32:34
  And she would just say these things and people would react
• 32:36
  and it's way. And I mean everyone.
• 32:38
  I mean, I'm like, yeah, it's crazy what you can do in your
• 32:41
  own mother tongue in Spanish. I don't have my full personality
• 32:47
  yet. And now it's gotten much better
• 32:49
  even in Spanish. But you know, it was such a
• 32:51
  funny comment that he made. He's just looking at me.
• 32:54
  It's like, and you, you already felt for me having my broken
• 32:56
  Spanish. Like, he just like, sweetheart,
• 32:59
  you just like. But that was the most
• 33:04
  frustrating thing about learning a language is you really can't
• 33:08
  be truly yourself. I would often if I first of all,
• 33:12
  if I understood what was going on in the conversation and they
• 33:15
  would say something like, oh, I've got like a little witty one
• 33:19
  liner. I have no idea if it translates
• 33:21
  well because of course it would be something I would say in
• 33:23
  English and I would want to say it.
• 33:24
  I'm like, OK, how do I say in Spanish?
• 33:27
  Or what's that word? I know it, I know it.
• 33:28
  OK, got it. And then now they're already 5
• 33:30
  sentences past. You miss the moment, and now
• 33:33
  it's one. This this destroyed me.
• 33:36
  This destroyed me. This, this, this.
• 33:38
  Oh, what does it? OK, I think I know.
• 33:42
  I have it now. And then you want to see it and
• 33:44
  you realize, OK, it's gone now. It's missed it.
• 33:49
  Maybe next time they've there will be another moment.
• 33:52
  But this destroyed me. I I leave this so many Do you
• 33:55
  know? Most probably you know The
• 33:57
  Simpsons, right? OK, it's funny because I you
• 34:01
  don't know how many Spaniards have told me The Simpsons is a
• 34:04
  part of Spanish culture. German culture as well.
• 34:08
  Really. So I wasn't allowed to watch The
• 34:11
  Simpsons as a kid. Makes sense.
• 34:12
  My parents thought it was inappropriate.
• 34:14
  I mean, to be fair, I kind of yeah, but so.
• 34:16
  And I didn't care. I'm like, oh, whatever, There's
• 34:18
  all these other. So I actually don't know.
• 34:20
  I mean, I know it. I know the baseline, I know the
• 34:22
  premise, but I don't know. Oh, that reminds me of that
• 34:24
  episode when this and this happened.
• 34:26
  I'm like OK. There was an there was a moment
• 34:29
  in which they were playing poker and there were four persons
• 34:32
  sitting on a table and Homer Simpson was the main one of the
• 34:36
  main characters. Someone called him a slow
• 34:38
  thinker and he's thought about it.
• 34:41
  Should I say something because he called me a slow thinker?
• 34:44
  Should I not say something? Then he decided to stand up.
• 34:48
  By the time he stand up, he realized he was alone at the
• 34:50
  table. So I I keep remember this scene
• 34:54
  every time when I want to say something in a different
• 34:57
  language. Honestly, yes, yes.
• 35:00
  What's OK? So in my experience, my first
• 35:03
  year I moved, I moved here in February of 2019, but that just
• 35:08
  basically dropped my stuff off, repacked my bag and went and
• 35:10
  traveled for a month. Then I came back and I in March
• 35:13
  of 2019, right. So I had a full calendar year
• 35:17
  until life shut down for COVID. But so I had one year and my
• 35:23
  Spanish improved immensely, but still had a long way to go.
• 35:28
  So I was able to kind of for the most part understand most
• 35:33
  things, but not all, definitely not everything.
• 35:36
  Like we said, three months. My, Oh my God, I wish mine was
• 35:38
  probably, I don't know, I would say 2 years, but because I went,
• 35:44
  I had a whole year. If I was a one-on-one, like with
• 35:47
  this kind of a conversation that sure, yeah, I was probably in
• 35:50
  three to six months. I was pretty confident.
• 35:53
  But the problem is in a group setting in, in the US and
• 35:57
  probably in Germany, definitely in the UK as well.
• 36:01
  In many places. You know, if one cultural tells
• 36:04
  us if one person is speaking, you are not because it's rude to
• 36:07
  speak over someone, right? You'll put in your little
• 36:09
  interjection to let them know that you want to speak, but then
• 36:13
  you, you stop. And how that's just not how it
• 36:16
  is in Spain, especially here in the South.
• 36:18
  And it's not, it's just not a problem.
• 36:21
  You know, it's not, it's not rude.
• 36:23
  You get, the way that I explain it is you get 303 three seconds,
• 36:29
  you get 3 seconds of the person's attention and then they
• 36:32
  start to speak over you. But it's like they're not
• 36:35
  speaking over you to interrupt you to say that you're, they're
• 36:37
  not interested. It's because, I mean, it could
• 36:40
  be also, but it's to say they have something to add to that.
• 36:44
  So then they just start speaking parallel to your storyline.
• 36:49
  Does that make sense? And so it's like often you'll be
• 36:52
  in a group of people and there are at least two, if not three
• 36:54
  conversations happening at once, but often across or all together
• 37:00
  at the same time. So my poor little brain, which
• 37:04
  first of all, I do not come from that culture.
• 37:06
  I'm used to listening to one voice at a time, just for
• 37:09
  starters. And is a different like they're
• 37:11
  speaking super, super quickly. They're not eating, not saying
• 37:14
  the whole word that I'm like, Oh, my God.
• 37:16
  And so then a year in COVID happens and now everybody speaks
• 37:21
  with a mask on their face. And so I like, I didn't realize
• 37:26
  how much I read lips until the lips went away.
• 37:29
  You know what I mean? It's like, oh, my God, I did not
• 37:31
  realize that. So and then, you know, put them
• 37:35
  in a group setting, multiple people speaking at once.
• 37:37
  I very quickly just became, I was like, listen, I'll just,
• 37:40
  I've got my beer. It's fine.
• 37:41
  I'll just sit in the corner. Yeah.
• 37:46
  Yeah, I mean the the thing with the lips was something which
• 37:51
  destroyed me as well. I have to be honest.
• 37:52
  I had the advantage of I work from home so work related was
• 37:56
  not so bad, but social was a disaster.
• 37:58
  Because you don't you don't really comprehend exactly what
• 38:01
  they say. And you, you try to be one with
• 38:04
  one to get towards and then try to understand the third one, try
• 38:07
  to realise what they want to say even if you don't get the word.
• 38:10
  And with the mask on was not possible anymore.
• 38:13
  Difficult. Talking about this bilingual
• 38:17
  thing, Stephanie, I have another question because then we have to
• 38:19
  go back to a story, but we went to this, but I like it.
• 38:24
  Don't you have the feeling that you are developing together with
• 38:26
  your capacity to speak another language?
• 38:28
  You are developing another personality.
• 38:31
  So it's interesting, a lot of people say that, right?
• 38:34
  They say that you're. Yeah, that right.
• 38:36
  Like you're kind of your personality is different in in
• 38:38
  one language than it is in a different 1.
• 38:42
  I don't know if I agree with that completely or not because I
• 38:46
  the way that I am like my, the things that like we were talking
• 38:51
  about before, being witty, making a joke, inserting this
• 38:55
  comment here and there, that's the same for me in both
• 38:58
  languages. I'm kind of like
• 39:00
  unapologetically me in both languages, but when it comes to
• 39:06
  some of the things we were just talking about, right.
• 39:09
  So with one person speaking at a time versus not or being more
• 39:13
  formal or informal or you know what I mean?
• 39:15
  Like that type of thing. Yes, because you, you just go
• 39:19
  with kind of the cultural norms and what's accepted and expected
• 39:23
  in one language slash culture. Because it's not really only the
• 39:26
  language either, is it? It just, it kind of is the whole
• 39:29
  package of where that goes along with the culture, in my opinion
• 39:34
  anyway. So I can see how that would
• 39:38
  happen. And definitely what I've been
• 39:42
  told is that my voice is different in Spanish and
• 39:45
  English, which is interesting, but, and I hear it now too.
• 39:48
  And so it is true, but it's also that's because of the
• 39:53
  internation of your language, the intonation of English,
• 39:56
  specifically North American English, which is where my
• 39:59
  English comes from, which is different than British English,
• 40:02
  which I've come to learn as well-being when I was an English
• 40:04
  teacher, I was speaking British English.
• 40:06
  And it is different. You know, you hear all the
• 40:09
  listenings. I am listening to my my Co
• 40:12
  workers and I went home my first Christmas and my aunt who's a
• 40:16
  retired English teacher, but so you know, teaching English to
• 40:19
  native English speakers, she said right away.
• 40:22
  Oh, your intonation has changed. Your English has changed.
• 40:25
  I'm like, really? Oh, OK.
• 40:28
  And there are little Britishisms that'll come out.
• 40:31
  So sometimes on tours, especially then they'll say I'm
• 40:33
  from Wisconsin and I'll start speaking.
• 40:35
  And then a little bit later they're like, are you, Are you
• 40:37
  sure you're from Wisconsin? You don't really sound.
• 40:42
  But so I don't know, I, I can see it.
• 40:45
  And I I totally understand where that that statement comes from.
• 40:51
  I can I agree, kind of. That's not a good answer, but
• 40:55
  no. No, it's a absolutely.
• 40:57
  It's a good answer for sure. I, I, I, I got told this and I
• 41:00
  see it in people around me that are speaking multiple languages
• 41:03
  that somehow they are. But most probably it's because
• 41:05
  of the intonation. And I think this is what makes a
• 41:07
  lot of sense is because of the intonation.
• 41:09
  I I also got told a few times at work in work related things like
• 41:15
  if you think that Paul is rude to switch to English because
• 41:19
  he's not. That, but you know what actually
• 41:24
  that's a really good point. So in Spanish, that was a little
• 41:28
  culture shock thing for me because in in in the English
• 41:32
  language both I think really in every English speaking country
• 41:36
  that that I'm aware of. I'm sure.
• 41:37
  I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I know definitely US, Canada, UK,
• 41:42
  Ireland, Australia, you know, it's we say things in a way.
• 41:47
  Well, and I guess well anyway, so in many of these English
• 41:50
  speaking countries, the way that we say we're like overly kind of
• 41:55
  flowery polite with our language.
• 41:58
  So you know, saying, hey, sorry, when you have a quick second, if
• 42:02
  you wouldn't mind, I would love another cup of coffee if you
• 42:05
  don't mind. Otherwise, that's totally you
• 42:07
  know, we just give we build in a big excuse to not do it.
• 42:11
  You can say no. You have the vocabulary to do
• 42:16
  this, that, that, that, that build.
• 42:18
  That's that's what changes. You have the vocabulary to that.
• 42:22
  Build that sentence. Well, but we have the vocabulary
• 42:25
  in Spanish, but just culturally that's not how it's done.
• 42:29
  He would and so but it's like give me a give me a coffee or
• 42:38
  like that. I mean, and we just like 1 the
• 42:40
  boy. That's which means when you can.
• 42:42
  So it's not like we're saying give it to me now.
• 42:44
  I mean, obviously the tone of voice and just how you are go
• 42:49
  goes for it goes really far. But I remember thinking,
• 42:53
  especially when I was first learning, so I'm translating
• 42:55
  everything directly because I don't I don't know any better.
• 42:58
  So I'm just learning. So I'm thinking if someone says
• 43:01
  give me, give me this, do that. And I'm just like, OK, that's a
• 43:05
  little rude. My God.
• 43:07
  I mean, just like demanding, like you're giving me that, you
• 43:09
  know what I mean? So for me that was a little bit
• 43:11
  of a culture shock and I had to first of all be explained.
• 43:15
  It's like, you know, that's normal.
• 43:17
  It's not rude. We just then the the way I love
• 43:21
  it because the way that I was explained to me, they're like, I
• 43:24
  just don't just be direct. I don't know.
• 43:27
  I don't understand why in English you have to have this
• 43:29
  whole story. Just tell me what you want.
• 43:32
  And I'm like, you know, fair when you put it that way, but
• 43:37
  that's a cultural difference as well.
• 43:40
  I think it's a it's a thing for the Latin language.
• 43:42
  I'm thinking, thinking out. I was shocked also because I
• 43:45
  asked I was in Italy and I asked about some, some directions and,
• 43:48
  and the way in which she told me, she said Dilo Faso vedere.
• 43:51
  Like it's not the kind way to say in English.
• 43:54
  I will show it to you like, but the, the tone was completely
• 43:57
  different. Like I will show it to you like
• 43:59
  you don't know what it is, what's wrong.
• 44:02
  So in in this direction, you feel it from the tone like, but
• 44:05
  it's most probably cultural for sure.
• 44:08
  Yeah, Steven, because you speak because you speak Spanish.
• 44:11
  I do have two questions. Do you know Kyo Rais?
• 44:15
  Caro. K the the the the the short film
• 44:19
  from YouTube. I mean Kyo Rais.
• 44:21
  Oh, no. I thought I was like, you know
• 44:22
  what that means? No, no, no.
• 44:25
  So when, when I it's, I think 8 minutes, 7 minutes, 8 minutes.
• 44:30
  I promise it will make your day. It's a It's a short film made
• 44:35
  from American. Write that.
• 44:39
  Down actors who only had one hour of Spanish in the OR three
• 44:42
  weeks of Spanish in the third grade or something.
• 44:44
  This is how it starts. So it's I would just say it for
• 44:49
  me extremely funny because I can understand Spanish as well.
• 44:52
  Most of it not perfect, but I can understand it.
• 44:55
  And I don't know if you know another TV series from Spain.
• 44:59
  I think it's actually is from Spain.
• 45:00
  It's called Aquino Aiquin Viva. Hombre Yes.
• 45:04
  It's so good. It's so good.
• 45:07
  I love it that you know, it is the you're the first person that
• 45:10
  I talked to that knows it. I love that that no Sonoras.
• 45:14
  No, Sonoras. I haven't seen the whole thing.
• 45:18
  I'm watching it and I'm sorry, I started from the beginning and I
• 45:23
  genuinely, I just don't have a lot of time to watch TV.
• 45:25
  So for me to watch an entire series, it'll likely take me the
• 45:29
  next three years, but whatever, you know, we're actually right
• 45:33
  now we're watching macho macho AA no como macho alpha.
• 45:39
  It's Have you heard of it? No.
• 45:42
  It's, it's actually a really good show.
• 45:44
  It's about the, it's also Spanish.
• 45:46
  It's about these four men who are a little bit machista, but
• 45:52
  in ways that are like a very normal, a normalized, we should
• 45:57
  say way in kind of our society. Like they just don't understand.
• 46:01
  They don't realize it. And then they take this course.
• 46:03
  This is at the very beginning. I'm not giving any spoilers.
• 46:06
  They take this course to deconstruct their like machismo,
• 46:13
  their masculinity, their toxic masculinity, right?
• 46:17
  They're they take this course to de destruct themselves or just
• 46:20
  whatever the word is, I don't know, and then they just carry
• 46:23
  on their lives. And it's it's a really funny.
• 46:26
  It's really interesting because it's it's honestly more of AI
• 46:30
  wouldn't say feminist show, but it's something where it it
• 46:34
  appeals to both sides because it's ultimately teaching these
• 46:39
  men, hey, don't do that, don't say that.
• 46:43
  What? OK, let's think about, you know
• 46:46
  what I mean? But in in a kind of a funny,
• 46:48
  light hearted way, it's actually a really good show.
• 46:50
  So we've put pause on Aquino Akimiba, but that's also it's
• 46:53
  like the classic, it's the from what is it early 2000s or the
• 46:57
  90s, I. Think it's yeah, no, no, it's
• 46:59
  early 2000s. So by the time when I saw a
• 47:01
  start to see it, was it in TV in Romania back to when I was still
• 47:05
  in Romania. So I think it was 210 to 11 to
• 47:08
  12. Oh my God, that was so funny.
• 47:10
  So funny. We have to go back to the story.
• 47:13
  I I went into so many rabbit, the rabbit holes and I like it.
• 47:16
  But we have I, I still, I'm still curious.
• 47:19
  So back-to-back to moving back from civilly after the, the
• 47:24
  broad semester you finished the university, then you went into a
• 47:28
  nice discovery of finding a job. How did?
• 47:31
  How did that work? Yeah.
• 47:34
  So, OK. So like I said, I had been
• 47:36
  telling everybody that would listen, I'm moving back to
• 47:38
  Spain. You're like, OK.
• 47:40
  But I really had no idea how I was going to do that because
• 47:43
  obviously as an American, I need a visa.
• 47:46
  So, and I, I was certainly not a visa expert.
• 47:51
  I knew nothing, nothing like, OK, well, so one day.
• 47:56
  So I was kind of always passively keeping my eyes open,
• 48:00
  but also not like actively searching anything because I, at
• 48:04
  the time I was a realtor, I was a real estate agent back in the
• 48:07
  USI still am. I still have a licensed agent in
• 48:10
  Wisconsin. And I've, I've sold houses
• 48:13
  almost every year actually since I've been here.
• 48:15
  But so I, I'm doing this, I'm self-employed as my own
• 48:19
  business, but I still have the support of a company.
• 48:22
  So I have that kind of foundation.
• 48:25
  All right. And now it's a random day.
• 48:27
  I'm at home at this point because this is no what 2018
• 48:31
  probably. And I don't really use Facebook
• 48:35
  anymore. I certainly don't check the
• 48:38
  birthday notifications. I but for whatever reason, this
• 48:42
  day I happen to have my phone in my hand when the notification
• 48:46
  little birthday, these people's birthdays today, when it came
• 48:50
  through and I happen to click on it.
• 48:52
  I literally know I probably, I don't know, once a year, once
• 48:56
  every three years will I click on that notification like I
• 48:58
  don't. So I clicked on it and then I'm
• 49:01
  looking and there's the so and so's birthdays today.
• 49:03
  I'm like, that name sounds familiar to me.
• 49:06
  Who is it? And I click on it and I realize
• 49:10
  I'd said I can't, I can't, I should, I should be able to give
• 49:12
  her a plug. And I apologize.
• 49:13
  I can't remember her name, but she was the name she was the
• 49:16
  owner of, you know, and her little bio there, it says owner
• 49:20
  of this company called, I believe it's called We Love
• 49:22
  Spain. And I realized, Oh my God, that
• 49:25
  was the company that I went on these different excursions, you
• 49:29
  know, a weekend here, a weekend there, these different trips
• 49:32
  while when I was studying abroad.
• 49:33
  And there was always a leader person that would bring us
• 49:36
  wherever we were going to go. And they were paid excursions,
• 49:39
  obviously, or optional is it's something that they marketed
• 49:41
  towards the Erasmus or towards the study abroad kids, but it
• 49:44
  wasn't a part of the program. And I'm like, at the time I was
• 49:48
  27, I'm like, OK, or 27, however old I was, like, OK, actually
• 49:52
  that sounds really fun. Like I think I'm old enough that
• 49:55
  I could be taken seriously as an authority figure, but I'm not so
• 50:00
  old that I don't, you know, I'm still a little, I'm still
• 50:03
  relevant. I could still be relevant to
• 50:04
  these 2021 year olds, 2219, whatever.
• 50:09
  So I messaged them and I said, hello, I'm me.
• 50:12
  This is what I'd like to do. Are you hiring?
• 50:15
  And they got back to me the next day and they said, hey, thanks
• 50:19
  for reaching out. No, we're not hiring.
• 50:22
  But have you ever thought about teaching English?
• 50:26
  And Can you imagine? It's just like, yeah, no, it
• 50:29
  didn't work out quite that one that perfectly.
• 50:31
  Yeah. But they said not to sell you
• 50:33
  anything. But we partner with this
• 50:36
  company, well, this TEFL company, and they happen to have
• 50:41
  a location where you can take the course in person, which
• 50:45
  would then ultimately be able to get you a visa here in Civic.
• 50:50
  And it's in the city center. Oh, my God.
• 50:52
  So I they sent me a link and I read every single word on their
• 50:55
  website and I said this sounds perfect.
• 50:58
  So I reached out because I had never even I didn't even think
• 51:02
  about the fact that that is a choice that you can teach
• 51:05
  English and this is a way to go place.
• 51:06
  Like I did not know that Chapel was a thing.
• 51:11
  So I do my research and then ultimately that's what led me to
• 51:14
  that trip, right. So then that might that where
• 51:17
  donde Sal metro, which you know, that little shouting trip.
• 51:21
  So I went and I I saw I met with the director of the school and
• 51:26
  everything was legit. It was great.
• 51:27
  It was wonderful. I'm like, OK, this is wonderful.
• 51:29
  Where do I sign? Let's go, let me pay.
• 51:33
  And I prepared my my, you know, I prepared everything to then
• 51:37
  becoming that following March, I mean, February, about March,
• 51:41
  just to do the course. So that's really what got me
• 51:45
  here. I was able to do this course.
• 51:47
  I didn't understand this. I probably shouldn't say this on
• 51:49
  the Internet, but I was somehow had a it was a one month course
• 51:53
  and it somehow got me six months of a student visa.
• 51:56
  Like, I don't know how that math is math thing.
• 51:58
  But listen, I'm not going to ask any further question like
• 52:00
  perfect done. And I think what it was is
• 52:04
  because of the amount of hours in the course.
• 52:07
  I mean, it was in a very intense course.
• 52:09
  It was 10 AM to 9:00 PM every day, plus homework.
• 52:14
  It was a very, very intense course for a whole month.
• 52:16
  So I mean, if you divvy that out to amount of hours, that would
• 52:19
  be normal. You know what I mean?
• 52:21
  Like what you should study because then as I read, I
• 52:23
  renewed, I was renewing my student visa for the next few
• 52:26
  years. And what it is, is 20 hours a
• 52:29
  week to be able to, you know, to be able to, well, whatever you
• 52:33
  have to study for 20 hours a week.
• 52:36
  But I thought that would be perfect.
• 52:38
  I would be able to get my beat, get my thing, get my core or my
• 52:42
  certification in one month. And then I have 5 the rest of
• 52:45
  the six months to be able to travel, explored, maybe find a
• 52:49
  job, really figure out, do I want to stay here?
• 52:51
  Do I not, you know, just kind of really get my feet wet and, and
• 52:56
  decide do I want to make a life here or not?
• 52:58
  So, and I'll obviously spoiler, I decided to stay.
• 53:02
  And so I decided, OK, well, I'll just, I'll renew it for one more
• 53:06
  year. And so I ended up finding a
• 53:09
  Spanish Academy that I could properly study the Spanish
• 53:14
  language. And really, because that's
• 53:16
  really the reason that I was that I moved, I really, really,
• 53:19
  really from when I was 13 in my very first Spanish class, my, my
• 53:23
  grandparents used to spend their winters in South Padre Island,
• 53:26
  TX, which is the southern tip, so very close to Mexico.
• 53:30
  We, we went there, sorry, the little sidebar, but we went
• 53:33
  there to go visit them for Christmas that year.
• 53:35
  We were going to have buy some last minute Christmas gifts.
• 53:39
  And I was trying to buy this, this thing from this woman.
• 53:41
  And she couldn't remember the number though, like the price,
• 53:44
  the number in, in English. So she kept saying in Spanish to
• 53:47
  jogger memory and she said, cincuente, cuatro, cincuente,
• 53:50
  cuatro cincuente. And I go 54.
• 53:53
  I was like, see what a useful skill.
• 53:57
  And then right after that we went to a different shop and we
• 54:00
  had to talk to the lady again. And this time she was on the
• 54:02
  phone like speaking in perfect Spanish.
• 54:05
  And then she looks up to us and says, hi, how can I help you in
• 54:07
  perfect English? My like a light switch just on
• 54:11
  off English, Spanish, my listen, that is an ability that I need
• 54:14
  to have. I just need it.
• 54:16
  And I never let it go, which is what really led me on this whole
• 54:19
  path of being so passionate about wanting to learn the
• 54:24
  language and then wanting Spanish for the Europe piece.
• 54:26
  So that's all of this has led me to from that one experience when
• 54:30
  I was 13, just leading me to where I am today really.
• 54:35
  But so that's kind of how it went is I got my job, I got my
• 54:39
  visa renewed at the Spanish Academy.
• 54:42
  And then also then I got a Spanish, I'm sorry, a teaching
• 54:45
  job at an English Academy in the afternoons.
• 54:48
  So it was like learning Spanish in the morning, teaching the
• 54:50
  afternoons. And then so that's how I was
• 54:53
  able to get here and get get established.
• 54:57
  So you came for you didn't came to stay, let's say it like this.
• 55:01
  You came for to see how the experience is how, how do you
• 55:04
  how would you like it and so on. And what was when was that
• 55:08
  moment in which you say I kind of like it here?
• 55:12
  That's a good question. You know it was because you're
• 55:15
  right. It was genuinely never my
• 55:17
  intention to stay. Ever since the beginning I've
• 55:20
  been, I would say it's not a forever.
• 55:23
  I'm not going forever. I'm just going to go there,
• 55:25
  learn the language, but learn it properly.
• 55:27
  And so I was also realistic with myself that especially with all
• 55:32
  the schooling that I had already had in Spanish and where my
• 55:35
  level then was, I'm like, this isn't going to be a quick thing.
• 55:39
  But I sincerely was not expecting to stay long term.
• 55:45
  I would say probably maybe after about 2 1/2 years because when I
• 55:53
  was going to renew again, well, I had two moments, one at around
• 55:58
  2, the 2 1/2 fish, I could forget it was 2 1/2, three years
• 56:02
  mark. And then the other, another one
• 56:04
  was about four years. And because at the 2 1/2 year
• 56:08
  mark, I was, I was very well established.
• 56:12
  I had my group of friends, you know, I was when I first moved
• 56:16
  here, I, I had realized that I had done it wrong in my, in my
• 56:19
  opinion, right, my own self criticism of when I had studied
• 56:22
  abroad here because I was with my American group the whole
• 56:25
  time. When I had decided I wanted to
• 56:27
  move back, I realized I had zero people to call and say, hey,
• 56:30
  guess who's coming back to zero people?
• 56:33
  That's sad. So I decided this time, OK, no
• 56:38
  Americans, no offense, American, no Americans.
• 56:43
  I have enough American friends, Spaniard, Spaniard, Spaniard, I
• 56:46
  mean, Spanish speaking, right? I really wanted that.
• 56:49
  The language in common, or I guess the language of our
• 56:53
  relationship, how we would communicate would be in Spanish.
• 56:57
  I knew I would have English at work.
• 56:58
  And so, I mean, I was also realistic.
• 57:00
  I wasn't going to say, OK, you're not allowed to have any
• 57:02
  friends at work. I mean, but I was just trying to
• 57:05
  if I was having English at work, that means I need to have
• 57:08
  Spanish everywhere else in my life.
• 57:10
  Definitely at home. I want my my group, my circle,
• 57:14
  right, my group of friends to be all Spanish speaking.
• 57:16
  Any activities, if I do sports or some, some whatever else, I
• 57:20
  wanted it all to be in Spanish and I and I did and I achieved
• 57:22
  that. So almost, well, not all of my
• 57:28
  friends were Spanish, but I had a nice solid group of Spanish
• 57:32
  speaking either Spanish or Spanish speaking friends.
• 57:37
  And that you're at about 2 1/2 years in.
• 57:39
  Everybody moved away. I'm like, what?
• 57:43
  One moved to Madrid, one moved to Astodias, one moved to
• 57:46
  Estonia, one moved back to the UK.
• 57:49
  She was one of my non Spanish friends, but all the rest were
• 57:52
  Spanish. Everybody left.
• 57:54
  I'm like, like, maybe this is a sign.
• 57:58
  So I, I wasn't really ready to move back home, back to the US,
• 58:04
  but I was thinking, you know what, maybe this is time for a
• 58:06
  new start. Let's go do Valencia.
• 58:08
  I was very, very close to either moving to Valencia or the Canary
• 58:12
  Islands, not having ever been to either place.
• 58:16
  But I was like, it's one of those because I just, I love the
• 58:20
  beach and I love a city, which is why, you know, Cadiz, which
• 58:24
  is close to me here in the South.
• 58:27
  I love Cadiz, but it's just a little bit too small for me.
• 58:30
  Malaga, same thing. I don't know.
• 58:33
  I mean, I do like Malaga. I need to spend a little more
• 58:36
  time there, honestly, but I love Sevilla.
• 58:39
  It's just still a little bit smaller and I think.
• 58:43
  Sevilla is not. I think Sevilla is not as
• 58:45
  sturistic as Malaga is, right? I mean, yes, it's still very
• 58:49
  touristy now present day, but it's also it does you don't feel
• 58:54
  it as much in my opinion. You ask a local from here, I'm
• 58:57
  sure they have a different one, but in my opinion it doesn't.
• 59:01
  I don't really think you feel it as much because if you were to
• 59:04
  look at a map, if we pull up a map, I can circle.
• 59:08
  This is a touristy area of Civica.
• 59:10
  And does that mean that there are not tourists in the rest of
• 59:12
  the city? Well, obviously, I mean, no,
• 59:14
  yes, they they're everywhere and they're staying everywhere.
• 59:16
  So you're always going to have like the their suitcase going
• 59:22
  down the cobblestone streets. And but there's also Spaniards
• 59:25
  going on vacation too, but it's all very concentrated.
• 59:31
  We're all the big major hotspots, the, the cathedral,
• 59:34
  the place Espana, the, the AL Qatar, the royal palace, you
• 59:38
  know, the, the old tobacco factory, the Torrellora, all
• 59:42
  these different things are very close to each other.
• 59:46
  So it's kind of nice because the the US locals who live here, you
• 59:53
  don't, you're not inundated with tourists absolutely everywhere.
• 59:57
  Whereas I feel like if you're in a smaller city, I had this
• 1:00:00
  conversation with some clients the other day, actually, they
• 1:00:02
  were moving from Porto in Portugal and they loved it
• 1:00:07
  there. They loved the city, they loved
• 1:00:09
  the vibe, but they just felt like there were tourists
• 1:00:12
  absolutely everywhere. And they just felt like they
• 1:00:13
  were kind of claustrophobic in that way, you know what I mean?
• 1:00:17
  Like they didn't, they couldn't just kind of breathe and be and
• 1:00:20
  just get settled. And so they were worried that
• 1:00:22
  that was going to happen. Well, that was one of their
• 1:00:25
  questions for me about Civic. Yeah.
• 1:00:27
  It's like, OK, well, what about Civic?
• 1:00:28
  Yeah. So we don't want it.
• 1:00:29
  We don't want that. Like you really, in my opinion,
• 1:00:32
  Again, this is my take, this is my experience, but I don't
• 1:00:35
  really think it is that way because of its size.
• 1:00:38
  So that would be, and I don't know Malaga well enough to be
• 1:00:42
  able to say one way or the other.
• 1:00:44
  But that's why I like a bigger city, because you there's just
• 1:00:47
  you're more spread out and there's more space for
• 1:00:49
  everybody. How was the how do you feel?
• 1:00:54
  It was the acceptance that you fell from the people around you
• 1:00:59
  when you arrive and you try to like you said, you you focused
• 1:01:03
  on making Spanish friends. I don't know it wasn't an
• 1:01:05
  exclusive, but you tried and I understand the also the the
• 1:01:08
  argument behind it. But how did you feel that?
• 1:01:10
  Did you ever feel like you are the non-native one?
• 1:01:14
  Did you ever feel that you are you had bad feeling or do you
• 1:01:19
  think it helped a lot the fact that you're already speaking the
• 1:01:21
  language? Well, OK, you made a couple
• 1:01:24
  comments there that so of course I felt like the not native one
• 1:01:29
  because my Spanish was trash and I understood nothing.
• 1:01:33
  So yes, I felt like the not native one.
• 1:01:37
  But so it's like, or did I feel good because I already spoke the
• 1:01:40
  language? I didn't speak the language.
• 1:01:42
  I had a base and a very rusty broken base.
• 1:01:46
  So was that helpful? Yes, and that definitely did
• 1:01:49
  make a difference because I wasn't starting from zero.
• 1:01:52
  I wasn't saying donde salvano and then that's it.
• 1:01:56
  You know what I mean? That's like I could I could
• 1:01:59
  piece together sentences, slow, simple ones and I had to think
• 1:02:02
  about it. But so yes, I do think that that
• 1:02:05
  was helpful definitely. But I will say when it, when it
• 1:02:11
  came to trying to make Spanish friends and finding my my
• 1:02:17
  circle, I genuinely think that I got really lucky because my, my
• 1:02:23
  best friend here, she was my very first friend.
• 1:02:25
  She's still my best friend. She, I met her, I don't know,
• 1:02:29
  three weeks in. So I random our store.
• 1:02:33
  We call her a love story because the way that we met, it's such
• 1:02:38
  so random, but basically she was working at a clothing shop at
• 1:02:44
  the time and I was with a who I lived another American girl who
• 1:02:48
  was in my TEFL course. We were roommates at the time
• 1:02:52
  while we were taking this course.
• 1:02:54
  And so and she was going to be leaving after after the course,
• 1:02:57
  she wasn't staying. And so it was kind of operation
• 1:03:01
  make Stephanie 1 friend before Corinne goes back to the States
• 1:03:06
  because, you know, it's easier to make friends with friends
• 1:03:09
  versus to be that one awkward lonely person.
• 1:03:12
  Like, hey, hey, guys, you guys look fun.
• 1:03:17
  Guess who's also good time? You want, you want another
• 1:03:21
  friend? I mean, that's so awkward,
• 1:03:22
  right? So it's easier if you're going
• 1:03:25
  with somebody else. And then anyway, you like you
• 1:03:28
  get it. So we, we were in this clothing
• 1:03:30
  store trying on a couple things and I ended up asking her.
• 1:03:36
  I end up asking, I think I tried in Spanish for about 1/2 a
• 1:03:39
  sentence. And then I got stuck and either
• 1:03:41
  either switched to English myself or she switched to
• 1:03:43
  English, which is very kind. But I was asking you a question
• 1:03:46
  about bra straps and whether or not it was acceptable to show
• 1:03:49
  your bra strap in Spain. Because this thing I was trying
• 1:03:53
  out, I'm like, I don't understand.
• 1:03:54
  Like you have to wear a bra otherwise, I mean, you have to
• 1:03:57
  wear a bra, but then you, you would see it.
• 1:04:00
  So I don't, I don't know how it works here.
• 1:04:04
  And she's just looks at me and just like, I mean, yeah, it's
• 1:04:08
  where where are you from? And I said, OK.
• 1:04:11
  So well, I'm asking not because I'm a tourist, just here for the
• 1:04:14
  weekend trying to fit in. Actually just moved here.
• 1:04:17
  I don't know anybody. So I don't have anybody to ask
• 1:04:20
  these kind of these kinds of questions too.
• 1:04:24
  She thankfully picked up in my very subtle hint and she invited
• 1:04:28
  me out to have one bite us out for a for a drink that night
• 1:04:32
  with her. In her part, she's like, hey,
• 1:04:33
  well, I'm going to go grab a drink with my partner later
• 1:04:35
  tonight. You guys can come if you want.
• 1:04:38
  What? Oh my God, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 1:04:40
  Tell give me the time of the place.
• 1:04:41
  We're there. And and so we did.
• 1:04:45
  And so we ended up going out. We had this wonderful night and
• 1:04:48
  ended up getting a little crazy, but it was in the best way.
• 1:04:51
  And, and ever since then we were we, we hung out more.
• 1:04:55
  But in that night that I met a lot of her other friends because
• 1:04:58
  I ended up being we went from here to there to there.
• 1:05:01
  And, you know, and I knew that we had a great time.
• 1:05:05
  But so I think I got really lucky in the sense that she
• 1:05:09
  happened to be someone who moved to England when she was 18.
• 1:05:13
  I knew how it felt to live in a different country where she
• 1:05:16
  didn't really speak the language.
• 1:05:18
  Very great, let you know she didn't have perfect English at
• 1:05:20
  the time and also wanted to try to fit in and meet some local
• 1:05:23
  people so she could empathize in my situation.
• 1:05:26
  So she knew that I didn't have great Spanish, but also that I
• 1:05:29
  did want to try to learn. It's not like I'm like, oh, no,
• 1:05:32
  I'm here, so you have to speak in my language.
• 1:05:33
  Well, no, I really wanted to be able to integrate and and learn
• 1:05:38
  her language to speak with them. So I got really lucky because I
• 1:05:41
  felt like she just totally adopted me.
• 1:05:43
  She just took me under her wing and every time she was doing
• 1:05:46
  something, she would say, Hey, I'm going out for drinks with
• 1:05:49
  someone. So you want to come?
• 1:05:50
  Yes, hey, I'm going to go out for dinner with this people.
• 1:05:52
  Do you want to come? Yes.
• 1:05:54
  Hey, there's this event. Do you want to come?
• 1:05:55
  Yes, I'm like yes, yes, always yes.
• 1:05:58
  So and not everybody has that, that experience.
• 1:06:02
  I do. But I think there.
• 1:06:04
  Are. But I think there are two things
• 1:06:05
  which are coming together. The fact that she asked you, but
• 1:06:08
  also the fact that you always said yes always were always
• 1:06:11
  there because even though you, you, you were not only saying
• 1:06:16
  that you, you want to socialize more, you're actually going in.
• 1:06:19
  And I'm pretty sure this was not always easy and you had hard
• 1:06:21
  days at work and so on. And you never said no, like,
• 1:06:25
  I'll come with you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 1:06:27
  And I think that those are the two things that come together
• 1:06:29
  always. Yeah, no.
• 1:06:31
  And you know, you're right. And I think it does go both ways
• 1:06:33
  for sure, But I think it's very common really in every probably
• 1:06:39
  every culture when and just civvy has no exception.
• 1:06:43
  Is that in this in here in the city in particular, a lot of
• 1:06:47
  people have were born and raised here, right.
• 1:06:49
  So their group of friends they probably met in elementary
• 1:06:52
  school. So if you have a group of
• 1:06:55
  friends since you were five, well, it's not we've already got
• 1:06:59
  our group. We're good.
• 1:07:01
  You know, we don't need more people to come in.
• 1:07:04
  And so it can sometimes be challenging, but that's normal.
• 1:07:08
  You know, I mean, if, if that's your group, that's your group
• 1:07:10
  and you've got your inside jokes and you've got your, you know,
• 1:07:13
  you got your places that you go. And so I get it.
• 1:07:16
  It's, it's a normal thing, which is again, why I consider myself
• 1:07:20
  to be lucky in that way that she was willing to invite me.
• 1:07:24
  And because often it's people here, especially in the South,
• 1:07:27
  they're wonderful. They're some of the most
• 1:07:29
  kindest, warmest, most welcoming people.
• 1:07:32
  But it's also more of let's go and grab a beer together or like
• 1:07:37
  let's while we're out, we're going to have a great time.
• 1:07:40
  We get along great, but you're not going to be the person that
• 1:07:44
  I call when I have a problem. Does that make sense?
• 1:07:46
  So like to get into that about like past that surface level
• 1:07:50
  relationship of, hey, I'm having fun while we're together, but
• 1:07:54
  I'm not going to call you to like in order to forget, you
• 1:07:58
  know what I'm trying to say to get them to call you.
• 1:08:01
  That's the tricky part, but anyway.
• 1:08:06
  For sure, like you said, I think the part that she was also
• 1:08:09
  living abroad and she knew what that mean.
• 1:08:11
  I think that helped a lot into having this openness to to get
• 1:08:14
  you in because I think that you most of the in most of the
• 1:08:18
  situation, you need people that understand what you're going
• 1:08:21
  through. And people, even though they are
• 1:08:23
  saying, yeah, we know you're from outside, it's not so easy.
• 1:08:25
  No, they don't get actually what you feel.
• 1:08:27
  They don't get the feeling of trying to fit in, even though
• 1:08:30
  you don't know the habit, you don't know the language, you
• 1:08:32
  don't know anything, but you try to fit in.
• 1:08:34
  And I think that's only someone that already lived abroad can
• 1:08:37
  understand. Oh yeah, well, and, and and she
• 1:08:39
  was, she's just been so wonderful because she would we
• 1:08:42
  would speak in 10% English. No, sorry, 10% Spanish, 90%
• 1:08:47
  English until we could get to 20, eighty, 3070 all the way
• 1:08:52
  until we got to 100. And then once I was speaking
• 1:08:55
  with a little bit more fluency, then she goes, OK.
• 1:08:59
  And so then she really, she worked with me.
• 1:09:03
  I mean, she was my Spanish teacher.
• 1:09:05
  Like shout out to Gabby. You're fantastic.
• 1:09:08
  But so she, she really worked with me and was very patient
• 1:09:11
  with me. Also, I will say that it's
• 1:09:14
  something that for many, many people, myself included, I mean,
• 1:09:18
  it's a thing that when you're learning a foreign language, one
• 1:09:22
  of the most difficult pieces is getting over kind of, I'm going
• 1:09:27
  to call it your ego, but it's that sense of we don't want to
• 1:09:31
  make a mistake. We don't want to look
• 1:09:33
  ridiculous. We don't want to say the wrong
• 1:09:35
  thing. And so we just don't, So we
• 1:09:38
  don't want to talk. I, I just let that go very
• 1:09:42
  early. So I'm like, listen, I am here
• 1:09:45
  to learn the language and do I do I know it?
• 1:09:48
  No, right now, no. Will I make mistakes?
• 1:09:50
  Of course, but I also, ever since I right when I moved, I
• 1:09:55
  have a list of on my notes on my phone that's says Spanish
• 1:09:59
  phrases to remember. And I would just write these
• 1:10:02
  like these are like these colloquial terms of the words
• 1:10:04
  that are not in that textbook from when we learned, right?
• 1:10:07
  So you're saying like, did you learn for a lot from school or
• 1:10:10
  not? And it's like, well, that's that
• 1:10:11
  difference. And that's in every language,
• 1:10:13
  right? I mean, what the textbook says
• 1:10:15
  and what people actually use, There's obviously, yes, that's
• 1:10:19
  correct. I guess that's what we use.
• 1:10:20
  But that would be more, you know what I mean?
• 1:10:22
  It's, it's not the everyday colloquial type of stuff.
• 1:10:26
  And every time somebody would say something I didn't
• 1:10:28
  understand, I'd be like kissing Yafika.
• 1:10:30
  What does that mean? And I would stop them and make
• 1:10:34
  him explain it to me. And I mean, not every single
• 1:10:37
  time, but almost every single time.
• 1:10:40
  I was really diligent about that because I wanted to learn it
• 1:10:43
  and, and most, most people are happy to stop and tell you and
• 1:10:47
  explain it to you. And especially because often
• 1:10:49
  when you sit on the other side, if someone asks you, because I
• 1:10:54
  was kind of fun, because for me, I was learning Spanish as I was
• 1:10:57
  teaching English. So it was a really kind of a fun
• 1:11:00
  mix for me because people would ask me, my students would ask me
• 1:11:03
  that, OK, So what does this idiom come from?
• 1:11:06
  Or I would say something that I didn't realize.
• 1:11:08
  I'm it was an expression because you just speak how you speak.
• 1:11:11
  And then I see the deer on the headlights like, oh, would it?
• 1:11:15
  Oh, yeah. No, that was an express.
• 1:11:16
  OK, let's let's go back. What I just said means this.
• 1:11:21
  And it's kind of fun because it teaches you something about your
• 1:11:24
  own language. And it's you, you learn.
• 1:11:27
  You learn stuff. Or you say, you know what?
• 1:11:29
  I don't know why we call it that once in a blue moon.
• 1:11:33
  I don't know. Well, probably because the moon
• 1:11:36
  looks blue every once in a while.
• 1:11:38
  I don't know. And so these things that it, but
• 1:11:41
  it, it makes your own language kind of fun again too.
• 1:11:45
  So it's that would be my, my recommendation for people out
• 1:11:48
  there who are wanting to learn a new language but are afraid to
• 1:11:52
  speak and make mistakes, make those mistakes.
• 1:11:55
  People are super happy to help you and be patient and like they
• 1:11:59
  are patient. I mean, for the most part at
• 1:12:01
  least, at least you're in the South of Spain.
• 1:12:05
  I think there is no bigger enemy for learning a new language than
• 1:12:09
  your ego. Oh yeah.
• 1:12:10
  And, and I can say that 100% agreeing with you 100%.
• 1:12:15
  And by the way, saying expression, you said before one
• 1:12:18
  that I didn't know. I want to wet my feet in to see
• 1:12:20
  if I like it or not. And you know, I didn't know the
• 1:12:24
  expression. Interesting.
• 1:12:25
  Yeah, Yeah, that. Sounds sounds interesting.
• 1:12:29
  So you started teaching the languages for long long.
• 1:12:32
  Have you done the English lessons?
• 1:12:36
  So remember how he said there were there were two moments at 2
• 1:12:38
  1/2 years and then about four? So it's because I had been
• 1:12:41
  teaching English for about four years.
• 1:12:43
  And I say about because my 4th year I was part time because I
• 1:12:48
  was trying to, I realized, OK, teaching English is fine.
• 1:12:53
  I'm actually, I was actually pleasantly surprised with how
• 1:12:55
  much I did enjoy it. I was fully expecting to hate
• 1:12:57
  it. I did not study to be an
• 1:13:00
  educator. There are many reasons I should
• 1:13:02
  not be an educator. I'm I'm, I am a sales, I'm a
• 1:13:05
  business person. I like working with adults that
• 1:13:09
  are reasonable, rational, you know, let's come to an
• 1:13:13
  agreement, a common decision conclusion, right?
• 1:13:17
  I'm just so I just came into it. I was going to be my first year.
• 1:13:22
  I had four sections of 13 going on 14 year olds.
• 1:13:27
  That is such a tough age. And I'm thinking, oh, they're
• 1:13:30
  kind of they're going to eat me alive.
• 1:13:32
  I just how is this going to go? I don't know how to be a
• 1:13:34
  teacher. I don't.
• 1:13:36
  And it was great. They were honestly really
• 1:13:38
  wonderful. So I was, I was pleasantly
• 1:13:41
  surprised with how well it did go, how much I did enjoy it.
• 1:13:45
  But I realized, listen, this isn't filling my cup.
• 1:13:47
  This isn't this, this isn't what I want to do, right?
• 1:13:51
  This isn't my passion. So, and I really genuinely loved
• 1:13:55
  real estate. I had while I was teaching, I
• 1:13:58
  just happened to walk into a real estate company just like a
• 1:14:02
  random agency just to learn like hello, I'm me.
• 1:14:07
  This is I have a little bit of experience actually, I'm a
• 1:14:09
  realtor back home. I was wondering if you could
• 1:14:11
  just tell me a little bit about how does real estate work here
• 1:14:13
  in Spain? Come to find out there are two
• 1:14:17
  different ways that real estate is done in Spain.
• 1:14:19
  There's a traditional way and then there's the quote UN quote
• 1:14:22
  American way. And these are their words, not
• 1:14:25
  mine, but I would agree because. And what I mean by that is
• 1:14:28
  there's like the, the big franchises like the re/max, the
• 1:14:32
  Keller Williams, the Century 21, the the name that came.
• 1:14:35
  They literally came from the US. So that's why the American way,
• 1:14:38
  because they do have their systems that they instill.
• 1:14:41
  So I'm like, OK, I did not know I, I had walked into a
• 1:14:45
  traditional one. And one of the things that I
• 1:14:49
  love most about real estate is it's your own business.
• 1:14:52
  So you can do as much or as little as you want.
• 1:14:54
  You run it the way that you want.
• 1:14:56
  You don't have a boss, but you do have a broker.
• 1:14:58
  So you have someone to go to for support to ask questions.
• 1:15:01
  But if I want to go on vacation, I go on vacation.
• 1:15:03
  If I want to take a Friday off, I take a Friday off.
• 1:15:05
  If I want to work 60 hours a week, I work 60 hours a week.
• 1:15:08
  If I want to work 15, that's fine too, you know, And so
• 1:15:11
  that's one of the wonderful thing, one of the, I mean, I,
• 1:15:13
  there's many things that I love about real estate.
• 1:15:16
  But so when I walked into this agency and they said, Yep, OK,
• 1:15:19
  so you would be a salaried employee.
• 1:15:22
  So you would earn X amount per month and then you would earn
• 1:15:25
  like a really little amount of Commission per sale that you
• 1:15:28
  have, You have your hours, you know, you're going to be here on
• 1:15:32
  these days at this time, it's also a split shift.
• 1:15:35
  So you'd be like 9 to two, 5 to 830 kind of a thing.
• 1:15:38
  At least. Of course, here in Spain, we
• 1:15:40
  have the siesta time, which you can't, I mean, you can't call on
• 1:15:44
  people during that time. You just can't.
• 1:15:45
  That's a sacred time. You don't.
• 1:15:48
  So I'm like, sounds horrible. And so I would have a boss.
• 1:15:52
  I would have to ask you on vacation like this, all the
• 1:15:54
  things that I love and at all, but some of the main things that
• 1:15:57
  I loved about being a realtor have just been thrown out the
• 1:16:00
  door. My OK, we'll go.
• 1:16:01
  OK, so I'm not going to be a realtor in Spain.
• 1:16:03
  That's a bummer, but whatever. And so I just went about, I was
• 1:16:07
  still doing these tapas tours because I had gotten a call with
• 1:16:13
  a girl from a woman that I used to.
• 1:16:15
  We had Co taught a class and she goes while I was teaching.
• 1:16:19
  She goes, hey, how's it going? We're looking.
• 1:16:22
  Remember how I do this tapas tours?
• 1:16:23
  Yes, but when we're looking for guides, I think you'd enjoy it.
• 1:16:25
  I think you'd be really good at it.
• 1:16:26
  You should apply. And I said, well, what, what do
• 1:16:29
  I have to do? And she said, well, you have to
• 1:16:31
  bring these, a group of people to various places and you have
• 1:16:34
  to explain to them what they're eating and drinking and also eat
• 1:16:38
  and drink with them and make sure that they're having a good
• 1:16:41
  time. Like, I mean, I think I think I
• 1:16:45
  can do that. I think that.
• 1:16:47
  Yeah, that sounds that. Or doing another adult's class
• 1:16:51
  in the evening, like, yeah, I want to try this tapas tour
• 1:16:55
  thing. So I started doing them both at
• 1:16:57
  the same time. I was teaching and I was doing a
• 1:16:59
  tapas tours. It was a couple days a week.
• 1:17:02
  And then once I got to that point of that four year mark,
• 1:17:04
  like, OK, let me stop doing the teaching and I'm going to look
• 1:17:08
  for something else. And meanwhile I'm doing these
• 1:17:10
  tapas tours. So I mean, I was like, I was
• 1:17:13
  surviving. Thank God I was eating on those
• 1:17:16
  tours. Like that's another dinner I
• 1:17:19
  don't have to pay for. You know, those are groceries
• 1:17:22
  saved. So I was surviving, but
• 1:17:25
  surviving is the word. So I certainly wasn't like, oh,
• 1:17:29
  I've got all this money. I mean, still I'm not, but
• 1:17:32
  whatever. But so that's what I saw as I'm
• 1:17:35
  trying to. Yeah.
• 1:17:36
  And then I ultimately rediscovered real estate here in
• 1:17:40
  Spain. And but the, there's a great
• 1:17:43
  company, they're called Elephant Real Estate, the company that I
• 1:17:47
  used to work for, the first company, they reached out to me
• 1:17:49
  on LinkedIn and they said, Hey, we see you, you have experience
• 1:17:54
  in the US being a realtor. We're a realtor there.
• 1:17:56
  Again, this is, they're the first people to tell me this.
• 1:17:59
  But with, we're a real estate company, but with an American
• 1:18:02
  approach or American mentality or whatever they said.
• 1:18:04
  And I'm like, what does that mean?
• 1:18:07
  And so I, I booked the meeting, I went and sure enough, I was
• 1:18:11
  self-employed. I would have I, I would have
• 1:18:13
  that, that broker kind of figure and call it a broker, but kind
• 1:18:17
  of like the main person that I could go to to ask questions,
• 1:18:20
  but they have that and they have that office that I could use and
• 1:18:24
  etcetera. No, but otherwise it's my, it's
• 1:18:26
  my business. I can run it how I want to.
• 1:18:28
  I can work how much or how little I want to.
• 1:18:30
  It sounded, it sounded great. And so that's what I did.
• 1:18:33
  And I worked for them for, for a couple for a year and a half,
• 1:18:36
  two years, year and a half, I don't remember.
• 1:18:40
  And so that's kind of what I'd been doing is I, I was trying to
• 1:18:45
  find my niche. They kept saying, oh, you have
• 1:18:47
  to find your speciality in real estate.
• 1:18:49
  And I didn't understand what that meant because in, in
• 1:18:51
  Wisconsin, you're a residential realtor or you're a commercial
• 1:18:56
  realtor. Do you sell to people or do you
• 1:18:57
  sell businesses? Right.
• 1:18:59
  You know, and I'm thinking what I'm, what does that mean?
• 1:19:02
  Residential? That's my niche.
• 1:19:04
  Like, well, no, within that you have to find what you want to
• 1:19:07
  specialize in a mic. OK.
• 1:19:10
  And so it took me a while to really figure out what what my
• 1:19:16
  niche, so to speak, is. And that's when I discovered the
• 1:19:21
  relocation specialist niche because I realized I'm a
• 1:19:27
  foreigner who's now moved to Spain.
• 1:19:29
  I've been there, I've done that. I know what it's like.
• 1:19:32
  I know the struggles that you have to go through.
• 1:19:34
  There's a lot of people that are doing this as well.
• 1:19:37
  Let me help them, right? Because when I was in Wisconsin
• 1:19:41
  as a realtor, my favorite clients were my first time home
• 1:19:43
  buyers. I love them because they were
• 1:19:45
  just, you know, I just took them under my wing and I explained
• 1:19:48
  everything, you know, explain the process, how it works.
• 1:19:51
  I have a lot of questions. I help them through that through
• 1:19:54
  the whole way, right? And, and then now here I realize
• 1:20:00
  that my, that most of them are rent before they buy.
• 1:20:03
  And that's my recommendation anyway.
• 1:20:04
  You want to make sure, first of all, do I like Spain?
• 1:20:07
  Secondly, do I like city? Yeah.
• 1:20:09
  And then which neighborhood, Right.
• 1:20:11
  Because often, OK, we rented here.
• 1:20:12
  And then we realize, you know what, actually, you know, my
• 1:20:15
  doctor's here, my gym is there. I want to do that, you know, so
• 1:20:19
  that happens. But yeah.
• 1:20:21
  So that's kind of what what I stumbled into.
• 1:20:24
  And so now it's this really wonderful community of, of
• 1:20:27
  relocation specialist. I've got people partners all
• 1:20:30
  throughout Spain and we all work together.
• 1:20:32
  And yeah, it's great. It's wonderful.
• 1:20:36
  That's interesting. So you are doing, you are doing
• 1:20:39
  the real estate, but only with the relocation part.
• 1:20:41
  That means everyone that wants to somehow move to civilian or
• 1:20:46
  to Spain. So that's my main, that's what I
• 1:20:49
  focus on. I am still just a regular
• 1:20:52
  realtor as well. So what I kind of focus on, I
• 1:20:55
  mean, so I'm super happy to if there's a Spanish person that
• 1:20:58
  says, Hey, will you sell my house?
• 1:20:59
  Will you list it? Yeah, of course, because I am, I
• 1:21:01
  mean, I am a realtor or same thing if there's a Spaniard that
• 1:21:05
  says, Hey, will you help me buy a house?
• 1:21:07
  Of course. But my, my main, most of my
• 1:21:11
  clients are non Spanish. Most of them tend to be
• 1:21:14
  American. But I've got, I've had clients
• 1:21:16
  from all over. I've had clients from Portugal,
• 1:21:18
  from Egypt, from from South Africa, I mean from many
• 1:21:23
  different places from Germany. Actually I've got some from
• 1:21:26
  Germany as well. So I've got people from all
• 1:21:28
  over. Most of my clients happen to be
• 1:21:30
  American, mostly because some of the partners that I work with,
• 1:21:33
  they focus on the American market and also being American.
• 1:21:36
  That's a nice kind of it. It's a comfortable blend being
• 1:21:40
  that cultural slash language bridge for them.
• 1:21:45
  But yeah, I do both. So I do the rental, the rentals
• 1:21:48
  and the purchases depends on what they need, which is kind of
• 1:21:51
  nice because a lot of, I guess a lot of real estate or relocation
• 1:21:54
  specialist don't necessarily sell some new, but not all of
• 1:21:58
  them do. So I am one of those that does
• 1:22:00
  the plays in both baskets. That's that's nice.
• 1:22:05
  I mean the, there are not a lot of cases in which you are doing
• 1:22:10
  the same job as from your home country.
• 1:22:12
  And I think that's something which is which is really nice
• 1:22:14
  for you that you are, you are able to do the thing that you
• 1:22:18
  liked in the US to do it in Spain as well.
• 1:22:21
  And I think that's not happening so, so often.
• 1:22:23
  Right. I, I feel really, I feel really
• 1:22:25
  lucky, right? Because you're right, I actually
• 1:22:28
  tried to, you know, it's one of those that what I tried to do
• 1:22:32
  when I first stopped teaching, I tried to find a job.
• 1:22:36
  I was like, OK, well, I want to find out, try to find some
• 1:22:38
  online, like a remote work job where I'm earning an American
• 1:22:43
  salary, but living in Spain. Because even if it's a really
• 1:22:45
  horrible American salary, I'll be living like a queen in Spain
• 1:22:49
  because it's just how it works, right?
• 1:22:52
  And so I'm looking and I'm looking and I'm applying these
• 1:22:56
  different jobs, but I realize it's all, it's also, it's just
• 1:22:59
  one of those, it's not what you know, it's who you know.
• 1:23:01
  Because if you go and apply and you just here you go, here's my
• 1:23:05
  resume, here's my CV and I'm a number, I'm just a number out
• 1:23:09
  OF50100300 more applications. I'm not going to get that job
• 1:23:14
  right. And, and I didn't.
• 1:23:16
  So I'm like, OK, well, what do I do?
• 1:23:19
  And what I, what I really wanted to do was real estate.
• 1:23:22
  And I'm like, well, such a bummer that real estate sucks in
• 1:23:26
  space, but that's, I was so grateful for Elephant to have
• 1:23:30
  reached out to me and they're a wonderful company.
• 1:23:32
  I'm not with them anymore. I've now moved to Exp Realty,
• 1:23:36
  which ironically is the company that I worked for when I was in
• 1:23:39
  the US. So that was part of the reason
• 1:23:42
  that I came back because when I first moved here, we weren't in
• 1:23:44
  Spain. They were, they were at that
• 1:23:46
  time getting to Europe, but they weren't in Spain yet.
• 1:23:50
  And I remember my broker said, well, first of all, when I told
• 1:23:53
  my broker I'm like, OK, goodbye, I'm moving to Spain.
• 1:23:55
  He's like, what, what do you mean?
• 1:23:56
  You're moving to Spain? You're doing so well, you're not
• 1:23:59
  having all these referrals come in.
• 1:24:00
  And it's like coming back organically.
• 1:24:02
  Like I know, but if I don't do it now, I won't do it.
• 1:24:05
  And this is genuinely my dream. And I know I'll regret that if I
• 1:24:08
  don't, if I don't do it, I just need to try.
• 1:24:11
  I need to just RIP that Band-Aid off, get it out of my system.
• 1:24:15
  I'll be back in a year or two. And so he says, well, you know
• 1:24:21
  what, you could start the Spain branch or Spain, you know,
• 1:24:24
  whatever presents when you go. I'm like, no, I'm not.
• 1:24:29
  No, because it's also that wasn't my intention.
• 1:24:31
  I wanted to just learn the language, kind of take a year
• 1:24:34
  off, take a sabbatical if you will, take a gap year and really
• 1:24:38
  focus on that. But now, you know, seven well,
• 1:24:43
  six years later, whatever it was at the time then now they are
• 1:24:47
  very well established in Spain. I don't know how what our count
• 1:24:50
  is now, I don't know 500 agents or something throughout Spain
• 1:24:55
  and it's ever growing. It's growing all the time.
• 1:24:57
  And I really enjoyed working for them in Wisconsin.
• 1:25:01
  So it's nice to be able to come back to that.
• 1:25:04
  They're more international is really nothing negative to say
• 1:25:07
  against Elephant. They're a wonderful company.
• 1:25:09
  They're very professional. They do a really, really great
• 1:25:11
  job. It's just they're a Spanish
• 1:25:14
  company that at least in my, in my particular office at the
• 1:25:17
  time, you know, my nobody in my office, I was one of maybe three
• 1:25:21
  people out of 60 that spoke English, which is fine because
• 1:25:26
  when I was, you know, hey Stephanie, I've got this foreign
• 1:25:28
  client. Will you help me?
• 1:25:29
  Yeah, of course. You know, so there was of course
• 1:25:32
  some benefits to it, but then it was a little tricky for my own
• 1:25:35
  clients to be able to, you know, just a little.
• 1:25:39
  It wasn't, it wasn't as international.
• 1:25:41
  It's a Spanish company and I felt that Exp would be a better
• 1:25:44
  fit. And it has been a really, it has
• 1:25:46
  been a really good. So so now you're having the the
• 1:25:50
  to live in your dream country doing, I don't want to say your
• 1:25:53
  dream job because I don't know if it was a dream job, but it
• 1:25:55
  was at least the job that you really, really enjoy.
• 1:26:00
  Are there any plans of ever going back to the state?
• 1:26:05
  I mean never. Seen it's a far fetched question
• 1:26:08
  for for sure. Yeah, it's like ever, never,
• 1:26:12
  always. These are such permanent words.
• 1:26:15
  So that's who knows, who knows what life has in store.
• 1:26:18
  And you know, as my as my parents get older, that I'm sure
• 1:26:22
  that's going to bring on some new challenges.
• 1:26:24
  And you know, if I were, if I have kids down the line, that's
• 1:26:28
  also going to probably change some perspectives.
• 1:26:30
  But so I don't know, I don't know.
• 1:26:33
  But at for the time being, I'm very happy here.
• 1:26:37
  Also. I'm, I really do.
• 1:26:39
  I love my business and where it's going and I'm, you know,
• 1:26:42
  I'm really proud of my little, but you know, I planted my
• 1:26:45
  little seed and I've been watering it and now it's
• 1:26:47
  starting to blossom a little bit.
• 1:26:49
  So we'll see how how big it can get, how big a beautiful a
• 1:26:52
  flower that can turn into who knows, But I'd really like to
• 1:26:56
  kind of give that a chance because it's one of those, like
• 1:27:00
  I said, it was like I want to be an international salesperson
• 1:27:03
  when I grow up. And I'm kind of doing that.
• 1:27:05
  What what I would say is I want to be an international
• 1:27:08
  salesperson utilizing Spanish on a daily basis, but where my so I
• 1:27:12
  wouldn't lose it, right? So I wouldn't lose the language
• 1:27:14
  because in my brain I was going to go to Spain, learn the
• 1:27:18
  language now come back being bilingual.
• 1:27:21
  And my deal was, well, this was before I got into real estate
• 1:27:26
  when I was kind of thinking about this was I would like to,
• 1:27:29
  I wanted to work for an international company that would
• 1:27:31
  just send me places so that I could travel.
• 1:27:33
  I love traveling. I love exploring new places,
• 1:27:35
  learning the culture, the language, everything, well, the
• 1:27:38
  food, all that stuff, you know. So the ideal is they send me
• 1:27:43
  there for a few days, I stay a couple extra days, see it and
• 1:27:46
  then I come home, you know, doing my Spanish thing,
• 1:27:49
  whatever. And but what I've come to
• 1:27:51
  realize is being in Wisconsin, which is, I mean, we're
• 1:27:54
  neighbors with Canada, it is very far away from Latin
• 1:27:56
  America. There is not a lot.
• 1:27:59
  I mean, there is a Latin community and there is
• 1:28:01
  definitely, but it's not Miami, you know what I mean?
• 1:28:04
  It's not Southern California, it's not, you know, it's just
• 1:28:08
  doesn't have that same where you just see Spanish everywhere.
• 1:28:12
  I wish it was that would be fantastic.
• 1:28:15
  But there just isn't that same market, right?
• 1:28:19
  And I think here now it's, it's come kind of full circle for me
• 1:28:25
  because now I am that international salesperson just
• 1:28:28
  doing it from here with Americans versus doing it from
• 1:28:32
  there with Spanish speaking people, right.
• 1:28:34
  So it's, it's doing the same thing just on the other side of
• 1:28:37
  the pond. And it's really rewarding
• 1:28:40
  because it is it, it fills my cup.
• 1:28:42
  I'm able to help truly help these people get here and be
• 1:28:46
  able to fulfill their dreams. That I fully understand because
• 1:28:50
  I've been there. So I don't know, will I ever
• 1:28:54
  move back? Maybe, but in the short term,
• 1:28:58
  no. I will link your your social
• 1:29:03
  media in the show nose caption because I think it's important
• 1:29:05
  for whomever wants to to relocate to Spain.
• 1:29:09
  I think you have an amazing person that can help you.
• 1:29:13
  Stephanie, I want, I want to ask you, how does Wisconsin feel
• 1:29:16
  now? How does it feel now?
• 1:29:20
  Right at the moment it's very cold, but I assume that's not
• 1:29:25
  where you are going. Talking about the languages.
• 1:29:34
  But in what way? What do you mean and how?
• 1:29:35
  How does it feel? So I would safely be able to say
• 1:29:41
  for you that at the moment, Spain is your home.
• 1:29:43
  What is Wisconsin? So I still call Wisconsin home
• 1:29:50
  too. You know, it's if I'm here and
• 1:29:53
  I'm talking about going back to Wisconsin, you know, for
• 1:29:55
  Christmas or for whatever thing that I say, I'm going back home.
• 1:30:00
  And then when I'm in Wisconsin and I say I need to go back to
• 1:30:03
  Spain, I'm like, OK, then I'm going back home.
• 1:30:05
  So, you know, I don't know. I really do feel that both
• 1:30:10
  places are home. I never had, I never had a
• 1:30:12
  negative experience in Wisconsin.
• 1:30:14
  I love Wisconsin, I love where I'm from.
• 1:30:16
  And there's pros and cons to both, right?
• 1:30:18
  Often people here, they can't imagine living in somewhere
• 1:30:23
  where I have lived -35°C. And they're like what?
• 1:30:29
  Or just a normal winter day could easily be -20 or 0, but
• 1:30:34
  it's not. I mean, maybe 5, you know, it's
• 1:30:38
  cold, but they can't fathom that.
• 1:30:42
  And then on the flip side, people in Wisconsin cannot
• 1:30:45
  fathom that. I live here and it'll get, it'll
• 1:30:49
  be in the 40s. Forty something degrees every
• 1:30:52
  day in July and August, sometimes reaching up to 50.
• 1:30:55
  I think last year got up to 53 one day.
• 1:30:57
  Now, I mean, that's dramatic. That's also like what the one
• 1:31:00
  says that's been baking in the sun.
• 1:31:02
  You know what I mean? I was like, that's probably not
• 1:31:04
  actually what it was, but it's it's in the Fort is very, very
• 1:31:07
  hot. So and we don't have fantastic
• 1:31:10
  air conditioning, which so it's it's one of those where, but I
• 1:31:15
  love Wisconsin because it has four full seasons.
• 1:31:18
  I love going home on Christmas for Christmas and it's cold.
• 1:31:22
  You know, you go outside and it, like, kind of pierces your face
• 1:31:25
  for a second. Like, I'm home.
• 1:31:27
  And also, but also because I don't have to deal with it.
• 1:31:30
  I'm not the one that has to shovel.
• 1:31:32
  And you. OK?
• 1:31:33
  Yeah. I have to scrape my my
• 1:31:34
  windshield before I get in the car.
• 1:31:36
  But it's different in Sylvia. Life is outdoors.
• 1:31:40
  We are always outside. We're in the plazas.
• 1:31:42
  We're on the terraces. We're outdoors 12 months out of
• 1:31:45
  the year. And it's funny because I'm
• 1:31:48
  actually colder in Sylvia in the winter than I've ever been in
• 1:31:52
  Wisconsin in the winter. But let that one sink in.
• 1:31:57
  And the reason why is because of what I just said.
• 1:31:59
  We're always outside in Civic and we're always just outside.
• 1:32:03
  And so the plan on any given weekend will be OK, let's meet
• 1:32:08
  at a bar. Like let's grab dinner, Let's
• 1:32:11
  grab drink it. Because we when we say bar, a
• 1:32:13
  bar isn't necessarily only somewhere where you drink.
• 1:32:16
  A bar means a small little restaurant.
• 1:32:18
  A restaurant is a place where you eat and it has a big eating,
• 1:32:21
  you know, we say salon, a big eating area of exceeding area,
• 1:32:26
  sorry. And a bar is all those little
• 1:32:29
  itty bitty hole in the wall places, which is basically all
• 1:32:31
  of them. No So, but The thing is, so we
• 1:32:33
  go to a bar, but you're outside, so either sitting down and
• 1:32:37
  you're eating or not. And you're then, you know, if
• 1:32:40
  you are at somewhere afterwards and you're standing, but you're
• 1:32:43
  going to be standing with your ungloved hand holding an ice
• 1:32:48
  cold beer, standing still outdoors.
• 1:32:52
  So I mean, it doesn't get below 0, it doesn't get below freezing
• 1:32:56
  here. But once it gets late at night,
• 1:32:59
  I don't think it's sleeping night time.
• 1:33:01
  I mean, we're in the single digits.
• 1:33:03
  It'll be, I don't know, it'll be 864 degrees.
• 1:33:08
  That's cold. When you're stood there still
• 1:33:11
  with your ice cold, you're like, but what?
• 1:33:14
  I just started wearing gloves. I'm like, listen, pass.
• 1:33:16
  I just know it's just. I think you are the only one,
• 1:33:20
  but. And, and in Wiscal it's
• 1:33:23
  different because we don't just I'm outdoors.
• 1:33:25
  You go from your heated house because you have to heat it
• 1:33:30
  otherwise the pipes will freeze and then you die.
• 1:33:32
  Or from your heated house to your heated car, like into my
• 1:33:36
  car. And then you go from your heated
• 1:33:38
  car to the heated building or other house and then you work,
• 1:33:41
  you know, you quickly go there. OK, now we're inside.
• 1:33:44
  So you're outdoors very little. This is a very different thing,
• 1:33:49
  you know, and here, I think everywhere in the world,
• 1:33:52
  probably the least in the case of Spain and in the US, I, I'd
• 1:33:58
  be curious, I, it has to be the same in Germany.
• 1:34:00
  You'll you'll tell me, but every, every building, every
• 1:34:04
  house is built for the harshest season that you have.
• 1:34:08
  So in the case of Wisconsin, that's winter.
• 1:34:10
  In the case of city, yeah, that's summer, Right.
• 1:34:12
  So here that everything is built with tile floors, things that
• 1:34:16
  will keep heat out. It's not insulated very well,
• 1:34:19
  but kind of on purpose, right? I mean, kind of kind of right.
• 1:34:23
  Depends. I mean, but in any case, it's
• 1:34:27
  just different on the tile floor.
• 1:34:28
  I never understood that when I came here.
• 1:34:31
  I had never understood this, like mindset or, I don't know, I
• 1:34:36
  didn't understand the thought behind house shoes.
• 1:34:40
  Like, what does that mean? Like in the winter time to wear
• 1:34:43
  slippers, OK, just because it's cozy, but just because it's
• 1:34:47
  cozy, not really for necessity. And then you move to a place
• 1:34:51
  with all tile flooring. You're like, oh, OK, makes
• 1:34:55
  sense. I get it.
• 1:34:56
  I get it now. True, true.
• 1:35:00
  And I, I have to say we, we, we are recording this in a day
• 1:35:03
  when, when I got about 25 centimeters of snow in in
• 1:35:07
  Germany. No way.
• 1:35:08
  Yeah. Yes, absolutely. 25 centimeters,
• 1:35:13
  yeah. OK, hold on.
• 1:35:14
  Let me do math. What is that in inches?
• 1:35:17
  I think that's maybe 7 inches. Hold on, let me I have this
• 1:35:22
  fantastic amp it's. Converter.
• 1:35:26
  Units. Plus, that's what every American
• 1:35:32
  needs. To get a feeling about how much
• 1:35:36
  is 25 centimeters, but I don't, I don't actually know.
• 1:35:39
  See. It's, oh, almost 10.
• 1:35:42
  It's 9.8 inches inches. Yeah, so and I have to tell you
• 1:35:46
  that nobody in Germany is prepared to drive on snow.
• 1:35:50
  And I drove a really, really slow to my son's school today.
• 1:35:55
  Driving to school was a disaster.
• 1:35:57
  Really. You're not prepared for snow?
• 1:36:00
  That's surprising. They are, but they are extremely
• 1:36:03
  afraid, so I have to say they're not used to.
• 1:36:05
  So they are prepared, they have winter tires and so on, but
• 1:36:08
  they're not used to. So I have to say we drove at
• 1:36:10
  about 2030 kilometers per hour. So yeah, yeah, that's.
• 1:36:15
  Yeah, but I used the shovel a lot today, the morning.
• 1:36:19
  So I do feel when you said I'm not shoveling the snow, I did
• 1:36:22
  about 45 minutes, successfully shoveled the snow.
• 1:36:24
  It was a good feeling. Oh.
• 1:36:27
  And it's a workout. I haven't had it in yes,
• 1:36:29
  absolutely. I haven't had it in a while.
• 1:36:31
  Originally from Romania. We really had snow.
• 1:36:33
  I most probably not Wisconsin snow, but really had snow in
• 1:36:36
  Romania as well. So kind of got used to it.
• 1:36:39
  I missed it, to be honest. Yeah, Stephanie, you are a
• 1:36:44
  fantastic human being. I have to say this.
• 1:36:46
  And I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:36:48
  You said a few times you're lucky and I, I have to say
• 1:36:51
  you're not lucky. You're just a hard working
• 1:36:53
  person who takes the opportunities that you get.
• 1:36:57
  And I think somehow we have to avoid at least when we talk
• 1:37:00
  about ourselves to use this luck because it kind of diminishes
• 1:37:04
  the efforts that we put in, in the things that we got until
• 1:37:07
  now. This is my feeling until now.
• 1:37:10
  No, I mean, fair enough. Yeah, I mean, I also, I really
• 1:37:13
  genuinely believe, and this is going to sound how it sounds,
• 1:37:16
  but I believe that attitude is everything.
• 1:37:19
  It really is. And if you have a positive
• 1:37:22
  attitude and a positive outlook on life, things will happen for
• 1:37:27
  you. I, I really, I mean, of course
• 1:37:29
  with the hard work and you're putting in the effort.
• 1:37:31
  I mean, it doesn't just come, but it's, it's one of those
• 1:37:35
  where I think that's, that has really helped me not only in
• 1:37:39
  this experience of relocating, but just in, in life in general.
• 1:37:43
  And I also kind of one other thing that helps me is I, I live
• 1:37:48
  by these words that my grandmother used to say, which
• 1:37:52
  is it's, she had this little speech and she said there's no
• 1:37:55
  sense in worrying because if you worry about something and it
• 1:37:59
  doesn't end up happening, well, there's no sense in worrying
• 1:38:02
  about it because it wasn't going to happen anyway.
• 1:38:04
  And if you worry about something and it does end up happening,
• 1:38:07
  well, there's no sense of worrying about it because it was
• 1:38:09
  going to happen anyway. And I think I often would, I
• 1:38:13
  would shorten that too. We'll cross that bridge when we
• 1:38:15
  get to it. But I think that's, that's one
• 1:38:20
  thing that often people are afraid to move to other
• 1:38:22
  countries because they worry like, well, what if, what if,
• 1:38:25
  what if, what if this, what if that doesn't, you know?
• 1:38:28
  And I think if we can, if we can just take a step back and say,
• 1:38:33
  you know what, it'll work out. It will, it will, we'll find our
• 1:38:38
  way. Human beings were were
• 1:38:41
  programmed to survive, you know, and work is we go back home and
• 1:38:47
  say, hey, you got, we learned a lesson, we got something out of
• 1:38:50
  it. We probably made some cool
• 1:38:51
  friends, had some good experiences, maybe some
• 1:38:54
  difficult experiences, but overall, I think it's always a
• 1:38:58
  positive thing. So I think it's been wonderful
• 1:39:01
  talking with you, fellow expat with a different experience.
• 1:39:05
  I have I have still have 5 rapid 5 questions that I asked before
• 1:39:09
  the before the reptile. I'm sorry for this Spanish word
• 1:39:15
  that doesn't exist in English. Tranquilamente also estrinage.
• 1:39:22
  So there's tranquilamente does exist, but it's like literally
• 1:39:29
  it would be tranquilly, which I mean, you would translate it to
• 1:39:34
  calmly or I don't know. But I think the way that we use
• 1:39:37
  it, I love it in Spanish because it's like, OK, come to my house
• 1:39:42
  when you want. It's like basically kind of take
• 1:39:48
  your time, chill, just whoa, you know what I mean?
• 1:39:52
  Like don't be in a hurry is kind of what I mean, Which I feel
• 1:39:55
  like in English we have to have a phrase in order to get the
• 1:39:58
  same concept across. So I love tranquilamente.
• 1:40:02
  An estrena is also fun because it it's a specific word.
• 1:40:07
  Do you know what it means? No, it's.
• 1:40:09
  I actually don't. It's a specific word when you're
• 1:40:12
  when you're using something for the first time.
• 1:40:16
  So they often use it for clothes, right?
• 1:40:19
  It's like it's always strain on the West toy.
• 1:40:21
  Like I'm wearing this for the first time, which is fun.
• 1:40:25
  It's just a fun word, right? We don't have that in English.
• 1:40:29
  You don't. You are not able to translate
• 1:40:31
  it. Oh, that's really nice one.
• 1:40:32
  I mean, maybe I guess like debuting.
• 1:40:37
  Yeah, but you'd you'd never say debuting for for clothes.
• 1:40:40
  No, Right, right. It's not, It's not.
• 1:40:43
  We wouldn't use it in normal language.
• 1:40:44
  We would say something to like make it very feel very
• 1:40:46
  extravagant. But you wouldn't just say that
• 1:40:48
  to to say it. I don't.
• 1:40:50
  I was thinking because I I thought about this and I thought
• 1:40:54
  about some interesting things about the language, but I don't
• 1:40:58
  want to when the rabbit holes again.
• 1:41:00
  But like for example, they say you not for me.
• 1:41:04
  The the verb doesn't exist in English, so we don't say we will
• 1:41:08
  do breakfast. Yeah, well, to eat breakfast, I
• 1:41:11
  guess we would say. Yeah, but.
• 1:41:14
  Not to some first though, yeah. Exactly.
• 1:41:17
  Yeah. So that's what I thought about,
• 1:41:18
  but the IT helped. But also Madrugar is the same
• 1:41:23
  like Madrugar means to wake up very early, but to wake up very
• 1:41:29
  early. It's not just to wake up that's
• 1:41:32
  exactly and it's not to get right.
• 1:41:35
  It's it's specifically very early in the morning.
• 1:41:40
  It's So that's another good one too.
• 1:41:42
  This thing I didn't thought about.
• 1:41:43
  Yeah. Nice.
• 1:41:47
  The favorite civilian ritual. Civilian ritual.
• 1:41:52
  Yes. Favorite civilian ritual?
• 1:41:59
  Oof, That's that's tough. I'm sure I'm going to say
• 1:42:01
  something and I'm going to hang up.
• 1:42:02
  Oh, I wish I would have said this instead.
• 1:42:05
  I think their their way of and I don't know that I wouldn't say
• 1:42:11
  this is just so yeah, I would say this is Spanish.
• 1:42:13
  It's definitely in the South. But they're and they're how do I
• 1:42:19
  want to say it kind of their way to greet people.
• 1:42:24
  Because what I mean by that it's kind of a twofold.
• 1:42:26
  Well, to greet and to then say goodbye.
• 1:42:29
  Because when you in the US, if I come, especially if it's a group
• 1:42:32
  of people, and I'll just say hi, I'm Stephanie.
• 1:42:36
  And then I sit down and sit next to my friend.
• 1:42:38
  And then I often will not find out the names of everybody else
• 1:42:42
  there. Of course, depending on the
• 1:42:43
  situation, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
• 1:42:45
  But you know what I mean Here in Spain in to be.
• 1:42:48
  Yeah, you say Hola and then you go to each individual person and
• 1:42:53
  you do the two kisses and you say Hola, sorry.
• 1:42:55
  It's so funny. And then you say Hola sorry.
• 1:42:59
  Well, I would say post cast, Paul.
• 1:43:02
  OK, I'll put your backwards. Sorry.
• 1:43:04
  I'm backward. I'm I don't know why, but I, I
• 1:43:07
  realized myself as all the time backwards.
• 1:43:09
  I it does matter. Yeah, Paul, but you know what I
• 1:43:11
  mean. And so they always say, oh, in
• 1:43:13
  cantala. And then I go to the next
• 1:43:15
  person. Then I go to the next person.
• 1:43:16
  And then again when I'm leaving, then I do the same thing.
• 1:43:19
  I say, OK, hasta la we going cantata gonna fit.
• 1:43:22
  And I do the two kisses again. And you have a little short
• 1:43:26
  conversation with each person. So, I mean, you know, how do we
• 1:43:30
  have the reputation of being late?
• 1:43:31
  Everybody's being late all the time.
• 1:43:32
  I mean, that's part of why it's a but it's that's what you do.
• 1:43:37
  And same thing. You're walking down the street.
• 1:43:39
  I bump into somebody that I know, the expectation is you
• 1:43:43
  stop and you say hello and you have a short conversation and
• 1:43:50
  you have a conversation. So if you ultimately get, I
• 1:43:52
  mean, of course, again, depending on the situation,
• 1:43:55
  you're going to work and you need to be there at a certain
• 1:43:57
  time. Well, they say, but you almost
• 1:44:00
  like you have to give the excuse of this is the reason that I'm
• 1:44:04
  not stopping to talk to you. You know what I mean?
• 1:44:07
  Like which I find I love Sevilla because it's very, it just feels
• 1:44:11
  like a big small town because that's like a small town vibe,
• 1:44:15
  right where you say goodbye or you say hello to everyone, you
• 1:44:18
  stop, you take a minute out of your day and you talk to them.
• 1:44:21
  And even if you don't know them, every time you walk into a
• 1:44:24
  store, a bar, a your friend's house, it doesn't matter if you
• 1:44:28
  know the person or not, you always will greet them.
• 1:44:31
  You would say Buenos, which is you always will say buenas, and
• 1:44:35
  when you leave at San Diego you always say hello and goodbye,
• 1:44:38
  which I find really wonderful. I like that because I think the
• 1:44:41
  social interaction is something I had to actually miss today.
• 1:44:44
  And I, I think that taking the time just to say, just to
• 1:44:47
  exchange your exchange a few words for a minute, it's a it's
• 1:44:50
  really, really nice. Yeah, I agree.
• 1:44:55
  One thing that Spain is doing better than the US.
• 1:44:59
  Healthcare. I I kind of knew it, but I
• 1:45:05
  tried. I want to say.
• 1:45:06
  IT healthcare, but. But OK, I'll give you a
• 1:45:08
  different one because that's the obvious one, right?
• 1:45:10
  I mean, you know, we're we're just struggling in that
• 1:45:12
  department have been forever. But the other thing that I would
• 1:45:16
  say that Spain does really well, which is what for me was one of
• 1:45:20
  my biggest culture shock things. People often ask me, So what,
• 1:45:23
  you know, what was it? What was toughest for you?
• 1:45:25
  Was it that eating so late? Which, no, I mean, as a realtor,
• 1:45:28
  I would eat after my show. You know, that was the least.
• 1:45:31
  But for me, what it was was learning to genuinely slow down.
• 1:45:38
  And I don't want, you know, if Spaniards were to see this,
• 1:45:41
  I've, I've posted about that on social media and then, you know,
• 1:45:45
  people like, what do you mean? And like what I mean, and
• 1:45:48
  especially in Madrid and Barcelona, yes, they are also
• 1:45:50
  fast-paced. They're much more metropolis
• 1:45:53
  vibe. But I'm here in the South,
• 1:45:54
  right, which it really is. You take it, you take a step
• 1:45:57
  back and they're still very, very hard working.
• 1:46:01
  They get everything they need to get done, but they really
• 1:46:05
  respect their time off and their time right.
• 1:46:09
  And it, I think that's one thing that in the US we're just kind
• 1:46:12
  of programs culturally that your life is your profession.
• 1:46:17
  And then it's almost you should feel guilty for wanting to take
• 1:46:21
  time off to go and have some time for yourself.
• 1:46:24
  My first job out of college. So the norm, especially the time
• 1:46:28
  you get 2 weeks off for the year, you get 10 days of
• 1:46:30
  vacation for the year. My company, they gave you 8.
• 1:46:35
  And so there's one time I wanted to take one day off.
• 1:46:39
  I want to take a Friday. And he they said, do you need
• 1:46:42
  the whole day? Can you just take 1/2 day?
• 1:46:44
  I'm like, dude, yeah, I need the whole day.
• 1:46:47
  Is that the idea? I want to leave Thursday, Like
• 1:46:48
  hello. And but so just to put, for
• 1:46:51
  example, right now, that particular company was very
• 1:46:54
  intense and I was working many, many, many, many, many hours a
• 1:46:56
  week. I was working like 70 hours a
• 1:46:58
  week, sometimes 80. It was crazy.
• 1:47:00
  But so I come here, people really value their time off and
• 1:47:06
  they really, they do. And they and they say, well, no,
• 1:47:09
  I'm not going to do that. They, they put their boundaries
• 1:47:12
  in a very healthy way as I guess the way that I'd I'd want to put
• 1:47:15
  it. And I really appreciate that.
• 1:47:18
  And I think that in general, I mean, that's Europe, right?
• 1:47:21
  I mean, that's really on the European side versus US.
• 1:47:25
  But yeah, I mean, yeah, sure. There's different countries that
• 1:47:27
  will do it more than others. Yeah, I'm probably talking to
• 1:47:29
  somebody in Germany, but in screen that is one thing that
• 1:47:34
  they definitely do better than the US is respecting their their
• 1:47:37
  their cell themselves, right? Respecting their own time, their
• 1:47:40
  lives, their personal lives and setting boundaries and
• 1:47:44
  respecting those boundaries, which is a it was really tough
• 1:47:47
  for me. And now that I've now that I
• 1:47:50
  have my own business again, I'm I'm going back into my whole
• 1:47:54
  company. Take just Sunday off.
• 1:47:57
  You just don't need look things on Sunday anyway, that's a
• 1:48:02
  different thing. I think it's a it's a topic for
• 1:48:05
  the whole Southern Europe to, to, to make a small command
• 1:48:09
  area. So if we talk about Portugal,
• 1:48:11
  Spain, Italy, I think it's the mentality is a bit different.
• 1:48:15
  It's not surviving to work is just working to survive and
• 1:48:19
  that's it. Yeah.
• 1:48:20
  So there is there is no other. Yeah.
• 1:48:23
  Now I have to switch the question, what does US better
• 1:48:26
  than Spain? I would say, let's see.
• 1:48:36
  I mean like the entrepreneurial, like being a business owner here
• 1:48:42
  and having been a business owner there, it is much easier and
• 1:48:47
  less expensive to be an entrepreneur in the US than it
• 1:48:51
  is in Spain. And not only taxes, I'm not
• 1:48:55
  because of course everybody talks about taxes, but honestly,
• 1:48:58
  I mean, yes, we have high taxes in Spain, but they're not that
• 1:49:03
  crazy. The thing is in, in the US, we
• 1:49:06
  still have, we still a normal average person.
• 1:49:09
  I mean, obviously I'm talking about Jeff Bezos, but like a
• 1:49:13
  normal human like me and you, you're probably going to be
• 1:49:16
  taxed in the 20 something percent bracket in the US.
• 1:49:19
  And so it's still, and then in, in Spain similar, I think.
• 1:49:25
  And then the more money you make, the more that you get
• 1:49:27
  taxed. Like, so it, it, it is actually
• 1:49:30
  kind of similar. The thing is, is we don't see
• 1:49:33
  it. It's not as upfront because The
• 1:49:35
  thing is all of our money goes from military instead of, you
• 1:49:39
  know, healthcare and education. And like, really anyway, we
• 1:49:42
  don't need to go down that rabbit hole, but here we can.
• 1:49:46
  Make another episode about that. Right.
• 1:49:48
  So that's a whole different thing.
• 1:49:49
  But in Spain, my my complaint, room for improvement suggestion,
• 1:49:56
  whatever you want to call it, is in order to be self-employed,
• 1:49:58
  you have to you have to pay a monthly fee or like a monthly
• 1:50:02
  tax, I guess you could call it. Whether you earn €5 a month or
• 1:50:07
  €5000 a month, it doesn't matter.
• 1:50:09
  Just to have your business exist, exist, you have to pay a
• 1:50:14
  certain amount every month, which completely deters many,
• 1:50:18
  many, many people that want to have their own business.
• 1:50:21
  They have a great idea, they have a great product, they're
• 1:50:22
  really talented, whatever the case may be.
• 1:50:24
  But they can't afford it because you know, the first year it's, I
• 1:50:28
  think it's €87.00 a month and then the second year it's 100
• 1:50:31
  and something. And by the third year you're
• 1:50:32
  paying €300 a month, whether you're earning money or not.
• 1:50:36
  And you know, often you'll have good months and you'll have bad
• 1:50:39
  months. But here are the average salary.
• 1:50:43
  I think our minimum wage here is €1100 a month.
• 1:50:46
  And some people, and of course there's many people earn more
• 1:50:49
  than that, but there's many people that don't even earn that
• 1:50:51
  much because they don't even have a full time job.
• 1:50:53
  Or I mean, so if you can think about 300 out of we'll call it
• 1:50:58
  1200, right? Like let's round up a little
• 1:51:00
  bit. That's the quarter of your, of
• 1:51:03
  your pay. That's just going, OK, goodbye.
• 1:51:05
  Just for, just for it to exist. Doesn't matter how much money
• 1:51:08
  you earn. And then of course, you rent and
• 1:51:10
  you have the rest of your bills and food and all the, you know,
• 1:51:13
  so it's really challenging for the typical Saviano Spaniard in
• 1:51:18
  general, right, to be able to be self-employed and so on.
• 1:51:21
  And that side US does a better because you don't have to pay
• 1:51:24
  anything just to have your business exist.
• 1:51:27
  You get paid based or you have to pay based on the amount of
• 1:51:30
  income that you earn, which and then because then that also
• 1:51:33
  here. But so that is what I would say,
• 1:51:36
  just not having to pay the autonomous fee in the US, they
• 1:51:41
  do that better. I think also the, if I dare to
• 1:51:45
  add something, I think also the bureaucracy, which is not that
• 1:51:50
  complicated in the US to start, start, start something on your
• 1:51:54
  own. I was looking to for someone, I
• 1:51:56
  was looking to this starting this small home.
• 1:52:00
  Bakeries in the US you have the option to start this I think
• 1:52:02
  they're called cottages and you are able to sell in your
• 1:52:05
  neighborhood without making a lot of paper.
• 1:52:08
  So I think the less of bureaucracy there on on their
• 1:52:11
  own business. I think it's a it's a huge step
• 1:52:14
  in the future for us. Stephanie, the the last question
• 1:52:19
  and I would like to ask you if that 13 year old girl from
• 1:52:23
  Wisconsin would be able to to be here today.
• 1:52:26
  What do you think she will tell you she would tell you she.
• 1:52:29
  Would say you did you learn the language?
• 1:52:33
  Good job. I like this positive attitude.
• 1:52:37
  I love it. Stephanie, thanks so, so much
• 1:52:40
  for your time today. Thank you, this has been fun.
• 1:52:44
  It was it was a lot of fun for me.
• 1:52:46
  I'm happy that I got to know you.
• 1:52:47
  I will link all your on your social medias, audio, social
• 1:52:50
  media and also the links in the show notes caption.
• 1:52:54
  Perfect and I hope we get to do this again one day in the
• 1:52:59
  faraway future. Thank you so much all.
• 1:53:01
  Right. Thanks, Paul.
• 1:53:02
  Have a good one. Bye.
• 1:53:04
  Thank you for listening to this episode of our About Sales.