Afternoon everybody.

Just as a brief introduction, I am from Belfast, Ireland and am strongly considering relocating to Spain with my wife and young son.
Like many people who make the move, I’m fed up with the terrible climate over here and am attracted by the possibility of a better quality of life that’s on offer in Spain.

I’m 35 years old and work in the IT industry so I am sure I’ll be asking a few questions on the forums soon, one I’ve had a chance to look around.

I found this site this afternoon and it looks as if it will be very helpful to me as I try to learn more about a possible move

Thanks
NiallM

NiallM welcome to the forum and just down road in galway few weeks working what wild city with fire work at 1 am last night it the Galway Arts Festival

well thinks are slowing down all over from NI to spain aswell
but the weather is lot better in spain just looking at the web cam at work in elche and sunny with temp off 32
any help just ask and i try to fill you in
jurdy

Hi Jurdy

Thanks for the warm welcome and I’m pleased to hear you are enjoying Galway - a lovely city. It’s been a long time since I was there but I have fond memories of it!

I’d be interested to know what part of Spain I should be aiming to live in given I’d like to continue with my I.T career. I was assuming I should be looking mainly to the big cities, Madrid or Barcelona, although my brother in law suggested Gibraltar might be the best place to head for as I don’t speak Spanish. I have a basic grasp after learning it at school but I’ve forgotten most of it now…

Learn Spanish first and come out and visit different areas to see where you’d like to live
or
Gib is the best for English speaking IT (depending on platforms/industry experience) but live over the border in Spain
or
Be very lucky and keep working for your current employer just move your “office”

Hi Nial

I’m from sunny Belfast too and also work in IT and am relocating to the Costa Blanca in 4 weeks time with my husband and 2 young children.  Like you we cannot face another summer of non-stop rain and just want to escape from the “rat race” of living here.  Our plan is to go out for 12 months and rent, see how we get on, how work is and if we do like it then after the year sell our home in Belfast and move out permanently.  I know it probably will be almost impossible for me to get back into the IT industry especially with not speaking the lingo so my plan is to go over with an open mind and see what my options will be with regards to work and learn the language.  I plan not to work for the first year so hopefully my husband will find work, he is a carpenter/builder though with “credit crunch” hitting all over we are a bit concerned that work will be hard to find.  We have saved enough to cover rent and bills for this whole year so fingers crossed it all works out.  I have taken a career break and my husband is self employed so we really have nothing to loose even if we do end up coming home after the year.  As the saying goes it better to regret the things you didnt do than the things you did so we’re gonna take the plunge and go for it.  Good luck with all your plans!

Marie

Hi Marie, good to hear from you. Wow 4 weeks, not too far off now you must be getting pretty excited about the move as the day approaches. I hope all goes well for you and your family in your quest for a new life in Spain.

I’m currently only at the starting to think seriously about it stage and my wife seems keen so I’ve started to do some research around the various forums. I’m following Shaggymon’s advice above and have ordered three Spanish books from Amazon to get myself and my wife started with the basics of the language while we continue to assess the options. At least we’ll know if we attack learning the language with vigour that we’ll hopefully be more equipped when we eventually decide to go and it will also be an early test of the “drive and determination” I’m sure is required to go through with it.

Unfortunately we wouldn’t have enough savings in the bank to just up and go to rent for a year so we’d be in the much riskier position of having the sell the house and all our belongings in order to move - although one bonus I read about this is that the interest alone on the equity may be enough to cover a substantial portion of the rent for the first year while we settle in. I had a quick look on some of the jobs sites last night and there were a few that suited my skill set which gave me great encouragement. I would say that, having some experience of Spanish, it is not an overly difficult language to learn and if you were to take it up as soon as you arrived and tried to integrate quickly then you’ll certainly improve your prospects of getting back into I.T - though I feel you need to be near one of the major cities to take up this option. Nothing is impossible though!

Anyway, I hope all works out well for you.

Would you have the time though to tell me about some of the arrangements you have made for schooling your children as this is an area I haven’t seen much information about yet. I heard yesterday that toddlers in Spain start school as early as 3. Is this true?

Niall

Hi Niall,

Good luck with everything….the move will be worthwhile!!  Just a quickie re the school age our little boy starts BIG school in September and he is three, but think (and anyone please correct if I?m wrong) the legal age for children to start school is 6.  The only reason he is going to school is that the guarderia (nursery) that he?s at finish at the age of three and our local school takes them from that age on from 9.00 am til 2.00pm.  The school year runs, age wise, from Jan - Dec, Max was three in Feb so consequently starts this year, our little girl will be three next Sept, but will start BIG school next Sept.  Hope this all makes sense….hope all goes well, learning Spanish is definetely a bonus, again good luck with everything.

Alicia

Hi Niall

Regards schools, our little one is 3 in September so she won’t be starting school until next September 09.  From the research we have done and speaking with other families, the younger the kids, the better it is that they go straight into the spanish schools as they will learn the language so quickly so that is our plan. 

Like you, we had planned to sell our home, put the profit we had made into an overseas account and the interest would have paid for almost a years rent.  Our house was on the market from Feb this year and we just took it off last week, unfortunately we couldn’t sell with the market being dead at the minute, hence we are now renting it out for the 12 months.  Hopefully in a years time the market will start to pick up.

Marie