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gypsywoman · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: bangkok

Yes but the have lots more indoor activities Laughing

Deicide · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:02 pm Post subject: Re: mature single woman in spain

gypsywoman · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: bangkok

So true, Scotland and Ireland are beautiful areas, England has some lovely areas too. Your right about the atmosphere, it is amazing, but having been born in Scotland and lived there and here in Australia, I can get how the locals need some sun. My cousins love coming to Australia just to defrost and peel off a few layers of clothes.
Every country has its own unique areas though and shouldn't be compared, just enjoyed for what they are.
Australia has some amazing areas, from the vast outback, tropical rainforrests and magnificent beach areas. Snow capped mountains. the list is endless. as it is in many countries. Unique in their own right!
I just love being out in nature and quite often take road trips, very long long trips. Last one was 4000km, but was amazing! Nothing like being in the middle of the outback with not a person in site! wicked fun.

craftynick · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 65 Location: Sunny Barca

MO39 · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject:

Unless weather patterns have completely changed since I was last in Barcelona, which was admittedly a long time ago (1975), I remember winters there as very rainy and chilly and quite unpleasant, except for the rare days when the sun came out.

craftynick · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 65 Location: Sunny Barca

MO39 · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:15 pm Post subject:

Now that I've trashed winter weather in Barcelona, I should note that when I first arrived there, in September, the weather was so lovely (warm, sunny and dry), that I decided to stay on rather than try my luck in Madrid. One reason I remember being so cold there in the winter is that at that time in Spain, there was very little central heating, which meant that the damp chill seeped into your bones and never really left you. But I loved living there so much that the cold was the least of my concerns.

craftynick · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 65 Location: Sunny Barca

tullie · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

Gypsywoman----- to return to your question re 40+ woman on her own in Spain.

I have been teaching English in Spain for the last 5 years. I am now 50. I decided to change some things in my life, experience living in a different culture and live a little! Like you I left children and I also left a husband at home in England. When I say children they are now 29,23 and 22.

My experiences are of small town Spain. The first town was in Catalunya population 12,000. The second in Castile and Leon pop 30,000 but near enough to Madrid to visit for both work and social reasons.

I now have some wonderful friends but it has taken a long time to build up these contacts. In a capital city there is much more movement of people of different ages and much more likelihood of establishing quick friendships cos everyone is in the same boat but these would be with Brits and Americans etc. It will take a lot longer to make Spanish friends.

In small town spain people in their 40s have children and parents and husbands or wives. They may come to study English but they have no time to socialize outside of the family unit with full time jobs as well.

It might help if you do your tefl training in Spain and start off meeting people that way. And as was stated previously employers need mature teachers for their adult and business classes. So if you stick to teaching adults instead of kids you have more chance to make friends with your students outside of the work environment.

The bigger the school you work for as well the more chance you have of making contacts as other teachers will be more established in the community.

In the bigger cities as well intercambios are a good way of meeting people and of exchanging language and culture. They almost don't exist in smaller Spanish cities.

I have also done a bit of work in Madrid and it is a rat race to get around a busy dirty noisy city compared to a 5 mins walk down the road or a 15 min drive through the countryside and the vineyards to get to work. Give me the latter any day.
Hope all this has helped.

tabbicat · Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 12

Barcelona is a great city to live with lots going on and good weather. Winters are mild and sunny with the occasional cold or rainy spell; the worst is the summer when it's hot and humid, although I'm sure not as bad as Bangkok. A good way to meet people is to do "intercambios" (language exchanges), which are very easy to come by. There are also "dinners in english" and other social activities where you can meet people (check out the free monthly magazine Metropolitan, weekly magazine Guia del Ocio or the website www.loquo.com). However, it's true that it's not so easy for foreign women to find Spanish/Catalan boyfriends. The foreign men find it a lot easier to find girlfriends here. Not fair! Another negative is that rents and property prices have got very high. If you need anymore information you can send me a pm.
�Que vaya bien!