Behold, the innards of my 10′ x 15′ locker at Storage Pro in flat, uncelebrated Lathrop, California. I paid CrownWMS about eight and a half grand to cart this gear 5,700 miles east to Spain. Expats-to-be will contemplate similar transactions, may thank me for sharing what I learned. OVERVIEW Imagine hiring a crew for a…
For Expats: Renting a Madrid Apartment
I did it, rented a great place, gained knowledge not seen elsewhere online, think I ought to share it. WHERE TO LOOK Idealista.com or fotocasa.es, and I spent nearly all my time on Idealista. Some will recommend the protections afforded through a search with ‘empresa municipal de la vivienda y suelo.’ They may be right,…
USA to Spain: Going Expat
I completed paperwork for a Spain long-term visa, moved to Madrid, live there now, intend to stay. This morning I feel oddly motivated to sum up what I’ve learned about the process for transitophile readers. I wonder why! Who knows where these weird whims originate? Maybe something happened. The U.S.-to-Spain expat wanna-be must: qualify for…
I Explain Trump to Spain
Spain is interested in Donald Trump. Understandably. I ignored many European squabbles while hailing F cars on the other side of the planet, but paid attention when Britain voted itself out of the European Union. Iberian psychology may be similar. Spaniards have their own canoes to row, little time to fret about Citizens United, Merrick…
Alecciono a España sobre Trump
España está interesada en Donald Trump. Entiendo por qué. Ignoraba muchos conflictos de Europa mientras viajaba en tranvías al otro lado del mundo, pero presté atención cuando Reino Unido votó por el Brexit. La psicología de la Península Iberica podría ser similar. Los españoles tienen sus propios problemas, poco tiempo para preocuparse por Citizens United,…
Madrid: Second Impressions
Now that I’ve been here a month: FANTASTIC PEDESTRIAN LIFE The clip below shows some of the pedestrian streets branching off from Puerta del Sol. I’ve been too busy boning up on my irregular verbs to study recent Madrid history, but gather that callers-of-shots here are determined to put people and transit before cars in…
Gear for Long-Haul Travel
A little over a year ago, I described myself as a ‘carry on at all costs’ flier. No longer! I arrived in Madrid in early July with a one way ticket and no return plans, had to prep and pack for a far more distant horizon than in journeys past. Pre-trip research suggested I buy…
Tracy, California: First Impressions
(Or first impressions this century: I once feared Tracy and the whole San Joaquin Valley as a hitchhiker’s no man’s land in my ride-thumbing college years, have yet to forget an eleven hour wait for a ride in North Fresno.) Tracy is a city of about 87,000 in the agricultural flatlands east of San Francisco.…
Marrakech: First Impressions
Marrakech is two places: the walled, labyrinthine, thousand-year old Medina, and the relatively modern city that sprawls around it. The airport, train station and plush hotels are in the outer city. The Medina has all the tourist color: mules tugging carts through open air souqs; alleys twisting between pink adobe riads; passersby in hijabs, djellaba,…
One More Linux User
Still mortified by those gnaw marks on the keyboard from a rage-making experiment with Linux last decade? Consider giving the OS another try; Linux has matured. I switched last summer, endured far less grief than expected, now rarely boot into Windows. Warning: this post is geeky. If you don’t know or care what a “Linux”…