We're moving to...

Did you ever play that game as a kid where you spun a globe around and stopped it with your finger to see where you were going to live or go on vacation? I know I'm a map nerd, but this can't just be me. It was fun to imagine ending up in those far-away places, while singing a little chorus of "round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows!" as the globe turned.

(Completely unrelated, but I traded my last office an old microwave for this globe, straight up. I'd say I got the better deal.)

When Graham and I discussed his transition to civilian life, we both agreed that our top priority would be to stay overseas, ideally in Europe. But applying for jobs is a bit like a grown-up version of spinning the globe and as various positions became available, we decided to get adventurous and widen our scope.

Which is how our metaphorical fingers came to land on our next home...

Little America

Sometimes I think about how (relatively) easy our transition to living in a foreign country has been. Of course, every move has challenges, and moving overseas can be a huge endeavor. But my experience was a bit different...

Unlike true expats, there were no visas to apply for, no jobs to search for, no red tape to cut through. Graham received orders (that we actually wanted!) and within a few months one of our cars was shipped and our household goods were packed, all at no cost to us. Upon arriving, we received assistance in getting our driver's licenses, other identification, and with getting the car registered and renting a house.

The movers delivering all of our worldly possessions at our first casa.

The Mini in España and complete with (obscured) Euro-plates.

New casa tour

Hola! It's Meghann again. Or maybe I should say "hi" instead because I'm stuck in the States, trying to get a Space A flight back to Rota. It's been kind of stressful (Sandy certainly wasn't any help) and I'm just ready to get home to Graham, our sweet perritas Chloe and Cora, and our casa. 

Which made me realize - we never shared nuevo house pics with you all! Well, at least not the pictures of the casa before it turned into a heaping pile of crazy. So here they are, courtesy of all the free tiempo and Wifi (have to pronounce it "WeeFee") I have in the Dover air terminal.

Front door

There is so much lovely tile, starting with the front steps.

Side yard

We absolutely love the garden - the landscaping is gorgeous and shows how much love the homeowners have put into it. Check out our pequeño olivo tree! 

Entry

Scenes from a move...

Maybe you feel like your house is a little cluttered, that you really need to get organized, or that instead of watching football all weekend you should have cleaned up your place. Allow us to make you feel better about that. Behold, our new casa, in all of its freshly moved-into glory:

On the move!

Taking a little break from posting about Marrakech...

Almost titled this post "big news!" but when you're married and 30, you have to be careful about when you break out that phrase (especially with exclamation points). But we're excited (exclamation points included) because we're on the move. Not out of Spain, just to a new neighborhood and a new house! And it has a pool!

Now, some people might think we have lost our minds, because we are voluntarily moving, which will be the second time in a little over a year, and we just said how settled we were feeling. But we couldn't pass up this house. Our current place was rented by Graham (Meghann was still in the States working and putting the finishing touches on the wedding) and he only had a short amount of time to find a place for us both to move into after the wedding (no pressure). It's been a good house but we definitely feel like the new casa is an upgrade, even though we're actually downsizing. Overall, it's just more our style and a better fit for how we live - less square footage, fewer bedrooms and bathrooms, but a more open floor plan on 2 floors instead of 3. The pool definitely made the decision easier, too. And to be honest, we're just used to moving. In the last 7 years of living together (yeah, we know you can do the math, we've only been married a year - sinners), we've lived in 7 different houses - for us, a house is a temporary thing.

Luckily this move is a little less intense than our Virginia-to-Spain adventure last year and we're doing much of it ourselves (some friends were kind enough to trade their SUV for the Mini for a few days). So, we spent most of the weekend moving as much as we could carry over to the new place, with a couple breaks to lounge by the pool and cool off, of course. 

 For all of you enjoying the start of fall and cooler temperatures and posting about it non-stop on the internet (looking at you, East Coasters) - we might not need to break out scarves and don't have pumpkin flavored everything, but we went swimming. Outside. In late September.

We'll be working on the move for the next 2 weeks and will keep you updated along the way. We promise we'll post more pictures, but here are a couple of snaps for now.

So, what do you think? Are we crazy or crazy-like-a-fox (we know there is some amount of crazy involved)? 

Hola! and excuses...

We owe you all a grande apology for disappearing.  Lo siento!  But we have a bueno excuse, actually a few.  The biggest one is that our household goods were delivered (hooray!) and our casa became chaotic (boo).  It really is crazy to see everything you own packed into wooden crates that you won't see for dos months.  Here are our worldly possessions leaving our townhouse in Norfolk, before their transatlantic journey:

And here are the crates being unloaded in Spain, looking pretty much the same.  Luckily, so did almost everything in them (with just a few minor exceptions - not bad for a Navy move.)

After the crates were emptied and the boxes sorted by room, this is what we were left with.  

Cute casa, Feo furniture

When we arrived in Puerto in Julio we already had a house, thanks to Graham signing a lease before coming back to the States for our wedding.  While it was great to have a home to move into right away, the fact that it was nearly empty made us anxious for the delivery of our household goods.  We say "nearly empty" because the Navy was kind enough to provide us with some loaner furniture, some of which can be seen in our posts on Chloe or Tinto.  Now that our stuff has been delivered, and our backs have recovered from sitting on a wood and vinyl couch, we think we're physically and emotionally ready to give you the full tour of our casa in all its original, pre-decorated, loaner furniture glory.  This is how we lived for our first seis weeks in Spain.  Warning:  the furniture seen in this post may cause college dorm room flashbacks.

The entrance to our townhouse.

Hola!  Bienvenido to our house.
This picture reminds Meghann of The Continental.

Southern Spain at 120 kilometres por hora

Lo siento. It's been too long. We're sure you thought we were being lazy bloggers, busy going to the playa, eating tapas, drinking cervezas, taking siestas - which we were, not going to lie. But the real problem was that we had a serious lapse in internet connectivity. (Consequently, the post to be titled "Viva Vodafone" has been cancelled.) We are now up and running and able to keep contact with the outside mundo (and all of you wonderful people).

Also in related news, we now have a US telephone numero. Gracias, MagicJack. So, if you want to give us a ring, let us know and we'll send you our number. We wouldn't flatter ourselves by thinking anyone besides our amigos and familia reads this blog, but putting our number on the interwebs just seems like a pretty terrible idea (adios, creepsters!).

Before you get too excited about our triumph over Spanish technology, we should disclose that the A/C unit in the main part of our casa is broken and it is muy caliente - or in the words of Nelly - "Hot in Herre."

So, we threw together this pequeno blog post with pictures from our Madrid-to-Jerez drive, while we sit on the couch and drink agua fria (cervezas). Enjoy!

Meghann took pictures while Graham drove and Chloe took a siesta. (Obligatory car mirror self-portrait.)

Chloe, from aeropuerto to El Puerto

We've had a few questions about Chloe, and how she is adjusting to life in Espana. So, we will give the people what they want - a post dedicated to our (almost always) sweet perrita and her international travels.

(Chloe riding shotgun during our minimoon, enjoying the views from Skyline Drive.)

When negotiating Graham's overseas orders, being able to bring Chloe with us was a must. After (finally) getting our official orders, we were very happy to find out that there is no quarantine period in Spain, and all Chloe had to do before her big move was get microchipped and pass a physical - which she did with (pun alert) flying colors. We made sure her records were complete, got the necessary USDA forms, and bought her a travel bag. And by travel bag, we mean a bag for her to travel in. She already has her own monogrammed boat tote, obviously. Like a runner training for a marathon, Chloe spent increasing amounts of time in the bag on car trips in preparation for the lengthy overseas flight. Here is Chloe enjoying her under-the-seat accommodations at the beginning of the flight:

We are aqui!

*This post was written on Sunday, but thanks to slow/no internet on base, we couldn't post until now.

Today is our 3 week anniversary! We have been in Spain for 7 days and we are loving it. The last week has been spent getting settled in, but we have had plenty of time for enjoying the beach, our new neighborhood, and the food...and the beverages. But let's begin at the beginning, as they say. How do you get 2 people, 8 bags, and 1 dog from Norfolk, Virginia to El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain?

First, you start off by packing up your Jeep Patriot with the above-mentioned people/bags/dog combo and driving to Maryland, because your oh-so kind friends Kristen and Chris have agreed to take you to the airport...in Philadelphia. It is important to thank (bribe) your generous friends by taking them out to dinner. It's even better when dinner includes grapefruit crushes (if you don't know what a grapefruit crush is, find out now) and a view of the Chester River. Just a suggestion. So, that was our Thursday.