My wife and I just moved to Barcelona for the year with our 3 young children. We saw it as a way for our kids to explore more of the world, immerse themselves in a different culture, and learn a new language. In addition, I saw it as an opportunity to expand my business, Lawline & FurtherEd, internationally over the next several years. Also, it was a great way for us to get out of our comfort zone and live The Fast Forward Mindset. We were stuck in a daily routine living in NYC and we wanted to shake things up. And right away it got uncomfortable from day 0 as we had one challenge after the next.
Day 0
The day we we flew to Barcelona was one of the craziest 24 hours I have had in a long time. It started off with me waking up at 6am in the morning with a nagging feeling. The 4 duffle bags we had packed for the trip were what my kids used for sleep away camp. Which meant they were very big at over 90 inches in total dimensions, and after calling Delta I learned the maximum allowed on the plane was 80 inches.
At 9am, I went shopping to find 4 replacement bags. The third store I visited, Burlington Coat Factory, had exactly what we needed. With still lots to finalize in the house and now 4 bags to repack we did not have a minute to spare. After repacking, each bag was over the 50lb allowed weight.
On top of this, we had a plumber coming for a nagging issue we kept trying to resolve for the past 3 weeks. He arrived around 10:30am. This time he thinks he knew how to solve the problem, but now he said had to cut open part of the bathroom ceiling to fix it. Do it! Whatever was needed, we have our house rented as soon as we leave and I want things to start off on the right foot for them. Two hours later he declared it was fixed and this time he was 95% sure it will be fixed for good (my fingers are still crossed).
After 4 hours of cleaning the house and repacking we finally left for the airport at 4:30pm in two Mini-Vans with 11 Bags, 4 rolling carry-ons, and 5 back packs. Now we had to say our good byes to my parents, Sandra who has taken care of my kids for the past 10 years, and Carmen who had been working with us for over 5 years and was now getting the house ready for our new tenants. We are so grateful to have both of them in our lives. Suffice to say it was not an easy good bye.
Arriving at the airport became the next dance with our bags. Since all of them were overweight we worked with two sky caps to help us rearrange 4 of them to be 70 pounds exactly and the rest we got down to 50ish. After an hour delay we finally boarded the plane and as we are moving towards the runway a passenger started having some sort of seizure and then blood started coming from his mouth. We went back to the gate and it took an hour for the paramedics to take him away. It felt like time was crawling for him……. He was finally taken off and I hope all ended well.
Between the early delays and this issue we took off 3 hours late. Finally we were in the air to our new adventure.
Day 1
2 hour line at customs.
We arrived in Barcelona and get to customs behind two A-380s from Dubai. After about 2 long hours we get through the line and were on our way to our new apartment. We arrive at our place and it was as nice as I remember it. Light and airy. The terrace in the back, looks at a mountain and the ocean, the terrace in the front looks at the mountain with Tibidabo church on top.
After settling at 6pm we grabbed a dinner at a local place then headed to a store to buy sheets so we had something to sleep in. When we got back, we all passed out after unpacking as much as we could.
Moving your family to a new country is never easy, but it is certainly exciting and energizing! I plan to share what it is like to be out of our comfort zone during the next year on this adventure. As soon as something here becomes normal, I plan to up the game and try something new and different again. My hope is you can relate to these stories in one form or another and use them to push yourself out of your comfort zone when you are ready.
Stay tuned for more!
