Iām sitting outside of a coffee shop in Girona on a bumpy brick road. A pigeon keeps jumping from table to table, hunting down scraps. Itās mostly English and German around me despite being in Spain. But even as I type those words, a massive group of local students files down the street with their backpacks bouncing behind them like a loose turtle shell.
I paint this scene not to spark envy or brag. Iām sharing it because I imagine weāve all in recent memory had some version of this scene. That is, a moment where you could pause, look around, and think to yourself, āThis does not suck.ā
Right on cue, as this thought strikes me, a waitress pops over and tells me she loves the Zelda tattoo on my forearm. (Shout out to @lordenstein_art) for the ink!)
Sure, there are things I could kvetch about. But whatās the point? Donāt get me wrong! I deeply love a good kvetch. They can be wildly cathartic. Though like anything else, you can overdose and spiral into misery.
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Now, back to the newsletter.
In the grand scheme, things have been pretty damn good the past month. My first feature story with Saveur published and my editor, one Mr. Benjamin Kemper, was kind enough to include my YouTube video at the bottom of the article. The video quickly racked up a few thousand views, pushing my YouTube channel over the threshold into monetization. That now means I have proof that whenever you see me running around with a camera, itās for my job. And who could begrudge a guy trying to make a living?
Side bar: Iāve got an absurd amount of stuff in the pipeline on top of project Iāve paused for the sake of making the most of Spain. But as soon as I get back to Berlin in early June, Iām turning my attention fully to editing my short running film on running the fastest known time around the Berlin Ringbahn.
Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick on Germany finally changing its immigration laws to allow dual citizenship for non-EU residents. That is, me. I already sent my application in back in early March in anticipation of the new law going into effect on June 27th and pro-actively sent in my LoyalitƤtserklƤrung shortly thereafter. (Basically, signing a letter saying Iāll be a good German citizen.)
Once that happens, it feels like weāll walk through a door of exceptional freedom and independence that none of our ancestors couldāve fathomedāāsomething weāre already toying with in our stay in Caldes dāEstrac, Spain throughout May. I imagine us achieving a previously unforeseen level of ācool aunt and uncle-dom.ā At least, once our nieces and nephews are old enough to appreciate and/or care about us living in Europe.
Speaking of Spain, you might be wondering (as some have asked) if this is all a prelude to moving to Spain. The truth isā¦ No sĆ©. ĀæTal vez?
(Can you tell Iāve enjoyed being able to speak Spanish again?)
The goal has always been to be fully remote with the ability to regularly spend more time in the US with family while keeping some kind of base in Europe. I wonāt lieā¦ (I mean, why would I? Weird thing to do in my own newsletter), Spain is wildly appealingāāso much so that Barcelona is suffering from a kind of gentrification thatās making the city unaffordable for people actually born here. Iāve read of and heard several complaints that Americans, Brits, and Germans are buying up local properties, jacking up rates beyond what a Spanish salary can afford.
I do not want to contribute to that problem in any shape or form.
On the flip side, Caldes dāEstrac is a tiny town. This has partly been an experiment in seeing if weād prefer such an existence. On paper, it has everything I wantāātrails in my backyard and a train a short walk away. At the same time, around two weeks in, I started to miss my Berlin neighborhood and felt a new kind appreciation for the place Iāve lived the longest in throughout my adult life. I miss my coffee shop, the wide sidewalks on my street, the big, beautiful trees draping over the road, and how spoiled for choice we are when it comes to access to global cuisine.
And this is why I cannot kvetch. Because the issues weighing on my mind are, in the grand scheme, a privilege. So rather than spiral into panicked indecision (Spain? Germany? A wildcard country to be named later!?), Iām going to smile, sip my coffee, and wait for Melanie to join me for a stroll around Girona.
Whatever the right answer is, itāll come when the time is right.
Additional shout outs to The Armchair Expert podcast for introducing me to Dr. James Dotyās work on the neuroscience of manifesting, which led me to his podcast and book (just finished), and in turn, sent me over to Cahade-Meng Tan's audiobook, "Joy On Demandāāāall of which contributed to my current even-keeled, far less neurotic/anxious outlook on things.
How to Take a Milk Bar Crawl Through Krakow (Polish Food at Its Finest)
This is essentially the video version of the aforementioned Saveur article.
I Traveled 1,968 Kilometers by Train From Berlin to Barcelona
Iāve started experimenting with simple, raw, chronological videos. Iām still more drawn to the narrative stuff, but these are much easier to whip together quickly. Let me know what you think!
What Co-Living in Spain Looks Like (Trail Running, Beach, Cooking)
And another example of the chronological style showing off my first week in Caldes dāEstrac.