Why I'm Spending A Month In Spain
And why you should, too! (Okay, maybe not Spain, but... Oh, just read the thing!)
Melanie and I moved to Spain.
Sort of. Okay, not really.
Here’s the thing… A few months ago, I was at a Travel Massive networking event, doing my darnedest to avoid networking. I mostly chatted with my two good friends I showed up with and that was that.
But one of the things we chatted about was future plans. I mentioned that I was intrigued with the idea of one day, possibly, theoretically living in Spain. It was, after all, at the top of my European wish list when Melanie and I first started looking into moving to Europe. We just spent all that time living in Costa Rica, so sticking with a Spanish-speaking country made sense.
Germany popped up instead for reasons and we’ve been there ever since.
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Now, back to the newsletter.
The next day, one of those friends messaged me with a link to an application. I could apply to help launch a new co-living space in Caldes d’Estrac, a beach town just outside of Barcelona –– the Spanish city that most intrigued me from the beginning.
So, I applied. All we had to do was commit to a minimum of two weeks in Caldes. Besides, Melanie and I had been talking about our dream scenario of living in multiple places throughout the year, perhaps dabbling in a slower pace of digital nomading that isn’t the stereotypical lifestyle of jumping around every month.
As luck, fate, the powers-that-be would have it… I got in. And now I’m writing this newsletter with a view of the Mediterranean right next to my laptop.
In short, we’re spending the month helping to build up the Kalima co-living community here in Caldes d’Estrac (or Caldetes, as the locals call it). Kalima, I’ve quickly learned, was the place to be back in the day. Spouses met here. Anyone over 40 knows what you mean when you say, “Kalima.”
The plan is to bring that spark back by turning the former hostel into a co-living space with international remote workers mingling about with residents at the shared co-working space and coffee shop, perhaps luring folks from Barcelona as well who are tired of the skyrocketing costs of living.
I’ll be contributing to Kalima’s content creation efforts throughout the month while working on my own projects. Melanie is heading up the kitchen. (In fact, I gotta wrap this up to help her cook tonight’s community dinner.)
You can hear more about our reasons for heading out here in the video above. But in short, the moral of the story is that we all have that thing we’ve been curious about trying, big and small. For whatever reason, we put it off and it never happens.
My opinion? Do the shit you say you wanna do.
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This sounds awesome! I won't be back in Spain for another 3-4 months because I'm going on a quest to the North of Sweden to explore the therapeutic effects of slow travel, but if you stay longer, I'd be down to stop by and learn more. I live in Castellon, Spain, which isn't far away at all… well, from my distance culture perspective.