It was terrific to reconnect with Andrew’s relatives when we were in the east. Though the circumstances of Aunt Helaine’s passing were difficult and sad, getting to spend time with my brother-in-law and his two awesome sons, our cousins and their kids was a silver lining. It is my hope that this brief connection rekindles the drive to keep these relationships vibrant by all parties. And despite how I feel about traffic, oversized food portions, Starbuck’s coffee, and the movie business, Los Angeles is the epicenter of my family…our west coast family. I am so very lucky that my work now – while based in Europe – allows me to work from virtually anywhere, and it is a gift that I have nearly two weeks to spend with my parents, my brother and his family, my aunt and uncle, and other LA family and friends that I don’t see often enough living in Barcelona.
The distance, admittedly self imposed, relegates regular conversations to Skyping and texting – and those help. But the chance to have meals together, share stories and aspirations – and occasionally frustrations – over early morning coffee, shop and cook together, celebrate a holiday of Thanksgiving together, these are the true moments that I miss the most living so far away. Now that we have all three kids (young adults) living in the US, Andrew and I are faced with the decision of what the longevity of our expat adventure will be. Giving Eitan the opportunity to live in a foreign country along with us is now over – and along with our desire to try this cultural shift ourselves – this was a major driver for us heading to Spain in the first place. Eitan has settled well into boarding school and is making us very, very proud by rising to the challenges of independence, distance, and academic rigor, so we feel very good about that change. We both have work that we enjoy – both the people we work with and the nature of our work keep us engaged and doing enough travel both in Europe and to the States to keep things exciting. Fact is, we like living in Barcelona very much and have truly begun to feel part of the community – through mastery of the language, outreach efforts that have helped us forge some dear new friendships, and a persistent desire to explore the nooks and crannies of adjacent countries and cultures.
The challenge we face over the next couple of years will be to reconcile the pull of family with our shared wanderlust and love of having just enough unpredictability in our lives to not feel “been there, done that” too often. We are a strange pair in that regard, no doubt. We aren’t rushing into any big changes just yet, and we definitely have on the table some pretty out-of-the-box thinking of how we might retain our international work and play and carve more time with US family and friends so dear to us. I feel like we are so blessed to be able to even have this as a struggle!
This is a real time for giving thanks…
Living La Vida Loca 