HereKittyKitty

Wow thanks for that long reply Econ, I understand completely what you mean having done a bit of research on life in Spain, and am prepared for a big change to things we take for granted in the UK. I thinkI need to change my ways a bit too as I am a bit of a control freak and like everything organised and in place!

Rosemary and Twyntub, I hope to be able to mix with the Spanish and be "neighbourly"....I don't even know my neighbours names here!!

geisterbahn

lifes not what you make it , tell that to the iraqi civilians getting shot by bush and his toyboys. as for spanish school .our daughter was severley bullied in the spanish primary school thats one big reason we ended up back in the uk .and guess what she aint getting bullied in the uk .isnt that something. as for getting on with your lives .where do you getall the contracets from to keep you going. I wonder if some of you lot are still in the uk and are just location location buffs. and let me know were the great guys and girls are . I never meet many. bet they wouldnt pay your rent if you missed it. you all need a reality check !!!!! what you call negative is not negativity its hard livid truth retold. even the germany community has its real hard stories . I should know because I speak fluent german and worked for them.

rugbymatt

you are such a sweet person aren't you?

lee8

From someone who tends to right negatives about Spain, I can tell you this, Spain offers different opertunities to people than the UK, but can only suit particular types of people.

Its good to read both sides of Spain, better to be prepared than naive.

As for should you go or stay, nobody can make that choice for you, if you don`t go you`ll always have that "What if" hanging around in the back of the mind.

I don`t regret moving to Spain, it was a good experience that many don`t get in life.

It was also a good learning curve that even a country as close to the UK as Spain is, its people can vary so differently to the UK in both positive and negative ways.

For me I now know that Spain isn`t the best country in the world and offers a person who married a Spaniard the same view as my wife and our Spanish family, who said we were made to move to Spain.

I can`t wait to get back to the UK and normality and use Spain as a holiday every few years.

Good luck in your plans and future in which ever course it will take.

geisterbahn

I think you need a reality check!!!! just tell everybody wanting to go to spain .yeah the spanish are waiting at alicante airport with pots and pots of inca gold to give you .and oh a red carpet. and a basket of oranges and lemons etc incidently rugby,have you ever been to spain ,or are you also one of the location location couch potatoes. from somebody who knows a bit more about reality than you. cos Ive been their and seen it. I,ll be posting the expats from brit/ germany etc raiding the thrown away food bins outside of lidl ans aldi on you tube in a few weeks. as I m going down next week to see a mate of mine who now makes a living doing enything from bin diving to whatever . he used to be a construction worker /everybodys unemployed /dont believe me! look at the spanish stats/ thats how serious it can get. as he cant get a job. he raids the bins by carrafour if he can get in the bins before the gypsys encamped by carrafour ,and hes a top class tradesman. he will not come back to the uk as he hates it. he would rather hang himself before he comes back to the uk. eny tv stations out their need some one to show them the real spain get in touch! from bare knuckle fighters making money to the night girls to white stuff from south america, geisterbahn can point you in the right direction.

HereKittyKitty

geisterbahn, I am sorry to hear your Daughter was bullied and your experience was not good. Bullying in School has became a serious problem in the U.K. and is having to be tackled now, whereas when I was at School many moons ago it was ignored by Teachers (and a lot of Parents).

lee8 I agree it is better to know both sides and I have been reading for months all the posts on the forums. You are better placed than me to judge as I have never lived in Spain as such.

However, I do not think it will be any worse than living here, just different. As the Wife of a Man who has worked 7 days a week for years only to be taxed and have it all taken back, we are very disillusioned with the U.K. now. Especially the last 2 years things seem to have got worse.... Trying to get on in life and have a nice house etc. is pointless. Companies he sub-contracts to are getting greedier and taking longer to pay invoices, tell lies, take money off him knowing he has no chance of fighting back as they are big and he is small. Christmas shopping in Edinburgh to see immigrants begging on street corners also. This U.K. is not the great Country it once was. The price of gas and electric is going up again (27%).
Yes, I think it will not be easy adjusting to life in a new Country. But other than the language barrier, from experience, do not believe it will be any worse than here. My Husband will keep working here until he hopefully builds up contacts in the building trade which will give him an income enough to stay in Spain full-time. Hopefully, the better climate and more laid-back lifestyle will improve life for us from the way we live just now.

rugbymatt

geisterbahn your post is almost unreadable, please put some sentence structure in to it or there is no way I can comment.
Sorry.

geisterbahn

will do ,I,ll have to find my reading glass.s all the best

lee8

I don`t like being negative, but we all know about the positives of Spain, you cannot keep a site goin by constantly saying the beaches and sun.

You`ll have to learn the situation, the trouble is many people here are either retired living in British Ghetto`s, watching Brit satellite or IT people sat in front of the geek machines all day and getting paid in Pounds.

Swings and roundabouts, Spain isn`t easy, Spanish don`t like English, full stop.My Spanish wife even gets called a Guiri lover.A friend a few weeks ago made a snide remark about how guiri she is.

As for working in Spain, yes I got a job in Spain, working for a Spanish run company, it was hell, i got all the crap, was given false advice and dumbed on.

Nobody goes to court in Spain, bills can take months if not never get paid, and then there is the black money, the cash in hand.

I was working 15 hrs a day in Spain for no overtime wage, in 40 degree heat in Summer.

The average wage in Spain is around 8,000-12,000 Euros, some brits who i know working Autonomo earn around 20,000 a year.

You won`t get to charge the same as the UK.

The UK company I worked for charged a £80.00 callout with 20 min included, then charged £3.26 every six minutes.In Spain that company charged 37.00 Euro`s callout included 30 minutes and charged 8.00 euros every 30 minutes.

Cost of living being less also includes wages being less and as a Autonomo you have to charge less.

There`s no health cover, if i was killed on the job nobody would give my wife three years wage, as i do in the UK.

There isn`t any benifits in Spain, if you work and paying into the system, unemployment benifit is paid dependant on how much you paid and only last a small period, theres no housing benifit, no child benefit, no help if your homless.

You`ll see more beggers and homeless in Spain than the UK, they tend to come to the UK as were generous, the Spanish don`t do charity.

Many Spanish youths are setting fire to homless people and putting it on You Tube.

If things go bad and your a guiri, you go home to the UK, you won`t get part time employment, as a women you`ll find it hard as a guiri women it`ll be almost impossible without Enchufe and you as a guiri wont get much enchufe.

Its a global problem, petrol, gas, electric,water and food are all rising high in Spain too.

Yeah good luck.

your problem will come if things change as in the UK, but at least you`ll find stuff in the UK, in Spain, not a chance.

Our plans relied on my wife getting a job in Spain, then I would leave the UK and start self employed in Spain, I`m a Refrigeration and Gas Engineer.

My wife has sent many many CV`s and job applications, not a single reply, even the schools in the South are mainly men.

We asked a friend in Malaga to help find a job, using some enchufe, said he`d try but, as she`s a women, she`d be better to stay at home.Men work, women cook, in the south.

HereKittyKitty

maybe I should think twice then
P.S. wasn't aware Spanish don't like the British

lee8

No go for it, you`ll regret it if you don`t and you may succeed.

I`ll get shot for that.

They like Irish, Welsh and Scots.English nope, never say your English, always say Irish.

I only managed to get help by spaniards because of my wife, and I`m not talking about little things.

I was due to move out of our rental into another but problems arouse and a friend offered to ask his mother if we could use here holiday apt in Torremolinos, i was in the next room when he made the call, he had to say many times that I`m not English I`m Welsh and that my wife is a Spanish women and were not like the English.It took about 20 minutes, but she wanted to meet my wife first.

I`ve also been told many times to go back to the Gran Puta.

Everyday in the South I`d over hear conversations in places like Burger King when the odd guiri would arrive and they`d comment on the kids or the colour of there skin.

I live in a town mainly Spanish, the brits that you see tend to be odd even by brit standards and the other contact the Spanish have is from Brits in Torremolinos and Benalmadena, they even make me ashamed.

Mainly in my area there more ignorant than say racist, but as in Gran Hermano they threw out a contestant for calling the black guy a monkey and many swearing obsenities, the Spanish didn`t bat an eye lid.

Can you imagine big brother in the UK having a person calling the other blacks are no better than monkeys and getting away with it in both the Media and the legal sides.

With Andulucians they firmly believe that because so many come to Spain and the Costa`s that it is the best place on earth and there isn`t any point in travelling and learning new cultures as there`s has to be the best.

In a survey 80% of Spaniards die within 20 kms of there place of birth.

As they say ignorance is bliss and there very blissful people.

geisterbahn

nice move, is it GANDIA or their abouts .

Econ

HereKittyKitty, You should take this with the sentiment in which it appears to be have been used. There will be people here who say the above but there are many more who will probably tell you different, don't take one or two persons comments as gospel.

Some Spanish don't like the British because they generally expect the Spanish to accept their customs and speak English... not the other way around, also if you show any disrespect al all towards them they will dislike you, customs here are different than the UK, so you can imagine what some feelings towards the English are like on the CDS and CB. BTW, some Spanish have problems with other Spanish also, more than they do with the British, if that makes you feel any better.
I know many Spaniards and if they don't like the British then they are good at hiding it, I know Spaniards who don't like us also. If a Brit, Scandi or other gives them a problem they might say things like 'jillipollas ingles' or 'guiri de mierda', but then the same happens in the UK with the British towards others, so you could also say the British don't like the Spanish, Indian........ I could go on.

Spain has it's problems yes (I could make a similar list for the UK), but as far as the above statement is concearned I wouldn't worry too much, if you integrate with them, learn some of the language and accept them then they will generally except you. If you are a control freak or have an ego then you will have less chance of being accepted and liked because they don't like control and the ego will compete with theirs. There are certain levels 'for want of a better word' of people who can and do create problems here in Spain as there are the same in the UK, but the same rule applies here as there, if you don't mix with and try to keep away from that type of person then more sunlight will come in.

Health warning (mine).... none of these comments directed towards or are meant to be detrimental to anyone on the list, just incase I start to get daggers coming through my computer

lee8

Very well put and all so true, and body from the UK who learns the language and as important the culture and customs will get on fine.

The ones I`m aiming at are the many that don`t bother with the language and get all pissy with the Spanish for there weird ways, there are many brits that come to Spain only to live as a brit in a brit ghetto and ignore the Spanish as a pain in the rear.

And there are many Brits that go out into the bars and speak loud to waiters in English rather than learn Spanish.

It was funny in the UK when my wife arrived here and she couldn`t speak English great, she would say pardon and people would still repeat as fast but in a higher volume, to which she learned "I`m not bloody deaf, can you repaet slowly please, Thank You" very quickly.

But I have found the UK to accept foerigners needing help far more than in Spain.

Rosemary

No.....Gandia has loads of Brits living there.

Rosemary