Chapter 4: Halleluya

Chapter 4 Halleluya

After few almost sleepless nights, we came to a conclusion, that kids should be separated. We had hoped for a peaceful homeschooling and new type of experience, but it looks like they are not ready yet. Despite them having lots of sports activities, they needed something more. I guess they were used to traditional school settings and being around other children, that naturally, they were aiming to “get back into a structure”. Well, not necessarily kids will be free-spirits when parent are.

Asking a new met friend for a help, I went to the city council (ayuntamiento) to sort out the schools for kids. The was actually the easiest step. We put them into 2 different schools. Living, or starting to live in Valencia region (and it also applies to Barcelona), you need to take into account that everything is bilingual, Castellano and Valenciano (or Catalano). Little girl went to semi-private school, so-called concertado, where they speak only castellano (Spanish) and the school itself is free of charge, but you need to buy an uniform and books and pay for any tips etc. Big boy went to a national school, where they speak both Valenciano and Castellano, but, as we were told the structure is 33% Valenciano, 33% Castellano and 33% English. The major difference was when we bought an uniform for the Little Girl, she could start on the next day and all the other paperwork could be sorted out later. With the Big Boy we had to have the papers first. The papers were: confirmation from the city council about our registration (piece of paper that confirms your address), SIP which is a number that you get from a doctor (if you’re not a Spanish resident, not working in Spain, you need to have an European Health Insurance Card and based on that they will issue you your SIP number which is valid for only 6 months). We also needed a doctor’s certificate that we managed to get only because my brother had obtained a letter from our UK doctor confirming vaccinations for the kids (as somehow their “red books” got lost).

So, the kids were sorted. In the meantime, I met a nice lady whois husband and his friend were doing a house renovation and they gave us the quote we were able to accept. Somehow, one of the mum’s of the girls from Little Girl’s ballet class was from my country of origin and her husband works for the city council and helped us with the paperwork.  

People from our kids’ sports clubs were giving us advice and were willing to help if needed.

We started to feel that all is going to be ok.

We rented a car, twice, as it was actually cheaper than buying one, and less hassle obviously. We could go to shops, check prices for the different household stuff while kids were at school, we could go and visit beaches around and nearby mountains.     

Easter came and everything slowed down. There are many processions and parades and a lot is happening around and finally, we’re trying to feel it and enjoy it the way we should have.

The house renovation should start soon….hopefully not too many bad experiences, as the money goes away quickly when you have to renew your house totally. Feliz Pascua Amigas ;-D