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| Plaza Mayor in Valladolid |
I thought that this first posting should describe what motivated me to pursue living in Barcelona. This desire to move to Spain was not a spur of the moment decision. I lived in the city of Valladolid from 1978-81, during my mid 20's. I was there as an evangelical missionary working with university students. Yes, it was another life, but it introduced me to this beautiful country that I fell in love with.
After my three year stint in Spain, I returned to the greater Washington metropolitan area, where I had grown up and where my parents were still living at the time, with the intense desire to somehow go back to Spain.
I decided to get my Masters degree at the University of Maryland in English as a Second Language with the idea that my degree would give me the teaching credentials to be hired in Spain to teach English there. However, in readjusting to life in the U.S., I also came out as a gay man and got involved in a long term relationship that lasted 14 years. Life intervened with a 33 year detour to returning to live in Spain. Between then and now, I traveled many, many times to Spain, and explored many new places in this diverse and culturally rich country.
So, what made me decide to live in Barcelona? You'll have to read that in Part II of "Background - What Brought Me Here - Part II".
