One Year Anniversary - Reflections

A year ago on March 11, 2014, I arrived to Barcelona having prepared myself to settle in this beautiful city as my new home and as a newly retired American.  I was fortunate enough to be able to retire at age 60.  And it has always been my dream to live in Spain, and then later decided to crystallize that dream in the city of Barcelona.

Now, after a year, I'd like to reflect on how my time here has been....

Excellent Resources

I have been fortunate in many respects.  I came with having a base of friends here that I had met on previous trips with the key person who introduced me to so many others being my friend Jordi.  They welcomed me with open arms.  I came with the proceeds of selling my portion of my house in Alexandria, VA to my ex-partner, so I had the means to purchase property here.  And I retired from the federal government which provided me with three essential benefits:  a decent pension, a tax-deferred retirement savings, and an international health care plan.  These three pieces have been critical to obtaining a residency permit which I just recently renewed for another two years.  I just didn't realize how easy it was going to be.

Affordability 

Although Barcelona is one of the most expensive cities in Spain, it is one of the least expensive cities in Europe and is definitely less expensive than living in Washington DC.  I remember a friend here telling me that many of today's salaries in Barcelona are between 1,000 - 1,500 euros a month.  They had cut back salaries in recent years due to the economic crisis.  He told me that since my pension is above that I have no need to worry, which I had some concern about expenses early on when I first got here.  I also am fortunate to not have a mortgage or rent since I have purchased my place in cash.  I find that the other routine expenses here are either equivalent or significantly less than in the U.S.  And it's been a recent bonus to have the dollar so strong compared to the euro.

Social Life

My life has been much more sociable here than it was in the U.S.  In the States, many friendships

seem to revolve around projects and joint endeavors.  Although friendships can begin that way here as well, making friends seem to be much more spontaneous and many times endures beyond and outside of the projects that brought two people together.  Here social gatherings seem to take place more in groups than one-on-one and they often meet outside of the home and rarely in people's homes (although I have seen some notable exceptions).  Contrary to popular belief, people here tend to be  very punctual.  There just isn't an end time.  It's difficult  to schedule two social events in the same afternoon.  And it makes people nervous to schedule a gathering too far out in advance. A week out is max in general and many times just a couple of days before.

Language

It's funny that in my own native tongue I found myself many times doubting my ability to truly

express myself clearly and effectively.  And yet now I am learning how to re-express myself in Spanish.  But I find that language learning is slow.  The Spanish classes I'm taking are helping (although I will save my opinion about this semester's Spanish class for another time), But what I am finding to be most difficult is to express my deeper emotions and feelings as well as understanding the emotionally laden words that some friends may share with me about a difficult situation that they are going through or conflictive feelings that they are having.  This creates an emotional gap in me that is difficult to fill. I think over time this gap will slowly disappear.

Food and Culture

I have always been of the opinion that if I am going to live in another country, I need to adapt myself to their customs, culture and food.  That had been my attitude from the get go - to remain totally open to trying new things and adapting many of them into my lifestyle.  I feel like I have honored that principle and as a result I have experienced many new and delicious foods, participated in many local festivals, and have adjusted both my schedule and my expectations with good results.  Also, given that one cannot truly separate culture from language, I believe that knowing more Catalan in this next year will continue to allow me to integrate myself more.

Health

Overall my health has been very good this year.  I had issues with numbness in my left toe and higher than normal uric acid level.  I have found that my Blue Cross Blue Shield Overseas benefits work very well here.  I have to pay for my services up front, but within 3 weeks I am reimbursed minus the co-pay.  BCBS makes it easy to submit my claims electronically (a scanner is essential) and directly deposits my reimbursements into my US bank account.  Also, my Federal vision plan works well here.  My only disappointment was with my federal dental plan.  I had to get a root canal and crown.  They covered it, but the process was long and drawn-out.  I had to translate each document, figure out the exchange rate, and get pre-approval.  My BCBS covers routine cleanings, so the only purpose to have my dental plan is for extraordinary dental issues.  I can get dental coverage within Spain for one third of the premium costs that I am paying now.  I'll be switching next October.

Taxes

This topic is still very incomplete.  I just did my U.S. taxes, which turned out well.  But I have not

yet completed my Spanish taxes, which won't occur until the end of June.  I think this year I'll be paying more taxes due to the income that I received in January/February before I arrived to Spain and because of the issues I had with making myself a non-resident of the state of Virginia.  However, I believe that in 2015, my overall tax percentage will probably be about the same as my former combined federal and state tax rate was.  I'll know more after June.

Love Life

Although I list this last, I see my love life with Chris as becoming the most important area of my life and has been the biggest surprise for me this year.  In spite of our geographical separation, we have grown closer to each other over this last year and our love for each other continues to deepen.  Although Chris' move to Kiev is not ideal, I know it is a good career move for him and it will allow our visits to be much more frequent, about once or twice a month.  He is an amazing, incredible and wonderful man and I am so lucky and happy to be in his life and for him to be in mine.

Looking Forward

Who knows what is in store for this year, but I know it will be another year of adventure and learning.  With Chris in Kiev, I am sure we will be doing more traveling to many places in Europe. I foresee learning more Catalan.  I also see my involvement and contribution to the Shambhala Meditation group growing as my language skills increase and as I get more leadership training within Shambhala.  I feel very fortunate indeed!!

In-Depth Info on the Medical Systems Here

As you have probably noticed, I have slowed down a little bit on posting over the last few weeks.  I think this will be the new rhythm - about every two weeks.  That will give me more time to ruminate on what it is I want to blog about with more possible topics to choose from.

Expanded Understanding of  Spain's Medical Systems

The other week I got to speak to an orthopedic surgeon, who is a good friend of my friend Gerardo.  I pumped him with lots of questions about the medical system here.  Here is what I learned.  There are basically three types of medical systems in Spain.  First, there is what is called here social security (La Seguridad Social).  This is much larger than the U.S. Social Security system, as it covers universal health care, worker's compensation, disability, unemployment benefits and retirement.

Social Security health care covers all national residents of Spain, and up until 2012, also covered legal foreign residents.  However, they changed the law at that time and now only foreign residents who are paying into the system through their payroll taxes can access the public health care system unless they are citizens within the European Union.  This system seems to operate very well and is especially good when you have major health issues that need to be addressed.  In times of health crisis or emergency they respond quickly and effectively.  This service is free to all who are covered by the system. There is no co-pay for services but there is a co-pay for pharmaceutical drugs.  However, this system does not tend to be as responsive to minor health issues that do not require immediate attention.

As a foreign retiree who emigrated to Spain after 2012, I am not automatically covered by the public health care system.  However, in Catalunya, if you have registered and lived here for a minimum of one year, you could begin to pay into the public health care system for 60 euros or more a month if you are under 65 and 157 euros or more a month if you are over 65.  At this point in time, I am NOT considering participating in the public system.

Some Spanish citizens also purchase private plans.  This is the second type of medical system here.  About 15% of the Spanish population are covered under a private plan as of 2013.  Citizens will use these plans for routine or preventative medical visits.  They tend to be designed to complement the public health care system, rather than replace it.

The third type of medical plan are those offered by private companies for their employees.  Although I know these exist, I know little else, as far as whether there is an employee premium, etc. I don't believe that many employees have access to this type of medical insurance, but that is based only on my anecdotal experience.

BTW - being a federal retiree, I have access to my federal health plans.  A few of these plans cover federal employees and retirees overseas.  This has worked very well for me over the last year.

HIV and Access to the Public Health System

I did some research for a friend who is HIV positive and is planning on moving to Spain from the U.S.  He found that private health plans are very expensive here and would even be more expensive having HIV as a pre-existing illness, if that would be covered at all.  Luckily a friend of mine at the Barcelona Shambhala group has worked in this area and her brother is employed by an organization that is dedicated to helping those living with HIV.

Through him I found out that for those living with HIV who live in Catalunya (the autonomous community of which Barcelona is a part), regardless of whether they have general access to the public health care system, have free access to be treated for HIV if they have been registered in their town or city for a minimum of three months.  This should also be true of all other autonomous communities in Spain (you can consider these communities to be regions in Spain).  However, the law may be implemented differently depending on the region.

Coordinator of a Shambhala Weekend Course

This weekend I just finished being a coordinator of a Shambhala weekend course for the Barcelona group.  There were 20 of us, including the teacher and staff.  I have coordinated many weekend programs for Shambhala in D.C. but this by far was the smoothest and most enjoyable.  I think it has to do with general attitude of the participants and the desire by everyone in the group to help pitch in.  I was both attentive and relaxed.  I was actually fascinated that I could maintain a good balance throughout the weekend of these two states of mind.  Also, as a coordinator, I had to depend on my growing skill level of Spanish in this multi-lingual environment (Spanish, Catalan and English).  It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be.  The teacher, staff and participants all seemed to have benefited from the weekend.