PROJECT EXPAT: I’m Moving to Barcelona!

“You’re not a tree, you don’t have to stay in one place.” A quote that has reverberated in my head for as long as I can remember. And one that also has made me realize that I was meant to be a traveler.

Before I get to the logistics of how exactly I’m becoming an expat and moving to Barcelona, let me just tell you about my track record of moving:

• 2011: A year after graduating college; broke up with a serious boyfriend, quit a good job, went to LA for the weekend…and never came back (to Florida).
• 2014: Felt like I should be doing more than partying in LA so took my first solo trip to Africa. Haven’t stopped traveling since.
• 2016: Had to choose between paying rent for the month or traveling for the month. Put my things in storage, went on the trip, but never came back. Became a nomad for three years.
• 2019: After suffering severe PTSD and anxiety from four back-to-back accidents while traveling, finally got an apartment back in LA to recover. Traveled half as much as the previous years.
• 2020: Realized having a routine, expensive apartment, and less freedom to travel was making me miserable and brought back my anxiety. Decided with four weeks notice to move to Barcelona.

Whew! Now that you know the crazy timeline of my 20’s, I can get to WHY I decided to move abroad, and HOW I’m pulling it off!

Why I Decided to Become an Expat

After traveling for seven years to over 100 countries, you can probably imagine that I’ve experienced a lot of things. Naturally, I compare them to things in my own country, the U.S. as well.

Although I absolutely love the (majority of) people here, the freedom, the access to literally anything, there’s things I don’t love as well.

Healthcare costs, high taxes, expensive rent, fear-mongering news outlets, the fact that we’ve never had a female leader. The amount of money spent on war that could be used to help the sick and homeless. Our sexist, completely absurd president. The fact that people support him. The fact that I’ll get hate comments for saying that (but on the contrary, also the fact that I’m ALLOWED to say that is a pro).

In the past year that I was living back in LA, I went back and forth with how I felt being based here. I absolutely love the chill vibe and the endless opportunities for dreamers like me. My friends here are like my family, and I finally was able to have my dog again. For the first time in a LONG time I even was able to have a serious relationship since I had stability.

To be completely honest, the only reason why I stopped being nomadic and got a home was as I mentioned, to cure my PTSD anxiety from four back to back accidents in 2018, and also because I wanted a relationship.

But it all became SO redundant. Doing the same thing every day drove me crazy. Hearing the same bullshit news, spending ridiculous amounts of money on entertainment, feeling like almost everyone is anxious all the time, and just a general lack of love for life here made me question WHY I was even still here.

Here’s a secret: A big part of WHY I stayed when my lease was up back in November was because of my relationship. That and I had gotten too comfortable with being comfortable, and didn’t feel like even thinking about having to pack and move.

My boyfriend knew staying here made me miserable and I desperately wanted to move. Initially my eye was on Bali. It’s cheap, chill, and there’s a lot of digital nomads like me. He actually boldly agreed to move there with me in May (4 months from now), and we had been looking at villas for the last two months.

But then this happened:

My Leasing Office Told me to Renew, or Move Out

On February 3rd I received an email from my apartment’s leasing office (who hate me because I always have too many friends at the pool). It basically said I had to either renew my one year lease THAT DAY, or give my 30-day move out notice because they weren’t allowing month-to-month rentals anymore.

Naturally, I started to panic. There was no way I could renew my lease for a year — I have group trips planned all of August-December.

But a part of me was relieved; I wouldn’t have to spend another $2600 on rent (YUP! Did that for a year!).

So immediately I rushed to my computer, and started trying to figure out where to live.

Why I Chose to Move to Barcelona

The first thing I did was try to find a furnished sublet in LA. In my head, I would just stay here until my boyfriend was ready to move to Bali in May. But I couldn’t find anything. Everything was either a long term lease, too expensive, or a scam.

So after some wine, I started looking into monthly or yearly rentals in Bali. I found some decent options, but wasn’t totally convinced.

After some more wine, for some reason a completely new thought came to my mind: “I wonder how much flats are in Barcelona.”

I had suddenly remembered searching through listings when I was 22 and would day dream about moving there. I had visited when I was 21 as part of a Euro-Trip in college, and remembered loving it.

In fact, I can still remember jogging to Stereo Love, just randomly day dreaming of moving to Barcelona.

Anyway, somehow I immediately found local listings for rentals and was STUNNED! The flats were adorable, all with balconies, and less than half of what I was paying in LA!

My boyfriend came over a few hours later to find me still on the couch, but with a look of optimism and scheming on my face rather than panic.

“Wactcha doing over there?” He asked curiously, clearly noticing I was up to something.

“Babe. What about Barcelona?” I was pretty tipsy at that point so that’s all I said. I knew he’d know what I meant.

He slid on the couch next to me and tried to comprehend the hundreds of tabs I had on my laptop. I knew it must have looked like a complete clusterf*ck so I quickly composed myself and forced him to look at photo after photo of all the flats I had found, with emphasis on how we’d only have to pay about $600 each to split it.

“I’ve always wanted to live in Spain.” He finally said.

WHAT?! How was that so easy?! I was pitching to not only move abroad in one month, but also move in together for the first time, and he was just down for it? Just like that? He’d never even been to Spain before!

After talking a bit more about it, looking at a few more places, and discussing logistics, it was decided. We would move to Barcelona at the beginning of the next month!

How We Got Ready to Move to Barcelona

Just imagine for a sec abruptly getting told you have to move out in a month, and deciding you will, but to another country. Any normal person should be having anxiety flare ups.

I tried to keep calm though and just think of it as a regular move. Constantly reminding myself that everyone moves and I would have had to do it eventually anyway. Except…this time I would only be able to take a suitcase full of my stuff…

There were several little things that needed to be done, and some I’ll explain further about in other posts. But overall the list was:

• Find a flat: which I’ll explain more about, but essentially ended up finding one for the month through airbnb.
• Book a flight to Barcelona
• Schedule storage unit and movers: I use Clutter, which is only $135/month and includes free movers and boxes. Get $100 off using this code: RJDRTN
• Book a monthly parking spot to store my car: I did this through SpotHero and found a covered spot at a hotel near LAX for only $150/month
• Fly my mom to LA to take my dog and valuables back to Florida
• Ask a friend to adopt my fish and plants
• Get a new passport expedited (mine’s full): if you show proof of travel within two weeks you can go get one in person.
• Tell my friends and plan a going away party: they were only excited about the latter.
• And finally the worst part: PACK

So there you have it! My big announcement! Not only am I moving to Barcelona, but also moving in with a boyfriend for the first time!

We have no idea what to expect which is why I’m filming the whole process for my web series, Project Expat! Be sure to watch the full episodes on YouTube, read the stories on here (subscribe!), and follow me on Instagram for updates!

Click Here to Watch Episode 1 !!!