On August 29th of 2018, we left Canada and we were on our way to Malaga, Spain. Our life abroad was about to start, we didn’t know how we would feel in our new HOME. We were full of emotions…from fear to excitement.
It has now been over a year since that day, as you might know, we went back to Canada after 10 months because it was time to renew our visas. That was another scary time, we didn’t know if our visas would get approved or how long the renewal would take.
On the plane, on our way to Canada, we really didn’t know how we would feel being back home. It had been less than a year since we had left this country we called home for so many years. We had family, friends, and many memories back home. But how are we going to feel being back home? Are we going to miss Spain? Are we going to want to move back to Canada?
READ MORE: 1 year abroad – Life in Spain.
We initially left Malaga with the idea of being away for 2 months. It felt like a long time but at the same time, we were looking forward to those two months. We were ready to see family and friends and spend some quality time with our loved ones.
After 15+ hours of travel to Canada, we finally arrived in Toronto. The crazy thing was…It all felt the same! It felt as if we never left Canada! We didn’t expect to feel like that. Over the next month, we visited our favorite restaurants, had a taste of all the things we had missed and caught up with family and friends.
READ MORE: Moving abroad – Our Story
We got a few questions asked many times by family and friends:
-So…How’s life in Spain?
-How’s work there?
-Do you guys like the lifestyle? and…
-When are you guys moving back?
That last one was a taught question. Why? Because we didn’t even know.
Our life abroad was nothing but incredible. We were loving it, we had learned so much this first year and we weren’t ready to say bye to the life we had in Spain.
So let’s dive in a bit more…here’s how Canada felt:
- It felt as nothing had changed, which I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Not only things…but people. Everyone was in the same place in their lives (not in a bad way). We felt like in these past 8 months we had lived so much, grown so much and we had changed…for the better, so coming back to Canada and seeing everyone and everything around us hadn’t changed was an eye-opener. We could see exactly where we would have been at this time in our lives if we hadn’t moved, which made us appreciate our move abroad even more.
- Coming back to Canada made me realize that I had changed a lot. Grown in many ways and at the same time learnt about life while living in another country.
- I learned to appreciate the little things. I appreciated the many choices at the grocery store in Canada, the efficiency at the bank and many other little things.
- This trip gave us the opportunity to appreciate where we lived for many years. Canada is a beautiful country. A great place to live with an amazing quality of life. We wished we took advantage of its beauty and explored more of it while living here. One day for sure we will! Maybe with our kids!
- This summer with our families and friends was really about connection. Yup, might sound weird. I felt as if this summer allowed us to create deeper connections with everyone, we stayed at family and friends’ houses longer than we had before allowing us to build stronger connections which we are forever grateful for.
- I FELT like at the end of the day we had an incredible time in Canada but at the same time, we realized SPAIN IS OUR HAPPY PLACE.
Canada is truly home but Spain is currently our happy place. It’s where we want to be, we don’t miss the fast pace life in Canada, we don’t miss the constant need for more and more. Some people might disagree but I believe that in Canada people never have enough. Money and things are never enough, people always want more and more. Life abroad has taught us that…we really don’t need much in life. As long as we are healthy, have our families/friends and each other that’s all we need.
Thank you Canada for this amazing summer, we got to experience your beautiful views, lakes, and people. But for now we are heading back to Spain and like the title says “We will see you soon”✌🏼
