18. Leap-In-Progress: Your Host! *Update #3 - "3 Steps Forward, 2 Back - But We're Stepping!"*

We're back!  With an update on our move with our toddler to southern Spain (after we leapt *see Episode 8* and pivoted *see Episode 13*!) and can't wait to share our highs, lows, and lessons learned. 

Learn more about this podcast (and us, with a blog I recently started!) on the Life Leaps Podcast website here. 

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Transcript

18 - Karen + Juan - PART 3!

[00:00:00] we found our country we found our home Oh my gosh y'all this has been so full of twists and turns 

Life Leaps Podcast: Welcome to Life Leaps Podcast. Hear inspiring stories of ordinary people who made extraordinary life changes. What drove them, what almost held them back. Insights for the rest of us considering life leaps big or small, because hearing someone else do it reminds us that we can too. 

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Today we'll get an update from your host. That's me on our leap in progress. Installment. Number three. So, if you haven't yet you can catch up on our episodes, our, my husband, Juan and I as episodes. eight and 13. And don't forget to follow rate and review us in your podcast app. We're brand new. So it means a lot. 

Karen: We're back 

Juan: for the third time today, . 

Karen: We've started recording this podcast two other times and first the microphone was off. Second, the computer was not properly plugged in, so [00:01:00] Here we are again. 

Juan: Third time's a charm. I hope so. . 

Karen: It's getting late. and it was already late. Um, okay, 

so we're back and we are currently seated. I guess our last update to you guys, we've done two updates before this. Our last one, we weren't in that different of a position than what we're in right now. Sitting on a couch in the dark, half darkness, hoping not to wake our sleeping toddler . We finally just got down 

so when we last checked in, we were getting ready to go from Portugal to Spain. Our leap had to pivot. We in case you're seeking a two second catchup in mid-January. Oh my gosh. Two and a half months ago, we packed up our Washington DC apartment.

Took our poor unsuspecting animals to stay with friends temporarily. Temporarily. And, got on a plane to, oh, I left my law job. That was also a part of the leap sold our car, I left my law job and the next day we got on a plane and, moved to what we thought was gonna be for a quite some [00:02:00] time to Portugal.

 so our first episode was like, we're getting ready to go, and then our next episode was Oh my gosh. We got to Portugal and we actually cannot stay in Portugal. ,

So our second update was us sharing why instead we were pivoting to Spain 

And we bought the next plane tickets to Spain. 

Juan: So today we're gonna tell you guys. Woohoo. We made it to Spain. We are here. We checked out a couple places. We were in Malaga. We are staying in Malaga. Uh, we'll tell you how we got there. A couple high points, low points, lessons learned and stuff we're excited about for Next Yeah. so Juan, how in the heck did we end up staying in Malaga?

Karen: we wanted somewhere coastal 

Juan: somewhere warmer, somewhere cheaper. 

Karen: Somewhere we could build community.

A few people named like Malaga, Valencia. A couple other places.

The 

Juan: most direct, cheapest flight from Lisbon to southern Spain was to Malaga 

Karen: And we were like, game on. We'll start with Malaga. 

Juan: So, let's see, we landed in malas. We're [00:03:00] here two weeks. We were tired of moving everywhere for a week, so we're like, oh, let's go somewhere for two weeks. Andre it out like it enough. But honestly, we weren't in love with it, so we went to Valencia to check Valencia out. We actually liked Valencia. We had a, couple of day trips to towns and Aliant as well.

 but we decided to come back to Malaga and I think one of the main reasons was community. we wanted, three or four things in wherever we stayed. It was a cost of living warmer weather place where we could build a community and a place where it could be good for Luca. Our son and Malaga me all those.

And even though there were some things we didn't like, we figured it was honestly a pretty good place. And so you had an analogy, I think in the middle of the night one day and you were like, , what's your bench analogy and how we 

Karen: Yeah. So after we arrived in Spain. We found ourselves doing a lot of like hemming and hawing.

 over where we should end up. We were like, Malak is great, but like, there's probably a lot of [00:04:00] other great places and let's go see Valencia. And then we were doing a bunch of day trips from Valencia to check out other places and we had this moment where we were like, we could drive up and down all of Costa Del Seoul and all of this coastline and check out all these places, but we were tired, y'all and

We had this moment where I think like very deliriously, a lot of delirious conversations. at night, one night I think I just like looked at you and I was. I feel like we, it's like you're at the park, you're at this gorgeous park, okay, with a beautiful view, and you have this sandwich in your hand. It's this delicious sandwich, and you got all the ingredients, okay?

 for, for good experience. And you're sitting there and you're like obsessing over which bench to sit on, right? It's like, and all the while that you're thinking about like, I could be on this bench and I could have this angle, I could really enjoy this part of the sandwich on this bench. All the while the sandwich is getting cold, the sun is setting and you're forgetting to enjoy the park.

And I felt like that's what we [00:05:00] were doing. At a certain point, you just have to pick your damn bench, sit down, enjoy the sandwich in the view. And I don't know if that's exactly what I said, but pretty close to it. Only probably way more. I don't. This is about right. Yeah. Same, same level of , same, same level of whatever.

I dunno why I was doing sandwich analogies at that 

Juan: point. You've got dam lettuce in there somewhere too. . 

Karen: Yeah. The lettuce has gone damp. Meanwhile, you know, don't let perfectly the enemy of good. We're constant, I think like many people ERs, um, don't paradoxes a choice, blah, blah, blah.

No, but really Over optimizing, feeling like you have so many options, that you lose all your time trying to choose between them instead of experiencing the good one you have in your hand. 

and so, We chose, we chose that bench, y'all.

 we chose Malaga and we were like, look, we're by the beach. We're by the parks. People seem great. The good quality of life, like sign us up. So we chose our bench. And the funny thing however, is we did not think about all of [00:06:00] the things. I don't know all the restrictions that might be involved in us sitting on the bench.

Yeah. Like all the logistical hurdles involved in actually settling here or in any place. and we are learning as we go. 

Juan: Yeah. What of the paperwork they're required to sit on this bench, . And Howard Chow sit on this bench with us 

Karen: and opened a bank account on this bench, rent an apartment on this bench. We were very focused on like, what are we gonna choose?

And then, you know, we got there and we were like, oh, this is what it's like to no longer just be a tourist in a place, . So I will say, you think you're moving to a gorgeous beach where you're gonna paddleboard all day and you do do some of that? Maybe. I mean, I hope we paddleboard, we haven. But you do do some of that maybe.

But you spend a lot of time at first standing in lines. You spend a lot of time trying to figure out, oh, I don't know how to open a bank account. . 

Juan: Yeah. How, or a cellphone plan going a cell phone plan five times to the cellphone plan store. Because 

Karen: we've been to the Vodafone like seven times. They do it at their own pace.

Yeah. Um, or, oh my gosh. Renting an apartment. Y'all renting an [00:07:00] apartment here I square I think is harder than New York City. They don't wanna rent a for, it's hard than. . Yeah. They don't wanna rent a foreigners because I guess if you're a span, if you have a Spanish job, like a job in Spain, they can garnish your wages from the employer if you don't pay rent.

and they're really strong tenant rights here. And so they don't have the security if you're not working in a Spanish company. So to be a non-tax resident doing a lot of things here, um, is really difficult. And it's okay. Life goes on. But you guys, we. Were so overwhelmed by so many things, related to finding housing.

We were like, we were messaging dozens of places a day. It's funny cuz you go from being overwhelmed about like, where should we live to? As soon as you cross over being overwhelmed about like, now how do we actually live here, . So we were emailing dozens of places a day. The second anyone got back to you if they agreed to, and again, you had to like follow up by calling afterwards the second anyone agreed you had to be ready to immediately go look at the place within like an hour, [00:08:00] and then you had to have your documentation in hand ready to turn over your passport, your employment record, your.

Like salary, I don't know, a lock of hair from your firstborn child. Like whatever they wanted, which we had, which we luckily had. Luca got his first haircut, , that's a story for another day. so anyway, yeah, we were, we found a place. You guys, we found a place. And honestly, I think the anticipation of several weeks of anticipation, cuz we'd heard it would be so hard.

As with most things in life, the anticipation was like actually harder and scary than the hustle. , wouldn't you say? 

Juan: Yeah. I think, you know, suffer more in imagination than in reality. Yes. Is that quote. Yes. And I think when we first got to maga, we met some people who are now good friends, but they, to, they warned us, you know, finding housing here as a foreigner, it's very difficult.

Get ready, good luck. And we were just worried about that. And we were, you know, we let it get to our heads. Yeah. And it was difficult, but I think, thinking about how difficult it would be, which made it worse. 

Karen: Totally. And I [00:09:00] think that's actually why I'm so glad. In some ways it was a blessing. We didn't know all the difficult logistical hurdles involved in moving here because I think we would've gotten in our heads then and might maybe might not have done it.

I don't know. so it's funny cuz in our, around the world trip a couple years ago, pre-baby, pre covid, we were, like, we could move from place to place, occasionally deal with visas. And by staying in one place, life's gonna be so much simpler.

It's gonna be fine. And in many ways I'm sure it will be. but yeah, we didn't think about all of the, like the long-term things. When you're on a tourist visa, you're living the sort of gilded life. Like you just book an Airbnb, you show up, but when you're actually trying to live in a place like you are buying a washing machine, you're figuring out internet and a cell phone with a very unwilling Vodafone representative.

Juan: Oh. A mattress and a toddler. We, you know, that, that also has added a lot of extra logistics and made everything more difficult. Right. Cause we're, you know, bringing him along. 

Karen: Totally. That's the other thing. Juan is still working. . [00:10:00] and I am watching Luca like almost full-time, which is also new for me, but, so I don't know who's doing the logistics around here.

Mm-hmm. , like, it's . It's not him. , I think it's like a be dragged version tired version of ourselves. , like at night, like this . Yeah. Trying to figure it all out. Or I'm dragging Luca to every store imaginable. with my busted Spanish . So Juan's really the one qualified to be doing this Spanish wise, but he's working so.

Yeah, we're just trying to figure it out. We ordered a mattress last week that we had to order and then send back and reorder because it was in centimeters and there's like 72 mattress sizes here and we apparently ordered like an extra large king. I, I don't know, I still don't actually know what we ordered , but it was the wrong one.

Okay. . 

Juan: Anyway, yeah, just things you take for granted cuz even, you know, picking a mattress, you're like, well, And back home we know it. It's double king, queen, 

Karen: whatever. Or do we know it? I don't know. It doesn't sound like 

Juan: we know. We know. We, I don't know. We knew that. No, it's easy. We, at home we [00:11:00] wanted like a queen, but here, yeah, it's like in centimeters.

There's no like, nice. Well, 

Karen: it's not just centimeters. It's that there's 17 sizes, like, there's like, there's like 17 sizes of centimeter configurations. Like it's, yeah, 

Juan: but they don't make it easy cuz I, I at least, I don't know instinctually how much, 150 meter and a half is. . Maybe I should, but no, I don't.

Or how and how that is different from a meter and aren't you an MIT 

Karen: engineer or 

Juan: something? Yeah. Well, Teach me . We could start out . 

Karen: Um, okay, so bottom line, we now have a phone plan. It doesn't work yet, but I promise you maybe it will. Hopefully in the next few days. We have a bank account, which hopefully we'll have the debit cards for.

Mm-hmm. in the next 

Juan: few days. We have a mattress that will hopefully arrive on Fridays 

Karen: and we have an apartment. Is completely unfurnished, but hopefully will be furnished again, a lot's hinging on the next few days 

Juan: here. Yeah, and it has a fridge and we have, you know, $500 worth of kitchen, bathroom, and lighting stuff for [00:12:00] ikea.

So we have lights, hopefully mattresses and kitchen and bathroom stuff. We're 

Karen: doing it baby. okay, so highs, lows. and things you're looking forward to. 

Juan: So, let's see. I will say, let's start with the lows for me. 

Karen: And thenBring it positives.

Juan: So I think the, the lows are just like a generalized, like frustration with everything and how long everything seems to take. yeah, like we were just talking about the mattress and just generalized conversation with ourselves for just feeling so lost in all the things. Yeah. It just gets, it just gets frustrating.

Like, can we go to the supermarkets like a new adventure? Cause you don't know where all the things are and you don't know what the best times are and you forget that things are closed on Sundays. Like everything, even ikea's 

Karen: closed on Sundays or weekdays between two and five and forget about dinner before 8:00 PM My friends

Juan: So they're just getting used to it. Just like I've letting learning, I've have let it get to me. 

Karen: Um, which it's harder. That's the thing. It's harder with a kid. Like it's Yeah. 

Juan: Yeah. Cuz you're right. Anyway, so that's, I would. It's like [00:13:00] a fresh, the grinding of all of that. the high point, I would say the high point.

 right now I'm feeling like a high point. I feel like we're, you know, like you said, three steps forward, two steps back. But we are moving forward and so we're almost there with the phone, almost there with the apartment, hopefully almost there with the visa. And just seeing that we've, you know, I think today, Recording this podcast like, oh, we have come a long way from where we were a month ago, and we have done a lot of things.

So it's, so 

Karen: this podcast is for us, is what we're trying to say. It makes us feel better about our lives. Yeah, for sure. 

Juan: Really we're talking about that. It, it really helps us reflect, and it also, I think when you say your problems out loud, they. don't sound as overwhelming or they, it's like, wow, I shouldn't be complaining about, you know, like, oh, I was hard to find an apartment.

Cuz it also, you, you realize why if you're housing insecure, it must be very, very difficult and very, very stressful. 

Karen: yeah, there's a little entitlement I think thinking we could like just throw money at it and you can't, they don't, still don't wanna [00:14:00] rent to you. Yeah. Or like opening a bank account. 

 yeah, so I think the, the low point is just like the, the frustration. The high point is, hey, we're getting somewhere and it's a slow positive progress. And yeah, something I'm looking forward to. A routine, surprisingly. I don't think I've would've ever said that before.

Juan: But yeah, I'm really excited to have a 

Karen: routine. Except on the last podcast episode. You were already ready for that . That's right. 

Juan: Yeah. and it's gotten better in terms of routine, but being able to, you know, exercise and have Luca with some childcare that where he's happy and be able to have an apartment and have people visit us.

So, you know, friends come visit us. 

Karen: Yeah. Come visit. like literally anyone , just come see us. We have three bedrooms, two bathroom maybe Liz 

Juan: Podcast blows up crazy. 

Karen: Then, you know, then we might start betting visitors, but don't worry, we're not there yet. , yes, let's come. 

Juan: Um, yeah. What about you? 

Karen: Okay, so for me, I'm gonna start with [00:15:00] the hi.

 so high point, it was actually like not that long into our Stan Malaga. Maybe The first two weeks or so, and, I'll preface it with this. When we first arrived, we were staying at Airbnb, which was in kind of like, kinda like a whatever part of town that I wasn't super excited about, wasn't in the center, wasn't whatever.

And I remember thinking okay, this is fine. We'll just stay here for a little bit and see how it feels like. It just wasn't super jazzed. it wasn't sparkly for me. And about a week in, maybe even longer, you showed me something that was right under my nose all along. And that I think is been my experience with Malaga, and maybe is a metaphor for life.

 we won't get there. I'm too tired, but, which, So many amazing things. If you have the right attitude, are right under your nose all along and you just don't know it, which is, anyway, you had found this awesome park called Park de Weste, which we'd heard about, but I hadn't [00:16:00] been to. I didn't realize it was literally a stones throw from our apartment if I just turned the other direction.

Like I had to go through a parking lot and go left instead of right. And all of a sudden I was transported to this awesome place with Big sparkly water with ducks and swans and turtles, as Lucas says, like turtles, , turtles, just like these amazing like creatures and beautiful space and artsy statues and people doing outdoor exercise classes and people young and old enjoying space full of playgrounds.

 and it goes all the way down to the beach and it's awesome. And one of my favorite places in the city. But little did I know that the place we were staying was like so centrally located to all of that. And so all that to say my moment was, I remember one Friday evening, shortly after discovering that, you know, walking through that area and to the left was these like, Sparkly waters with the ducks and the swans and you know, the playground [00:17:00] and whatever.

And then to my right was like a dog park and both an older couple and like some teenagers using the outdoor exercise equipment that's just there for people to use. And I think people were playing basketball in the basketball courts and kids were running up and down and dogs. What? It was just this massive, gorgeous, gorgeous with people just like filled.

With laughter and community space, and I just remember thinking like, oh, I get it. Like I get it. This is not the sparkliest city. This doesn't have the best beaches. I mean, they're good, don't get me wrong. But it's not like, you know, the most sophisticated Parisian people. Not that I'm looking for that specifically, but the point.

Like people here are this city is designed with community in mind. This city is designed with public resources in mind and people are here [00:18:00] just enjoying their lives. Like there is a high quality of life. People are friendly, they're laughing. Older folks, I swear if I want, I die, I wanna come back like a senior citizen in Malaga, , or a small dog.

Lots of those. But. I just remember feeling like, wow. And it's funny, it wasn't as much of a high point as much of just a grounding moment actually. And just like suddenly understanding this is a place that people are living well in a totally different way than you might see from an outsider who isn't experiencing these kinds of moments.

cuz it's a solidly middle class city,anyway, There's a high quality of life. And I was like, I I could be a part of this. This could be us for a little while, um, in a way I just didn't expect. And so after, you know, my first week or two where I was like, eh, um, anyway, so that was a high point to me.

 and low point. Much more briefly, I will say was like yesterday, , when I learned that we do not in fact have childcare and we thought that we did , [00:19:00] so turns out anyway. there's like a childcare season in it's open season for childcare, basically for April and September.

And if you don't get in those slots, you're like kind of screwed around here a little did we know. So luckily for us, we were like, right under the hair of the April deadline. So all last week I had Luca in tow and we were just like knocking on the doors of daycares, because nobody will answer the phone, or at least less people.

And nobody wanted to deal with my emails in broken, busted Spanish. So I was knocking on their doors, I was ringing their doorbells. I was like, had Luca tucked under my arm, like one shoe on. He'd probably throw in his sock into the street as he keeps doing. Covered in like, I don't know, rice cake crumbs.

Yogurt. Yogurt, definitely. Yogurt being like, I promise he cleans up good. Like, will you , will you take my child? I need help. And a lot of them were already full as we were told they would be. but we found a few, and one in particular, really good one that our friends kid goes to really [00:20:00] enjoy. It's actually like the furthest from us 

but I just loved the way they were with Luca and again, our friend had a great experience. So I rushed last Friday to like register with the city, which required our landlord's tax ID and all these things I didn't expect with shocking success. At my first attempt, I think the woman just approved my city registration because Luca was like crawling all around her floor in the office and trying to draw on her things with crayons.

I think she just like wanted us out of there. Like she was done with the tile situation, but she approved it. Okay. And that's what. And I then raced to make copies, raced to the daycare, you know, gave them the paperwork we were celebrating last Friday. Okay. We were like, we've got daycare. We'd already crossed over to stressing about, you know, how the adjustment period was gonna be.

We'd crossed over the new set of problems. Yeah. with daycare, as you often do in life, once, once you solve for one problem, you're like, well, what's the next set of things I could be anxious about with this decision? . So we were already like into the daycare adjustment angst. Okay.[00:21:00] We were over there, are we gonna have a daycare angst?

It was time for new problems. Um, rat, race, brain, um, separate blog posts But anyways, so we then learned, okay, I don't know if it was my miscommunication, Shirley, it was. . But basically we learned yesterday that we are actually just first on the waiting list and there's a student who may move. Okay. In, I think they're moving.

I don't know. It's unclear. That's the problem. They bought 

Juan: a house and the house should be delivered in April, but it may get delayed or May. So hopefully that house gets delivered and this child moves . 

Karen: We dunno who this child. We would like to 

Juan: and if you know anybody working on housing development in Malaga, we will 

Karen: pay their contractor , 

Juan: get this house done.

Yeah. 

Karen: So that is our situation. We could be waiting a little while longer. I dunno if you have to get a temporary O pair to come live with us in this house and home, we're considering doing that. I don't know. But , [00:22:00] we will see. Hopefully next time you talk to us, we will have childcare. But yeah, that was sort of like, again, three steps forward, two steps.

Moment where we're like, Ugh, . Just when you think. so that was a low point, but we're gonna push through. We're gonna figure it out. I was just like, I'm gonna be watching this child forever, . I am never going to get to work on any of the creative projects that I wanted to. You know, I really wanna breathe more life in its podcast, do a weekly newsletter.

Like just a lot of things that I can more meaningfully. The book you wrote? Yeah, we call, we co-wrote, you know, we wrote this book for new, the book we co-wrote . I mean, I guess I'm fine with taking credit, um, for, anyway, for new parents. Like, whatever, I set that aside. I was supposed to pick it up in February, that is now laughable.

 maybe one day I need actually like a real paying job and career again since I just abandoned mine a few weeks ago. You know, there are things that I, and we wanna do and childcare's a huge piece of that. And, , it was really a feeling of like, am I ever gonna get out of this? Um, which of course I will, but that was my moment, that was my low point yesterday.

[00:23:00] So, thing I'm excited about, childcare. No, that's too easy. um, yeah, like going paddle boarding in the mornings instead of thinking about how to install this dishwasher, you know, going to the beach instead of Ikea. To try and furnish our apartment. and we'll get there.

Of course we will get there. like I said, several steps forward, a few steps back, but we're just gonna keep stepping and, I think, I hope that's what's important. Yeah. Keep on keeping on. Yeah. So anyways, next time you hear from us, fingers crossed we will have. 

Juan: A happy child in daycare. Yes. A furnished 

Karen: apartment.

Yeah. We are literally moving this Friday. So in three days. Yeah. A visa two days. I can't even count. We're moving in two days and we have got beds hopefully arriving in a couple of like kitchen appliances. So we may move into this place with, I don't know, nothing to sit on. We really should get a couch.

 I don't care. We're moving in. So hopefully next time we talk [00:24:00] we will have a furnace. Like Juan said, childcare. our residency permit and all that is finalized. Um, no, we feel good about that. We're just waiting on one final document from the Department of State, to officially formalize an already existing document, whatever.

Email us if you have questions about how to do this process. It is very confusing, but pretty straightforward once you figure it out. yeah, and we're in into a rhythm.

and I will close on one really amazing story which I think actually best helps explain, what we love about Moga and the sense of community we've already found is, it starts with, I wrote a blog posting saying, you can find me on the playground.

Picking up friends. This was not even on the playground. This was Luca picking up friends for us. . 

Juan: Yeah. It was on the, like a side park in the middle of downtown. There was a festival going on and there was another couple with two twin girls who were eating ice cream. Luk was running around. and then he just went over to them and started staring at their ice 

Karen: cream.

Our child is a massive extrovert. No shame[00:25:00] . 

Juan: Yeah. And so he started, and then what happened? He was staring at their ice 

Karen: cream and the parents ended up being this really cool Polish couple, the ton of expats in Malaga, but they had just moved here eight months ago.

 they were teasing us, I guess, about how we were depriving our kid of ice cream, which. And, we ended up making friends and they were like, oh yeah, we're about to go join this festival. There's always a festival down the street. Um, why don't you guys come with, and we almost didn't, we were tired. And I, 

Juan: yeah, it was like if we went, we, it was, we're gonna be 30 minutes late for his bedtime.

We've been out all day. We're like, ah, maybe we should just go home. But we ended up 

Karen: going, everything might have changed if we hadn't. Yeah. Um, but we did. So we tagged along and we ended. Like loving them and loving the friends that they introduced us to who were an American couple who had been, living in Miami for a really long time.

Also relocated in the last six months to MAGA with a two and a half year old and a four and a half year old. They were like living super close to where we were staying. We all hung out the next day and I think the next like, anyway, we, we hung out a ton and [00:26:00] Luca loves their kids and we just sort of made fast friends and honestly meeting them, they were like our saviors in so many ways.

They told us the exact bank teller and bank to go to that would actually let us open an account. They helped hook us up with housing. They helped us find the daycare. I mean, honestly, just everything. Yeah, they have been. amazing resources, and friends. And I think it's really special. Sometimes you can know someone for five minutes, sometimes you can know 'em for five years.

But, we just really clicked with with them and we. 

Juan: we probably wouldn't have been able to secure this housing without them. I 

Karen: was gonna say, so this is the final story. That was, that was the lead up. This is the final moment. When I say a house like y'all, we would've lost our apartment without them.

And we didn't realize it at the time, but we were out celebrating finding our apartment like last Friday, and we got a phone call from the landlords or the property company being. Your wire transfer isn't through yet. Like it's, it didn't work. It's not good. You have to do [00:27:00] it now. And we didn't realize it, but our bank was blocking our wire transfer or it wasn't working something was wrong.

We were about to race home to the other side of town to try and do it in a panic, like at the beginning of our dinner. And, little do we know, it wouldn't even have worked on our computer because when we tried it late, it, it was like we, we were total naive about how to transfer money from our US account to.

 . And they looked at us and they were like, you guys. We will front the money from our bank account, which they already had their bank account in Spain to the property company. Like, what are the digits? Give us the numbers. We'll send it. And you pay us when you 

 figure out the wire transfer and, and you'll get us back. And we just, it was a lot of money. Okay. Because it was like the deposit and the rent and whatever, and we were just like, wow. this is a moment when. the people in your life and the community you can build and the relationships you can make.

Like they're everything. You know, I, I [00:28:00] don't know how we would've done it without other people. anyways, and so I think that that really symbolizes again, what we love about this place and one of the reasons we stayed. 

and also 

Karen: just a special human to human. Sos help. Thank you. Moment. Yeah.

Juan: Trusting us or knowing us for like two, three weeks. 

Karen: Yeah. Anyway, so I thought that was a great, heartwarming moment to share on. Now we have the apartment. Godspeed. okay. Till next time, see you all. Soons. Oh yeah. As Lucas says, AIOS .

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