Top five adjustments Brits in Spain must make

Strangely, Brits don’t have to worry too much about food when adjusting to life in Spain

Any Brit considering moving to Spain should – one would hope – have already done their homework: dine out later than usual, try to pick up the language as best as possible, and don’t expect every single day to be hot and sunny. Got it.

But these rather obvious lifestyle adjustments merely scratch the surface of how your life is going to change. The reality on the ground, however, is much more nuanced, often quite gradual, and occasionally mildly disconcerting.

So don’t move to Spain unprepared – make sure you’re aware that these top five lifestyle adjustments may have to be adopted sooner than you might think…

1. Shopping habits

Here’s a list of items the average supermarket in Spain does NOT sell: cigarettes, paracetamol, clothes, furniture, kitchen goods, pre-packaged sandwiches (mostly), books, car insurance. Nope, for those kinds of items you need to go to a specialist store – a pharmacy, a tobacco shop, a furniture store, a bakery. Hence, the ‘big weekly shop’ will quickly become a thing of the past as you learn to adapt your shopping habits. It may mean heading to your local grocers more often than normal, but it also means your food rarely goes off, you get to interact with the locals, and you move around more. Spain has yet to catch on to the American way of shopping. Sure, there are out-of-town retail parks and the occasional hypermarket, but they are few and far between, even on the Costa del Sol.

Instead, get used to buying your food and toiletries from the supermarket, your medicinal and healthcare products from the pharmacy, your clothes from the local mall and your furniture from Ikea. As for electronic goods? There are plenty of options, but many Brits tend to wait until they are in the UK or a friend is flying over because such goods like laptops, phones and tablets are invariably cheaper in Britain than they are in Spain.

2. Body confidence

Chances are, if you are contemplating moving to Spain then you love its culture and its climate. Great choice. But Spain’s enduring heat – average annual temperature of 18c as opposed to the UK’s 10c – means that you will have to adjust to leading a comfortable life in such temperatures.

Dive right in: Spain’s warm embrace will make you feel and look good

This is not an extended holiday. You cannot go to the beach or pool everyday, which means no bikini or speedos. Instead, you have to live, maybe work, and co-exist with others in a country that is, for the most part, very hot. It means dressing appropriately, learning how to stay cool in the midday sun, and being confident with how you feel – there is no hiding behind layers here. The upside of all this is that the weather makes you feel good; the sun is great for your skin provided you take the correct precautions; the heat means you drink more water, and the lack of cold, rainy days mean you move around more. In fact, you are likely to lose weight, get fitter and look better simply by living in Spain, so get used to flaunting your body a little more!

3. Filling your spare time

The Spanish lifestyle is famously slow-paced, but that does not mean that Spaniards are lazy. If you are moving to Spain to work then you will be surprised at just how hard Spaniards do work, and you will have to, too.

Getting British TV in Spain is possible, but why would you want to?

However, Spain gifts you plenty of leisure time. You get more public holidays than the UK, and the working hours and commuting times are generally shorter, leaving you with more time to yourself. The question then, is: how do you fill it? You won’t necessarily have British TV, and even if you do, you won’t want to curl up on the sofa to watch Corrie when it is still beautifully sunny outside. And you can’t spend all your time down your local watering hole (tempting as that may sound). No, you are going to have to find something with which to busy your brain. This could be reading, taking up a hobby, socialising, exercising, travelling, or volunteering. Your days in Spain may seem slower paced, but they are likely to be far busier and more rounded than your life back in the UK was, so embrace the change.

4. Say goodbye to the cultural cutting edge

Even if you are of the age where the idea of going to a local gig to see your favourite band makes you yawn into your forearm, Spain will still feel a little bit like a cultural backwater compared to the UK. There is, of course, loads going on, and if you can learn to embrace Spanish music, film and theatre then you are pretty much quids-in. But for most other things – Hollywood blockbusters, the latest must-see TV, exciting new bands, even fashion trends – you will certainly feel out of the loop.

The internet means you can easily acquire most of the latest music, film, TV and fashions, of course, but by living in Spain you miss the daily prompts, the cultural cues – who is going to tell you about that latest band you need to check out, or that series you need to download? From where are you going to get your fashion inspiration? It’s a weird equation, but by simply not being in the UK, you will fall behind on certain trends. The upshot? You will begin to care less and less. Your friends back home may have the latest fashionable outfit and character soundbites from the hippest TV shows, you will be the one with the year-round tan and engaging anecdotes of life lived to the full in another country.

5. You’re now the foreigner

What should actually be the most obvious adjustment to reconcile is actually one of the most subtle to recognise. You know you’re now living in a foreign country; a land whose history, language and culture is alien, no matter how much you may love it. It is obvious that you are the guest, the visitor, the expat, the newbie.

There will be days where you truly will feel like a foreigner in Spain

But it is also easy to forget, especially on the Costa del Sol where there are so many Brits, English is widely spoken and home comforts are within easy reach. But it’s there – the underlying truth that you are now an immigrant. It may crop up when you’re queuing at the post office, or watching a party political broadcast, or looking on puzzled as a Spanish ‘comedy’ show pops up on TV, or feeling slightly empty when cheering on the Spanish football team in a bar. You love the country, its people, its culture… but it is not yours. Not at first, anyway. It takes time.