My Life in Valencia

Dear family and friends,

It has been a LONG time. I feel like I say that a lot….but this time it really has been.

Looking back, my last post was in November which feels a lifetime ago….3 holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s…), a full winter season, and four months later, and here we are.

It’s been a year.

A full year, almost to the day, when I officially moved to Valencia. It really is hard to believe.

In some ways it feels like just yesterday, and in others it feels like I just got here and I am still settling in.

And also almost exactly a year to the day that we lost my dear Dad. A year ago this weekend, I had just arrived and realised I would need to go back home as my Dad was in the hospital. We lost him a week later on March 19, 2022.

It’s been quite a year.

Although it certainly was a challenging year moving to another country and losing my Dad at the same time, I would say all in all, despite the huge loss and missing all of you back home, that this is where I am supposed to be.

As I sit here writing, listening to the crackling, pops, booms and bangs below my balcony, I am reminded too that it’s Fallas–a truly uniquely Valencian tradition that I am still learning about and looking forward to appreciating in its full glory this year. This weekend is the start of the end of Fallas…what everyone has been working up to, the Crema which is next Sunday, March 19.

Life works in mysterious ways.

It is not coincidence that Fallas ends on March 19.

March 19 marks the beginning of spring. It is also St. Joseph’s day.

And in Spain it is Father’s Day. What a way to commemorate and honor my Dad. Love you, Dad!

And so this week we will acknowledge and celebrate all that this year has brought. I will do my best to try to post more regularly in the next few weeks to document and share with you this truly Valencian tradition.

More to come soon!

xoxo K