Here's a very useful site I found for help in learning Spanish:
Learn Spanish with SpanishPod.com
Learn Spanish with free lessons, vibrant community, web review, vocab study & more.
Moving and Living in Spain eBook
To see a large selection of photo's I've taken of Girona and the surrounding Costa Brava area please click here
Living in Girona (part 1).
The living in Girona pages are for anyone who's thinking of making the move here or just interested in knowing about how we live. Many comments below are based on our own personal experiences and whilst I can't possibly cover every topic I hope it gives some guidance and advice that'll be useful. There are also some thoughts about work, the education system and healthcare in Girona.
These pages will grow over time as I add new content and it may even migrate to it's own website all about just 'living here', if you have any specific questions please email me but as I have two jobs don't expect a quick reply!
Life here is very different from what you may have expected of Spain. For a start, Spanish is the co-official language with Catalan. Don't get me wrong if you only speak Spanish then you can live and work here without too many problems but knowing Catalan even at a basic level will win you some praise and admiration!
As with any move its essential to make plans and do you research prior to your move. We toured the Catalonia area extensively many years ago and then in 2005 decided to spend the whole summer based in Girona exploring the surrounding towns and villages in order to get a feel for where we might like to settle when we made the final move in August 2006.
Officialdom.
Sooner or later you'll have to get-to-grips with all the paperwork if you want to be a 'citizen of Girona'. When you have to go to register with doctors, government offices and their various agencies and you don't feel your Spanish is up to it then do try your best to take someone with you who has a better grasp of the language or, better still speaks Catalan, the co-official language next to Spanish. For a start it helps make things easier and secondly, you need to get things right and not have to keep going back just because your'e missing some document that they require.
Placa Catalunya
The Farinera
Just to be sure, as a precaution always take your passports with you including those of any other members of your family.
If you intend to sign up for the health and welfare system here in Catalunya you should think about getting what's known as the 'Empadronar', which is registering with the local town hall (Ajuntament). Its like the Electoral Roll in the UK and voluntary at the moment. If you're currently renting then take your rental contract as proof of an address or your house deeds (escritura) if you own a property. Also, as mentioned above take all your passports with you.
With this document you are then able to easily register for free healthcare (if your'e working) and, if you have children, getting them into the state school system.
The Oficina d'Atencio Ciutadana (above) is where you can go for advice on all a matters that relate to living here. I haven't been here yet but if its like the ajuntament (town hall) then no specific English speaking staff are available, but do ask (hablas ingles?).
Software Translation
Healthcare in Girona.
When you sign up to the healthcare system in Girona you get what's known as a Cap Salut (Salut is health in Catalan) card which is a temporary card until each of you receive the permanent plastic credit card size version by post in a few weeks. You should go to the nearest Cap Salut (Health Centre) to where you live (look in the local yelllow pages phonebook-Paginas Amarillo, under Salut) and register your whole family with a family doctor. Its also worthwhile asking if they have any English speaking doctors that you can register with. Children it seems get their own, seperate doctor to their parents.
In our case we were all entitled to a brief medical examination and also went back later for a full blood test which included our cholestorol levels. To see the family doctor here you need to make an appointment by phone, but we prefer to do it in person.
Schools in Girona.
This section is important for us as we have two young children and the changes they experienced will be chronicled here at a later date. If your'e coming to live in Girona and have children of school age here's some things that you might like to know.
Starting this process before you arrive will be difficult as you'll need to have the 'empadronamiento' in place and to show some proof of an address eg. a rental contract or your house deeds. Also, over the last few years there's been a large influx of new migrants to Girona which has swelled their schools to almost bursting point. New schools are under construction but its caught them by suprise.
When you arrive in Girona you'll need to go the the schools office, which is a small, glass fronted building (see photo below) in Devesa park, next to the entrance to the Jardins de la Devesa (C/Passeig de la Devesa). We arrived in August and were told that everything is shut in August so did'nt bother checking until someone else told us that the school office is open all year-round! So, we wasted a few weeks, but we took our Spanish-speaking friend to help us.
The 'Oficina Municipal
d'Escolaritzacio'.
The school your kids will be allocated depends on the area of Girona that you live in and you have a choice of three schools to choose from but, this is not something you can do all in one visit. We had to wait a further two weeks for an appointment to be interviewed by a schools child psychologist? Why, when our kids could'nt speak any Catalan or Spanish, so we took our Catalan neighbour for help in translation.
Our Catalan landlord also gave us some advice as to which schools to avoid and which were considered good that were in our catchment area. After this interview we had to wait a further 7-10 days before we were told which school we had been allocated. In our case we wanted our two children to go to the same school which we knew would narrow down our eventual choices. Finally, by early October our kids were both offered a school place outside of our area or zone which meant a bus ride as we didn't have a car yet. The school year had started on the 12th of September so our kids enjoyed an extra long summer vacation!
The school hours are from 9am-11am (then a small break of 30 mins.), lunchtime is between 1pm-3pm, and school finishes at 5pm. At seconday level the schools usually finish at 2pm on Wednesday's and Friday's.
The school year (according to the one our kids attend-a state school) is from 12th September to 21st December, back on the 8th January. Easter break is from the 14th, back on the 25th March and school ends on the 20th June.
In addition to Festival days (bank holidays) kids get these days off also, the 7th December, 16th February and 30th April.
Click on living in Girona-2 for further information on schools, and other related topics.
Click on the link below to get a FREE 6 day Spanish course with sample audio tracks.
