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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 photos 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) known as the Cap Salut
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 it's like the ajuntament (town hall) then
no specific English speaking staff are available, but do
ask (parla angles / 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. It's 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 about 2pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.
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.
