Cat, living the Spanish dream

Today we devote our time to talk about a woman who has fought hard to fulfill her dreams. We are talking about Cat. This charming American girl from Chicago had always wanted to visit Spain, as its history and lifestyle were attractive to her.

So in 2005 she plucked up her courage and went straight to Valladolid (the land of Columbus and Cervantes), where she spent a summer with a host family learning Spanish.

She did not need much time to fall in love with Spain. The sun, people and siesta lifestyle captivated her. So as soon as she went back to Chicago she told her mother of her irrevocable decision to live in Spain for..good?

After university, Cat found a job as an English teacher in Seville, the capital of Andalusia.
In September 2007 she settled down in the south of Spain, the land of the sun and began teaching at a rural high school, using weekends and long breaks to travel and discover more about Spain.

Three years later, her teaching program was about to expire, so she had to make a choice: fight bureaucracy and stay in Spain, or move to Chicago.
Her choice was clear: to make a life in Spain. Through countless trips to the foreigner’s office, meetings with lawyers and sending out more than 100 job applications, Cat won her battle with bureaucracy and now she has semi-permanent EU residency status.

Since then, she devotes her free time to informing and helping her others interested in Spain by creating two websites: Sunshineandsiestas, a virtual love letter to Spanish culture and lifestyle, and comoconsultingspain, a website created to help non-EU citizens live and work legally in Spain. If you aren’t a European and want to live and work in Spain, do not hesitate to contact her.

We had the chance to have her on one of our activities and we can affirm that she is excellent!