Bonjhola

EP 61: Getting a Spanish Driver's License is a Nightmare; Rebecca and Aimee Reveal Upcoming Adventures and Anti-Aging Advice for folks over 50 😀

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bonjola, a podcast about two women, Amy and Rebecca, who each moved from the United States to Europe to become expats, Amy to Spain and Rebecca to France. We're here to share the highs, the lows, and the logistics of this adventure, encourage you to follow your own move abroad dreams, and remind you that you're not alone when the going gets tough. Enjoy.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Buongiorno, Rebecca.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

So last time we were together, we had promised our listeners we would talk about driver's licenses. This is mostly going to be your knowledge, because I know all of one fact when it comes to France and driver's licenses, because I don't need one living in Paris.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Oh, what is that one fact?

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

It is that, um, whether or not you can basically transfer your driver's license from the States to Paris and just get one here without having to go through the schooling, depends entirely on which state you live in. And Washington, I know, is not one of those states, and that is the truth. That is the entirety of my knowledge.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

How exciting for you.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Luckily, I don't need a car, so it's not something I have to really worry about navigating.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

right, exactly. I wish it was that simple here in Spain. if you are in the EU. It's not a problem, you know, if you're an EU citizen, getting a Spanish driver's license in terms of transferring it over is not a problem, uh, for us, lowly Americans, and I believe now for the Brits as well, because they are now a third, I want to call them a third, a third, a third country nation, third tier, uh, country, you have to take a, you know, Spanish driver's license. And you have to go to Spanish driving school. It's not just written, you also have to go to driving school. Now, where we live, the driving school is in either Spanish or Catalan. That's it. the written exam, because it is in It's a national exam is offered in Spanish. However. Mm hmm. Yeah, it's offered in Spanish However, it is my understanding that you can take the test in other languages, which is effectively just Google Translate the test so it's really bad Jacked up Translation. I shouldn't say really bad because Google I mean

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

It's getting better.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

It's getting better. However, nuance is still not its forte. Okay. And with driving exams, I mean, there's going to be some nuance thrown in there, right? So that is, it's problematic. And I, I've actually been told that by some people rather, rather than just reading the study manual, you know, the Google translate version of the study manual to take the exam. Because the chances of failure are so high that it is better to actually just do the practice exams so that you can get familiar with the questions and kind of train yourself on how to answer the question based on how it's worded over what it's actually, like what it actually means.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

and you're also almost approaching it like a language lesson, like you're going to study Spanish via the driver's exams while learning how to Interpret their kind of test and their kind of test language,

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah, if you take it in Spanish, you know, I

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

right?

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

if you don't know enough Spanish to take the exam Then then you have to work with Google Translate and just sort of gauge The Spanglish

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

And so you're saying study the spanglish versions of the practice exams.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

plan on taking the Spanglish version of the test. Absolutely.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

that's pretty

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah, so you can learn how

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Have you been through it?

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Oh God, no. No, because here's, here's the clincher. Here's the clincher. There are so few. There, first, this process is very expensive as well. In total, it's roughly a thousand euro to get a

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Oh my gosh,

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Mm hmm. Because you have to pay for the school, right, to do the, to take the lessons on how to drive. And then there are like fees and things. I don't actually know the breakdown of this, but I'm told it's a, in total it's about a thousand euro. When you finish taking your Spanish driving classes through the driver's school, you have a limited amount of time. I want to say. I want to say it's three months to take your written exam, but to sit for the exam, there's such a backlog to sit for the exam that in many places, you cannot sit for an exam for at least six to nine months,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

wow.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

which if you can do basic math, you see very quickly, this is a big problem.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Now, we took a big road trip through Spain and we just had an international driving license. So when somebody first moves over, or with you guys, you guys have taken road trips, as a new expat, how have you approached this?

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

You have your passport and your international driver's license. You're renting a car. It's not your car, right? There we go. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Act as though you're a tourist. And, you know,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

what does that keep you from doing? If you, like, what's, what would be the benefit, if any, of going through the process of getting a proper Spanish driving license? Yes. Yes.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

well, while you can buy a car without having a proper Spanish driver's license, if you get pulled over or if you get into an accident and the car is registered in your name, but you do not have a Spanish driver's license, That's an inconsistency that they're going to have issues with.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Got it. Yeah. So there's, I mean, there is this in between phase when we first become expats, like Damien and I still being in the Airbnb system, that obviously would not be a 10 year plan where you do sort of, uh, put on the temporary solution.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Exactly. Exactly. I have a friend who is trying to take the Spanish exam, the driving, the written exam, and there's nothing available in our area. There's nothing available in Barcelona. There's nothing available, like, in the province, and she's actually going to go to Valencia, which is a six hour train ride, to the south part of the country because she can get an appointment there. And this is what, like, this is what people who have the means are doing, is they are like flying over to Galicia or going down to Valencia or somewhere where there are openings because there are not any up here. And I think too, I have a feeling this is part of what, this is part of the grievances in Catalonia because again, we pay so much, we pay more taxes in this region than any other area in the country. And the, the feedback that I hear is that for the amount that we pay in taxes, we do not have nearly the resources. That are available to people who live in Madrid where they pay the least amount of taxes of anywhere in the country. Um, they have a better metro system, right? I think you can still get an appointment in Madrid to do your driver's exam or the wait is less because they have more staff,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Got it. And this is one of those things too, where when you're doing your researching about moving to a country, this might not come up in a Google search because Spain doesn't have a problem, but they aren't. Zeroing in on the idea of, well, what about the Catalonia region, which might have a very different story. It's such a good example of the kinds of things you just don't even think to think ahead about anyway. Who would have thought that would be something challenging to navigate, especially coming from the United States, where getting a driver's license is practically a birthright, and it's so easy.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah. And there are a lot of people here who just don't bother. They do buy cars and they do drive around with their. You know, their foreign driver's license and just like, you know, I guess hope they don't get into an accident or something. I don't know.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Well, that's what I was going to ask next. I assume that means that they are completely uninsured. I don't know if it's common to be insured otherwise.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Um, I don't know. I have no idea because, you know, from what I've overheard, it wasn't a situation where I was probing. So I didn't ask about the insurance question. Or maybe the vehicles are insured instead of the driver being insured the vehicle's insured. I don't know. I don't know anything about the vehicle insurance thing here because again, that's so many steps removed. From where we are at in that process,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

It is like an onion and you're like, I'm only on the outer layer, guys. Like I don't even know what's on the inside of this onion.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

am writing on top of a bacteria that is sitting on the outermost layer of the onion. That's where I'm at.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

You're not even aware of it being an

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Exactly.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Yes, that is the reality. Oh my goodness. Wow. That actually makes me feel much better about our decision. Whenever we rent cars, when we take these road trips, we always get the, you can turn this car in totaled insurance. And now that I'm realizing that there could be so many uninsured, recklessly, I don't know, minded people on the road, I'm really glad that we had that extra layer of protection. Sets your mind at ease.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

in France to get the super duper extra insurance? Like, do you, like, if you break it down, is it as exorbitant as it is in the States?

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

I, wish I could answer that question, but the one thing about my personality is I do not remember numbers. I evaluate them. I math them. I make decisions about them. And then once the money is spent, I have no idea what things used to cost unless I look it up. However, my husband would know exactly what that number was. So someday we can ask him. Yeah. I do know that renting a car always makes me choke on materials a little bit. Cost wise, um, especially in Europe with the cost of fuel being quite a bit

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Oh yeah, for sure.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

but you know, that is one part of me that is incredibly American. I love. A road trip. It lets you see a country in a way that you can't really in any other way. Way. I mean, train travel obviously is awesome because you can totally focus on the trip, but you are restricted to the route that the train is going to let you see from the window.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Right.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Um, and Damien loves to drive. I love, I do not love driving, but I love the road trip. So it's a big part of our adventuring habit.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah, that's nice. And that actually, that has allowed you to see quite a bit of France.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Absolutely. And this country is remarkable in how varied it is from region to region. when we drove it, it felt almost as varied as the United States, but in much smaller pockets, obviously, because it's a smaller country overall. That's incredible.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah, I think, I mean, the same is true. The same is true for Spain, and I haven't, you know, that said, I haven't seen a lot of it, but I've read about a lot of the different regions, and, you know, people always talk about, oh, Spain, it must be hot and sunny, and it's like, well, yeah, the place is where a lot of people go. Like Malaga and Sevilla and Granada and Valencia. Yeah, absolutely. That is like, those are hot touristy, tropical, not tropical per se, but, you know, beachy, hot areas. Um, but you know, up here it's definitely greener. It's more arid, you know, than the Pacific Northwest, but my understanding is that the eastern side of the country is much greener than even here and more, they call it green Spain, Galicia, and,, part of, parts of the Basque country are quite a bit more greener, get a lot more rain, and those are areas I really want to check out. Actually, those are areas that we're going to be walking through in a couple of months.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Yes, because I don't know if we've actually told our listeners that we are walking part of the Camino de Santiago trail. I'm really excited about that. This is something that I have wanted to do and not this necessarily this route, but those walking pilgrimages is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

What draws you to them?

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

My mind is always so busy and I'm almost always multitasking. Um, In the past, like painting a wall was one of the few times I wasn't, it was very meditative and walking a lot like that. For me, it's, um, it's physical, but it's meditative and it's really nice balance of those two things. And the pace of walking, you know, it's like what I was just talking about with a road trip, but even better because you see it. You know, I don't know the snap dragons on the side of the road and you get to enjoy the shape of the cloud and then watch it change. And we don't get hardly any time like that in our modern life. And I'm really torn about whether I even want to take any cell phone with me or anything.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Whoa. That's hardcore.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

know because I really want pictures. But I really want this to be a meditative and very connecting journey, connecting with myself and connecting with you and, and the other walkers on the, on the path.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

What if you brought your cell phone and I carried it?

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

That's a really interesting idea. We could even exchange if you were wanting something similar, we should talk about that.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

And I could put it in my backpack and then you would have to overcome the immense amount of shame. In asking me for your phone,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Oh, you know what we could do, though, instead of me being thinking about, oh, this is a great time to get a picture or content because again, multitasking, right? What if it was more like you set an alarm and all you're allowed to do is take pictures at 920 and 407 and no matter where you are or what you're doing, that's the photo you get. And so you're recording the trip, but you're leaving it to fate to determine what you record.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

I completely veto that idea. You can do with your cell phone. What is appropriate for you? But

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

this is the start of a conversation that we can continue later. Yeah. I'm excited. What made you want to do it? Had it been on your bucket

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

it actually was not on my bucket list. Um, and then I found out it existed and I was like, Oh, that would be cool to do someday, but it wasn't really like a burning urge. It was like, 1 of those. Yeah, someday that would be neat to do, you know, because I, I have also always want to do the Pacific, um, the Pacific coast

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Hmm.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

which I never had a chance to do. Um, you know, I knew in the back of my mind, you're moving to Spain, you should do El Camino that it was going to end up being a PCT thing. We're like, oh, it's right there. I'll get to it sometime. And then like, you know, it never would have happened. So when you were like, look at this, I'm going to do it. I was like, okay, I guess I'm doing it because then it will actually happen. And I've had enough, um, arduous physical tests of endurance over my life that I, I'm not like, I'm not worried about it. And if it's bad, I know what bad looks like both from the mental side of things as well as the physical side of things. Cause I've also done like a Vipassana meditation, which is a 10 day silent meditation retreat. So like just sitting and being trapped in your own mind for hours and hours. I know what that's like too.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

I have done a silent retreat before and what I found most interesting about it was how loud all of the other attendees were just in being human. All of the little flies and snuffles and oh my gosh, humans are noisy. Um, so if I ever do a silent retreat again, I would like to be with myself and some trees.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Mm.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Um, I've never really challenged myself physically. Um, I did do a marathon once and I say I completed a marathon cause I ran about a third of it, but I ended up walking the other two thirds. But because I did that, I'm like, well, That's a good start to this Camino thing. The only thing I haven't done is done that distance day after day after

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

That's the, that's the clincher. Yeah. And I, you know, I had texted you over the weekend because I had done a nine mile run. Um, and then the next day did a seven mile hike and I was like, Oh shit, I'm out of shape because I should be able to do that without any problems. You know, I knew my legs would be tired, but I didn't think that they would be, they would feel so shredded. Like they did Sunday night. Thankfully, when I woke up Monday, my body had recovered really well. So I was like, okay, it's not as bad. It's not as it's, you know, days and days of, of agony because it did feel Sunday night. It sort of felt like I had raced a half marathon. Um,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

And you are a runner and the mechanics of running are quite different from the mechanics of walking. I do not run.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

yeah, a hundred percent. You know, my thought was to go into the hike on tired legs

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Mm hmm.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

as a, yeah, as a, test of, you know,

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

And there's an age thing here, you know. I, if I sit for too long, I have to go through what I describe as the great unfolding. You know, the body doesn't just bounce back up again. Um, but that's also why I want to do this at just about 48. I want to Go into my fifties saying, no, my body not only can do what it used to do, but probably more. And I just need to ask it to do. So, because I know that's going to be really key to enjoying my body in the sixties and seventies. So that's another real big motivator for me to do this.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

yeah. The consistency is key though, because we don't, we don't know that we can no longer get up off the floor without using our hands, bend over, touch our toes. we don't know that this, this, Has happened to us if we aren't trying to do it every day.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

so late that you have to work super hard to repair what's missing. Damien and I, I don't think we've mentioned it on here yet. We found an app called Pliability and it's a daily stretching app. Um, that doesn't make us insane. Cause some of the apps are so bad. We've been really happy with it. And it's amazing. turned into about a 20 minute meditative stretching routine because you hold the stretches for about three minutes a

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Oh, wow.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

So it's become a point of calm in our days and it has incredibly lubricated our joints. From the consistency, it's been over a year now that we've been doing it. And we've seen remarkable changes in our flexibility, which is really exciting when you're crossing over the 50 mark, like, Hey, look, improvement instead of degradation.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah. It never is. It's never too late. It's never too late. there's clinical research that shows that people in their 90s can build muscle mass. You're not going to, you know, if you're starting from scratch at like 85, you're not going to look like Jack LaLanne by the time you're 90. Exactly. But. You certainly can build muscle and strength and recover mobility. For the duration of your life so long as you have that consistency and applied practice

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Yep. Only way you won't do it is if you just convince yourself that not even the trying's not even worth

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Exactly.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

That is the surest road to failure. Well, that's the catch up. We talked about all things driver's licensee.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Mmm good times.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Um, anything else you want to share about your journey? How's the Spanish since your emotional crisis last week?

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Oh Gosh, actually, well, I completed my exams, you know, I feel more optimistic than last year, but also Distrust my optimism right because it leads me

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

So, we don't yet know if you've passed,

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Actually, I think the results come out this afternoon. So if assuming Assuming that I can actually log into the Spanish website And receive the results, I will, get those results by the end of the day today. But that puts a great deal of faith in a website that I've not had good experience with before.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

but it does sound like you're feeling a bit more positive about your Spanish skills than you were last time we talked.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

I've certainly learned and integrated more over the past three, four months, but, um, you know, I don't know.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

I think we can enjoy being at the top of the roller coaster for a second and we'll plummet down within hours, but hey, we're not in that moment

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

The view here is nice. What can I say? I

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Well, any words of encouragement for our aspiring expats out there as we leave them today?

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

think, you know, with regards to licensing and driving and all of those things that we don't know are coming until we're here, keeping that at the forefront. Will allow you to be more mentally resilient and flexible and You know it's the other thing too is that it's really really important to reach out to those who have come before and You know tap into the community. What are their like? How do they get how what have they figured out to work around this issue if there is literally no appointments available even if you do everything the way you're supposed to You know, you're still like a shiz creek without a paddle. then what, and there's a lot of workarounds that people have come up with on how they can, continue to have the sort of lifestyle that they're wanting while they are waiting for, or finding a way to get that appointment done.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Yeah, that sounds like a balance of, you know, Learning to problem solve and getting better at it every day, because this is definitely going to give you opportunities to practice. But as you say, reaching out to the community, because for me, at least, recognizing that I'm not doing anything wrong helps, because otherwise I drive myself crazy going, what am I doing wrong? When I didn't need to berate myself, it was a system failure, not a not a human failure.

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-28-2025_134845:

Good advice. And I will say from my own world, the one thing that cars always make me feel is when we were deciding to do this whole expat journey, one of the scariest moments was giving up my car keys, selling back my car because I'd had one since I was 15. That is. Just part of being an American, because you can't get around without it. And, you know, so swapping out this symbol of freedom, if you will, was a really exciting moment, like a milestone moment where I was accepting the keys to a different form of freedom. And so I would just tell people to watch for those moments that make you feel nervous because those are actually also moments of excitement. They say you're doing it. You're peeling back the layers and the next thing is coming because you've been brave enough to do

aimee-guest990_1_01-28-2025_044845:

love it. Hasta luego.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Bonjola. If you did, the best thing you can do is share it with another person brave enough to move abroad. See you next time!