Tag: Altea

In order to appreciate the good things in life, you have to experience the bad. In order to enjoy the highs, you have to endure the lows. Five months in and we’ve had our highs and lows, our good days as well as our bad.

We’ve had unexpected incidences that have thrown us off course for a day or more. Like the day that I arrived to open AlteArte, only to be met with a funny smell when I opened the door. Heading upstairs to the stock room, I was alarmed to find liquid on the floor at the entrance. My alarm turned to horror when I opened the door only to be greeted by a floor of broken bottles.

The great thing about Altea, Spain is that it’s so small that you see the same people again and again. Those familiar faces become comforting faces, and before you know it, they have become your friends. The difficult thing about Altea is that it can be transient at times, especially when the art university lets out for the school year and the students leave—some just for the summer but others for good.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been saying goodbye as one by one the students disperse. It started with Aga.

I have a problem with money. My problem, though, is not that I’m reckless with it, that I go on shopping sprees or that I spend beyond my means. On the contrary, I hate gambling, I could care less about shopping, and I only use credit cards to collect points—which I later trade in for cash. My problem with money is not that I spend too much, my problem is that I have don't like to spend any at all.

I don’t know how or when I became so painstakingly conscious of money. Growing up, I had everything that I wanted or needed, so if anything, I should have grown up to value each dollar less.

There are times in life when everything just seems to be going right. Right now is one of those times. Not only do David and I feel like we couldn’t have found a more perfect business, but as we get to know Pepe (the business owner) and his girlfriend, Amparo, better, we’re realizing that we couldn’t have found better people to buy a business from. With Spain in crisis mode, many businesses are for sale and many sellers are desperate, which means there is opportunity but also uncertainty as you don’t quite know who you can trust and who’s telling the truth. Pepe’s also desperate to sell his business, but it’s not because he’s broke. Instead, it’s because he’s exhausted.

I was 16 years old when my parents were approached by a group of people trying to raise capital in order to keep the Fahrenheit 451 bookstore in Laguna Beach, California open. They came to my parents for money because they hoped that, as former owners of the bookstore, my mom and dad might embrace the cause. I hoped the same and tried to talk them into it, but for slightly different reasons. The thought of owning a business was exhilarating. I could just imagine myself working the register and seeing the money flowing in.

On December 7th, David and I became Alteans. Officially becoming two of the 23,000 people who live here was as simple as filing a paper with City Hall. It was an almost instantaneous process. Oh, how I wished that becoming part of the Altean community could be as easy!

We had barely moved in to our charming, village house before Paco had thrown us out, leaving us wondering whether all Alteans were as reserved as he, but, more importantly, instantly changing my whole vision of what life would be like in Altea. No longer would we hear the quiet voices of pedestrians walking by

Temperatures have dropped here over the past month and we have discovered that our apartment becomes an icebox in the winter. But it was a big day and I had no choice but to get out of bed. Shivering, I grudgingly got up and took a shower then waited for David to take his. He didn’t have to come with me, but because he knew how nervous I was, he was accompanying me. I grabbed the notebook that David had found for me the day before, looked at the clock with dismay and headed out the door. I was going to be late on my very first day.