HOW TO: Transfer foreign currency into a European bank account

Believe it or not, moving abroad involves a lot more than just hopping on an airplane. There are lots of steps involved both before and after the move to make sure everything runs smoothly and legally. Over the next few months, I’ll be posting my experiences with all the different steps involved in my move abroad. Hopefully it will be helpful for other future expats trying to figure out how to move abroad.

For me, the first step in my move to Spain was transferring money from my American bank account to a Spanish account. I mentioned before that as part of my job with BEDA, I’ll also be taking a class at Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid. BEDA pays our tuition, but we have to pay the enrollment fee of 175€. I think they do this mostly so that they can have some kind of guarantee that we are serious about the program and will actually show up in Spain in the fall. The email we received with our placements also had instructions and info on the account we were supposed to transfer the money to. Sounds simple enough…ha.

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First, I called my bank and asked what I needed to do to transfer money to a foreign bank account. They told me I had to come in and they could do a foreign wire transfer, but there was a $45 wire fee. ($45!?) I was kind of annoyed that I would have to pay that on top of the 175€, but whatever, I just wanted to get it done. So I went to the bank, and told the woman that I needed to do a foreign currency wire transfer. I knew right then it was going to be an ordeal. She just blankly stared at me for a few minutes and then started mumbling and fidgeting around her desk. She clearly didn’t have much experience with this. Which I guess is understandable at my local West Texas bank that probably deals with oil and cotton a lot more than foreign currency.

So against my better judgment, I sat down and let this woman start taking my information. She seemed to be struggling with simply typing on a keyboard, so my faith that she would be successful at electronically wiring money to a foreign bank account was dwindling fast. But I sat there and painfully watched her try to enter in all the info. When she got to the recipients info, all she asked for was the 10 digit account number, no bank name, no recipient name, and she definitely didn’t know any thing about the long electronic European bank account number that is apparently necessary for transferring money in Europe. I had a really strong gut feeling that this wasn’t going to work, and that this woman was going to screw up everything. This was confirmed when she asked me how much money I wanted to transfer, and seemed like she had absolutely no idea that there was a difference between euros and dollars… So I trusted my gut, and made up some stupid excuse about being in a hurry, and told her I had to leave.

I left the bank super frustrated. Worst-case-scenario thoughts set in and I was convinced I would never be able to figure this out and BEDA would probably take my job back. After a few seconds of freaking out, I remembered my life mantra, Calm down Elli, people way dumber than you have done this before. If they figured it out, you can too. Surely I’m not the first person who’s ever had issues with a foreign currency transfer. I can figure this out. I got online and looked it up to see what I could find. I finally came across XE.com, an online foreign currency exchange and transfer service. They specialize in converting currency and transferring money to foreign bank accounts. Once I created an account with them, the process went really smoothly. I created an account, and then ordered the 175€. Then, they gave me an exchange rate for what that would cost me in USD. Once I sent them the money, they converted my money into euros for me and then sent the money on to BEDA. It was a really simple process, and the best part is, they don’t charge a fee for standard transactions. Since I was in a hurry and just ready to get the process over with, I went ahead and paid extra to have them wire the money on the same day.

Here’s a break down of the cost and timeline for transferring the money:

On April 17^th I created an account with XE. They asked for two types of ID, (I used my passport and driver’s license numbers) to make sure you are who you say you are. Then, it takes about 24 hours for your account to be activated.

The next morning, (April 18^th), I woke up to an email saying that my account was activated and I could order my transfer.

I then logged in to my account and ordered the money. It was really simple. I entered in the starting currency (USD) and ending currency (euro) and then told them the amount that I wanted to send. (175€). They gave me an exchange rate that I could either confirm or deny, and then asked me how I wanted the money sent. I chose the wire option, which is the fastest, but also charges a fee, ($22). After I confirmed my order. They gave me the info of the bank account that I needed to wire the initial USD payment to.

That same morning, I took this info to a different branch of my bank, (I was not going to try to deal with that same woman again) and they were a lot more helpful and seemed to have a much better idea of what they were doing when wiring the money to a domestic account. (They did charge a $15 fee for this, I think it varies depending on your bank.)

By that afternoon, the money had transferred out of my account and to the XE account.

The next morning, (April 19^th), I got a confirmation email from XE that my transaction had been completed.

I forwarded the email to BEDA, and on April 21, they confirmed that they had received the payment.

So once I finally figured out what to do, it was super simple!

Cost breakdown

$242.45 – exchange rate offered by XE for the 175€
$22 – XE wire fee for transferring the money to the BEDA account
$15 – wire fee my bank charged for transferring the money to the XE account
So the grand total for transferring 175€ was $269.45

 

There are quite a few steps in the process, but once I found the XE website, it all went really smoothly.

 

It’s Official: I’m Moving to Madrid!

This is where I’ll be living in just a few short months.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the email I’ve been waiting for for months now. I got offered a position through the BEDA English teaching program in Madrid! I found out on Monday that BEDA was starting to send out offers, and so of course, for the next 24 hours I was checking my email even more obsessively than usual, getting anxious every time I heard my phone buzz and then just as quickly getting disappointed when it was just another stupid Groupon email. But finally, yesterday morning I checked my phone and saw an email from BEDA. Before I opened it, all kinds of doubts started popping up in my head. It’s probably a ‘thanks but no thanks, try again next year’ rejection letter. I finally got up the nerve and opened it, and when I saw “CONGRATULATIONS” written on the first line, I literally started crying and shaking with excitement, and may or may not have broken into a celebratory Ke$ha dance party (don’t judge.).

Embarrassingly accurate description of what I looked like at 8:00 yesterday morning

Once I finally got myself together, I got around to reading the details. I was assigned the maximum amount of hours (which equals bigger paycheck), working in two different schools in Carabanchel, a suburb just south of Madrid. I’m not very familiar with southern Madrid, but from what I’ve heard, and learned from the Google, it’s not the prettiest part of Madrid. I think my schools are in more of the industrial part of the city, but my schools are a lot closer to central Madrid than I was expecting, which means I will be able to live in the center and commute to work. Also, since I’ll be going on a student visa, in addition to teaching, I’ll be taking a class at Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, which is basically a certification course in second language teaching. These are all the details I have at this point. Now that I’ve accepted the position, I should be receiving my carta de nombramiento soon, which I’ll need to have to apply for my visa, and then I’ll have a lot more details. I still can’t believe I got an offer from BEDA. The program has gotten much more well-known and much more competitive over the past few years, especially with all the problems that the government program similar to BEDA has had with la crisis, and I was really starting to doubt that I would get accepted. I can’t believe how blessed I am to not only getting to go back and live in Spain again, but that I’ll have a stable job, with stable income. Which, unfortunately, is a lot to ask for in Spain right now.

I know I’ve been kind of MIA lately, but I’ll try to post more regularly as I start the process of getting ready for my move to España.

xx Besos!

A Retrospective Look at Culture Shock

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If you’ve ever studied abroad, you probably remember seeing something like this during pre-departure, explaining the ins and outs of culture shock and how it will affect you while you’re abroad, and if you’re anything like me, you probably didn’t pay much attention.  When I left last year to study abroad in Spain, I really didn’t think that culture shock would affect me too much.  I had already spent the summer before studying in Sevilla, and even though I would be there much longer this time, I had a pretty good idea about the cultural differences between the US and Spain.  For the most part, I really didn’t experience very intense ups and downs of culture shock too much while in Spain. Of course there were times when I thought about how much easier daily tasks like going to the grocery store or mailing a letter would be in my native language/culture, and times when I would of given anything for some spicy Mexican food but overall, I absolutely loved experiencing new things and new ways of doing everyday things, speaking Spanish everyday, and integrating into my new culture.  For me, culture shock really didn’t start affecting me until after I returned to the US.

Culture shock affects everyone differently, and to different degrees, but I definitely wasn’t prepared for the reverse culture shock that I experienced. Before I even left Spain I was dreading going back.  I knew how much I had changed during my time in Spain, and I was nervous about reintegrating back into American culture.  And to be honest, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to.  I really didn’t want to go back to who I was and the life I had before living in Spain.  I liked this new person I had become in those short six months.  I was more carefree, more open-minded, and more aware of who I was and what I wanted for my life; I had a new appreciation for culture, travel, and a completely different way of living.  Things that seemed so important to me before just seemed silly and unimportant now. The word in Spanish for return or go back is regresar, and as my return to the US got closer I kept hearing that word more and more ¿Ya tienes que regresar? Do you really have to go back already? I felt like by leaving Spain I was literally regressing back to who I was before, like going back to the US was just a giant step backwards.

When I did get back to the US, reverse culture shock hit me harder than I could have prepared for. After crying throughout the majority of my flight, and having a minor panic attack in the bathroom of the DFW airport, it was time to face the reality of figuring out how to reintegrate into my life in America without losing who I had become in Spain.  If I could change one thing about the way I reacted to my reverse culture shock it would be the way I resisted anything and everything about American culture.  I would get stressed out or angry about things like having to drive a car because everything in Texas is so spread out and public transportation is practically non-existent.  I even resisted things that I should have appreciated like central air conditioning or the fact that what was now my living room was bigger than my entire apartment in Spain.

Readjusting was not easy, and one of the hardest things about it was trying to explain how I felt.  No matter how hard you try, you just can’t explain how living abroad changed you to someone who hasn’t done it for themself.  It didn’t take me long to realized that a lot of my friendships were not the same as they were before I left. Not only had I changed while I was in Spain, but they had had new experiences here that I had missed out on.  It’s not like time just stood still in America while I was gone.  The whole time I was in Spain creating a new life for myself, I was also becoming a smaller and smaller part of the lives of my friends back at home.  I had to accept that some friendships, even though they were still important to me, were never going to be the same.  When I finally accepted this, things got a lot easier.  I started making new friends who had studied and lived abroad, and were going through the exact same thing that I was.  Once I made friends who I could talk about Spain with without their eyes glazing over, and that understood those crazy concepts like not feeling at home in the place you’ve lived the majority of your life, wanting to live abroad, and that intrinsic need for adventure, I finally started to realized that maybe it is possible to hold on to all the ways that I changed and grew abroad in America.

Now, after being back in the US for almost as long as I was in Spain, I’m finally figuring out how to enjoy my life here without losing who I became abroad.  Of course, there are some cultural changes that never go away, things you pick up in your new country that will just stick with you.  I still look for my house shoes as soon as I get out of bed or walk in the door (don’t you know that you’ll catch a cold if you walk around the house barefoot!?), I still refuse to take a bus from one side of campus to the other (I walked at least twice that far everyday in Spain), and eating dinner at 6:00 still seems ridiculously early. But more than the little things that you pick abroad, it’s the fact that you now know about this whole different way of living, this new way that you lived, and that changes everything.  The way you think, believe, act, and carry yourself all change when you make that realization.

I still can’t go one day without thinking about Spain and wishing I was there, but it has gotten easier.  Even though I can’t help but count down the seconds until I get to move back to my beloved España, I’m finally starting to appreciate my life in America.  There might even be a few things about this place that I’ll miss in just a few short months when I (finally) get back to Spain.

How has living abroad changed you and they way you view your home country?  How did you handle reverse culture shock?

What the Heck is an Auxiliar de Conversación? (And How Do I Become One?)

Good question. I’m still not 100% sure, but as far as I understand, an auxiliar de conversación (or language assistant) is a native English speaker who works in Spanish schools and helps improve and promote English language learning.  But what does that mean?  The actual job duties of an auxiliar depend on what school you are working in, and can range from creating your own lesson plans and teaching English classes to sitting in the back of a classroom and occasionally speaking English with the students.  Auxiliares work part time for a semi-decent salary, and usually make up the difference by teaching private English classes on the side.  So why is all of this relevant? Working as an auxiliar is the most feasible way for a twenty-something American to legally live and work in Spain.  There are several different programs available to Americans and other native English speakers to come to Spain on a student visa and work as an auxiliar de conversación.  Each year, around two thousand Americans come to Spain through one of these programs, and this is what I plan on doing this fall.  I decided to apply for two of these programs, and right now I am playing the waiting game until I find out where I’ll be placed for the next school year.

 The North American Language and Culture Assistants in Spain is by far the most well known auxiliar program, and the one with the most placements.  This program is run by the Spanish government, through the Ministry of Education, and has placements all over Spain.  As I’m sure you’ve heard, the Spanish economy and government aren’t exactly at the top of their game right now.  So the stability of this program is not very reliable, and the possibility of the program getting cut has been a fear during the application cycles for the past few years. But so far, it looks like the program will stick around for a while, however there have been lots of cuts made to the programs, it was taken out of several regions (Cataluña, Castilla la Mancha, Navarra and Valencia) completely last year due to funding issues, and the program is notorious for paying its auxiliares late, but that also depends on the region.Another strange thing about this program is the application process.  The way placements in this program work, absolutely nothing matters except when you turn in your application.  I know it sounds crazy, but literally, as long as you can write a semi-coherent paragraph, find someone who will write you a recommendation letter, and don’t have any felonies you’re pretty much good to go.  Everything with this program is based on your inscrita (registration) number.  The first person to get their application turned in after it opens gets inscrita #1, and is basically guaranteed a spot in the program, and inscrita numbers just keep getting higher and higher from there.  Literally all that matters is getting your stuff turned in as early as possible.  Me and my neurotic, over-achieving, type-A personality logged on and got my application turned in the minute it opened, and I ended up with inscrita #10.  I also preferenced Madrid as my first choice, (which has the highest number of placements) so barring a collapse of the entire Spanish government, (knock on wood) I should end up with placement in Madrid.

If you’re interested in applying for the coming school year, do it now.  The last I heard inscrita numbers were getting close to 3000, which means you would probably not get a placement until very late in the game, but it is still possible to end up in Spain.
Here is the website for the Ministry program.
Also, for more info, check out Liz’s blog, she was an auxiliar in the program for two years and has TONS of useful information about the program.

Side note:  If you’re serious about getting a placement for next year, at this point it might be a good idea to apply through CIEE.  They are a study abroad company who partners with the Ministry and gives out placements through the same program.  They give out their placements much more quickly and supposedly give assistance once you’re in Spain with housing, sorting out your residency documents, etc.  They do charge a fee though, and to me it wasn’t worth it, but if your applying this late in the game, it might not be a bad idea to help ensure yourself a spot. They are accepting applications until March 15.  You can find more info about the program here.

The other program that I applied to is BEDA.  This program has much fewer placements than the Ministry, and they are all in the Madrid region.  BEDA is similar to the Ministry program, but auxiliares work in private catholic schools.  This program is a little more competitive, and unlike the ministry program, gives out placements based on qualifications rather than when you applied.  With this program, you interview via Skype, and they require that you have at least a basic Spanish level.  They don’t require teaching experience, but any experience working with kids or in education, or a TEFL certificate will really increase your chances of getting a placement.  This program also has a much better track record of paying on time, and while you work more hours, you get paid more. BEDA is definitely my first choice.  It seems much more organized, and since I actually plan on going into education as a career, the program will give me much better experience than the Ministry program.  BEDA’s application period for this year ended a few weeks ago, but this could be a good option for future auxiliares.
Here is the link to the BEDA website.
Lady in Spain is also a great blog by a current auxiliar working in the BEDA program. She has a lot of really helpful info!

I hope this post is helpful to any one who’s thinking about applying or looking for an opportunity to spend a year (or more) in Spain. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Besos! xx

Why Spain?

I get asked this question on an almost daily basis, but it’s always asked in a different way.  Sometimes it’s coming from someone who is genuinely interested in the lifestyle I’m choosing and what it is I love so much about Spain, but the other Why Spain? Questions usually fall in to one of two categories.  There are those who ask What’s wrong with staying in the US? Why don’t you want to stay here, where your family and friends are?  What’s so special about Spain anyways?  And then there’s the second category; these questions usually come from my fellow world travelers and adventurers who don’t understand why I want to go back somewhere I’ve already been.  Their Why Spain? Sounds a little more like You’ve already “done” Spain, why not go somewhere else? Is Spain really the only part of the world you want to see?

Plaza de España, Sevilla, Spain

 The best way that I can answer all of these questions is to say that at this point in my life, Spain is what makes the most sense for me.  That doesn’t mean that I want to live in Spain forever.  I have no idea what the future will bring.  I still have lots of things I want to do, lots of other parts of the world that I want to explore, and there are lots of things about the US (mainly family) that I know I’m going to miss.

 I know that I’m not cut out for a 9 to 5, sit at a desk all day kind of job, and while I plan to go to grad school eventually, I’m still not 100% sure what direction I want my career to go in (Spanish, linguistics, bilingual/international education, there are so many possibilities!), and who wants to get a masters degree and then decide half way through that you want to take a different career path? Going back to Spain and teaching English for a year will be a great opportunity for me to figure out whether or not I want to pursue a career in education, or continue studying the language I love so much.

Retiro Park, Madrid, Spain

And as for the question of why I want to “do Spain again,” my answer is that I’m nowhere near “done” with Spain.  I’ll probably never been done with Spain.  There are still TONS of cities and parts of Spain that I haven’t been to and still want to see.  And this next time in Spain will be completely different that the last.  I’ll more than likely be living in Madrid instead of Sevilla this time. I have a whole new city to get to know and explore! And this time, I’ll be doing things all on my own. I’ll be finding my own apartment, working, paying bills, all without a host Mamá cooking my meals and doing my laundry.  It will be a completely different experience, and a whole new adventure!

So while some people might not understand why going back to Spain is so important to me, I know that it’s the right next thing for me, and that’s really all that matters.

Besos! xx

Hola!

Welcome to my blog, Mi Próxima Aventura (My Next Adventure). I’ll be using this blog to document my adventures and experiences in whatever part of the world I might be at the time.  After spending the better half of 2012 studying abroad in Seville, Spain, I am currently back in Texas, finishing up my last semester of college and preparing for my next Spanish adventure starting in the fall.  I’ve applied to two different programs, BEDA and North American Language and Culture Assistants, to go back to Spain in the fall to work as an English Language Assistant. I should find out about BEDA as soon as March, and I’m trying to do my best to keep myself busy and distracted while I wait. The anticipation of getting back to España has pretty much been at the forefront of my mind since coming back to Texas last summer, so hopefully, this blog will give me something to distract myself with as I wait patiently (or not so patiently) for this next chapter of my life to start.  So as I’m waiting for mi próxima aventura, I’ll be using this blog to talk about my preparations for my move abroad.

Besos! xx