Honestly?

It looks beautiful. It's not an eyesore like my suburban town in Virginia. Especially at night! The lights and some of the neon signs look great at night. The night sky isn't just a pitch black (as in, no stars or anything); you can see a lot of clouds and sometimes the sky turning an orange-yellowish hue or sometimes purple-ish color off in the distance as your eyes veer towards the cityline.

But also, I will say this: it definitely has a lot more life and the people are more... easygoing? I was told that Italians, at least in certain parts, are more easygoing than Americans and Brits in comparison (when I left the United States, it seemed that people were pissed off at, well, everything during practically every day; Americans being "irritable" and "angry" and getting into shouting matches seemed more of the national character than the sign of the times we live in LMAO 😂🤣).

To be clear, I kinda don't like the whole tourist-y way of American or Canadian travelers on vacation going all "Gee, I sure really loved the people, they were so nice and gracious" but the folks in Spain seem like they have NO drama to them whatsoever (even when something is happening at the moment or even when there is clearly something to be either upset or more serious about).

That is honestly refreshing to me (especially since the country is suddenly going through snap elections that have the potential to really change things). From 2020 to 2026, everybody around me seemed either angry, irritable, pessimistic, unpleasant, "doomerist," and prone to trauma-dumping (quite excessively in the case of one particular family member of mine). It was very... intense. Like, even the humor or general topic of conversation felt "intense," you know what I'm saying?

Oh, to be sure, the public transportation and choices that the system here provides is pretty good.

Also, one thing that I love about this place:

Disabled people... everywhere.

Folks out in the streets with walking disabilities, folks who are blind, folks who are paraplegic, folks who appear to have down syndrome (my apologies, I don't know quite the proper word for what the community call themselves generally and need to attend to other things soon so I defer to that term), etc.

I don't know any place in the United States that has this; I wish it were more common.

Not sure about that and DIY is not really done here as much as it is in, say, the United States.

Btw, I already have access to SOMOS or am at least friends with them (I am in a WhatsApp group with them right now and have the director's phone number even).

That said, I only just met them about a month ago or so and the last meeting I went to with them was maybe two weeks ago (oof, even missed the Lesbian Day stuff too on the SOMOS schedule).

It is hard to meet with them now, I feel, due to time available, scheduling, and, tbh, sleep issues on my part (by the time night time comes, I am afraid of going at 7:00 or 8:00 or especially 9:00 PM because I deadass need to sleep but this Quviviq isn't really helping with that so far...)

Also, to be clear, this goes FAR BEYOND just my access to health insurance (and my access to HRT or gender-affirming care by extension, never mind every other very important thing that comes with health insurance).

This is much more important than that and this window of opportunity may be a do-or-die moment tbh