Boundless Andalucía: Week 1
learnings, observations, and highlights!
We’re doing it! It’s officially been one week since we landed in Estepona, Spain to join the April - June Boundless Life cohort. Let’s get to all the things from the past week while they’re top of mind:
highs + loves:
Watching Luna make a bff during the Boundless Welcome Brunch and then be so so excited for her first day of school! Thankfully the school transition has been seamless for us and most of the kids in her 4-6yo class.
So. Much. Beach. Time! My heart is full knowing how much we’ll be outside over the next 3 months.
I found my coffee/lunch/smoothie shop and instantly befriended the owner. Her energy is out of this world and I really just had a moment of gratitude thinking about how the universe brings beautiful people into my life no matter where I am in the world.
The location: Estepona is stunning and I finding myself feeling energized and inspired to get up every day to explore and work.
It’s an incredible feeling knowing you have the Boundless Community of families to lean on during this experience; they are just a WhatsApp message away from anything. We even planned a last minute birthday party for all the April birthday kids at a local trampoline park!
lows + learnings + observations:
Boundless does provide housing for families, however, we opted to get our own AIRBNB bc we knew we needed a parking space, central AC, and aesthetically, I needed to make sure we found something that had good light and was suitable to shoot in. I love our place but it’s about a 15 minute walk from most of the other families and their Boundless provided houses. It’s too soon to tell, but I’m curious as how the proximity or lack of proximity might impact spontaneous playdates and building of relationships/community!
Burned dinner the first night bc your girl is not used to electric stoves (I heard from other mamas I wasn’t the only one!) and I also didn’t realize the AIRBNB wasn’t stocked with olive oil after making a huge grocery run - love this for me!
Working-parent dynamic: again, still too soon to tell how all will transpire, but there’s definitely a group of parents who aren’t working daytime hours (or at all) and therefore have much more flexible daytime social schedules. Naturally, I would assume those parents would form closer relationships than those of us that don’t have as many free hours in the day while the kids are in school. Granted, all of us parents have flexibility with our jobs or else we wouldn’t be here, but it’s a dynamic I have noticed as parents plan day-time activities across all of our community WhatsApp groups.
One of the hardest parts of long-term travel abroad is getting acclimated to the slower pace of life:
no grocery delivery
can’t do a load of laundry in a few hrs. (dryers are hard to come by and most don’t even work!)
Uber eats’ing lunch when you’re hungry? nope!
Amazon same day delivery? yeah right!
It takes me a good two weeks to get into a flow and not feel frustrated but in the end it’s a good thing! It really shines a light on my consumption habits in the US and forces me to be so much more intentional about everything; it’s amazing how much less I spend online when I know I can’t get it same day or within 3-4 days.
upcoming:
We head in to week 2 which is a short week because of Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations in Spain. The kids are starting their after school activities; Luna’s doing acrobatics, ballet and art. And the grown-ups start their parent activities; I’m taking Spanish and Andy and I will be doing couples’ tennis lessons. One thing I’ve come to love about the Boundless program is that they do an incredible job curating extra curriculars + family and parent social activities for us.
Remember: you can always use ASHTOR52 if you book for a discount (find 2026 pricing + locations here)
Next week I’ll be coming to you with an actual excel sheet (oooh the old accountant in me is giddy!) on expenses related to our trip, hacks for stretching your budget while abroad, and our strategy for covering the remaining expenses back at home. Stay tuned! LMK if you have any Qs in the chat - so happy to answer them and help you plan your next adventure. xx - Ash
So excited to follow your journey and to hear you're enjoying things so far. It's good to hear about the ups & downs of the experience. I'm from the US but moved to Portugal and hope to do this some day when our baby girls is in school, she's 8mo. Good news is that Amazon can be pretty fast now (somethings come in 1 day, most 2 days!) and they variety has skyrocketed in the last year or two. Looking forward to hearing more, thanks for sharing. -Frannie