Home Sweet Home

Now we have our new house in Oleiros, a small town on the outskirts of A Coruña.

Oleiros is a small but prosperous town; it has the highest average income in Galicia and is one of the best Spanish towns to live in. It also has a vast public park area and well-developed infrastructure, including coastal promenades, roads and more.

The town's prosperous economy, sound infrastructure and high standard of living are mainly due to its ruling party, Alternativa dos Veciños. The party was originally an anti-Franco organisation and was affiliated with the Communist Party of Spain, but later became independent to better serve the public interest in its city and be exempt from the influence of central parties.

The party focused on redirecting wealth from real estate development to the public good and has built several projects such as a new city centre and a cultural centre for its citizens.

Okay, now to be honest, this city is really nice with clean streets, smooth roads, and quite a lot of trees. The city is not considered conventionally quiet, for it has a ton of cars roaming on its roads, which is another sign of its prospering economy.

There are not too many tall buildings in the city, but most houses are modern, stylish and cosy-looking. As I personally live in one of these houses, I can confidently say that they are indeed cosy, modern and light; the double glazing of our flat also makes it very quiet.

Today I went to a park on the coast of Oleiros, 3.5 square kilometres in size, compared with the total size of Oleiros, 43 square kilometres.

It will be interesting to note that the city is under the quasi-dictatorship of its mayor, who has been the mayor of the city since 1983, the year my mother was born.

Yesterday, when my mum and I were taking a walk outside, a young man on a bicycle stopped next to us to ask if we were Japanese or Chinese. After we clarified our nationality, it became clear that all he wanted to say was: Welcome to Spain!