4. Leanna's Life in Spain + Estepona's Creative Hub

🎉I welcome Leanna Woodley-Tock who shares her family’s transformative move from Seattle to Estepona, Spain! 

🌎 Leanna recounts their quest for a slower, more fulfilling lifestyle after the pandemic, and the rich, Spanish cultural environment they've embraced.

✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

• Running a study abroad program in Leon 📚
• The Estepona Creative Hub offering world schooling residencies and wellness retreats 
• Benefits of reduced technology use for children 
• Family accommodation activity in Estepona! 

00:10 Leanna's Family Journey to Spain

02:46 Family Travel Adventures

04:24 Goals and Lifestyle Abroad

07:29 Financial and Logistical Aspects of Living Abroad

09:04 World School Hub and Creative Offerings

21:11 Challenges and Current Wins

24:32 Study Abroad Opportunity in Leon

Mentioned in the show:

Connect with Leanna Woodley-Tock by email Email: creativehub@spainabroad.com

Creative Hub Website: https://www.spainabroadcreativehub.com/

Leanna's Website: www.leannawoodley.com

Substack: https://substack.com/@leannawoodley

Host Info: I'm Suzy and my family lives between Spain and Colorado. 🌞

🌎 We feature traveling families and worldschool creators taking learning global. 🚀

❤️ Please follow + review!

🏠 Swap houses with Home Exchange!

🐕 Save with Trusted House Sitters! 25% off!

💻 Save on online purchases with Rakuten! Sign up!

☕ Buy me a café!

📲 Email me! Or 'Send us Fan Mail' to be read on the show!

pod@suzymay.com

Substack, Instagram or Website

Chapters

• 0:10 00:10 Leanna's Family Journey to Spain
• 2:46 Family Travel Adventures
• 7:29 Financial and Logistical Aspects of Living Abroad
• 9:04 World School Hub and Creative Offerings
• 21:11 Challenges and Wins
• 24:32 Study Abroad Opportunity in Leon

Transcript

Suzy: Welcome to the Wander Slow Family Travel Podcast. Today I am joined by Leanna. Welcome to the show. Please tell me more about you and your family.

Leanna: Thank you so much for having me. So, about three and a half years ago, we decided that we wanted something different. We were living in Seattle and we had just gone through the pandemic and decided we wanted our life to look a little different. And so we made the plunge and moved over to southern Spain. At the time my daughter was five, so we've been here about three and a half years and it was the best decision we ever made.

We're in Estepona, Spain, which is on the southern coast, on the Costa del Sol. And we're right on the water itself. Our town is a seaside village, but the really neat thing about our town is that it's very Spanish. You can get by if you're an expat or a traveler because there is some English spoken, but it still has that Spanish charm. So it's a pedestrian Spanish village on the seaside. It's a wonderful combo. We love it.

Suzy: I've heard it's beautiful. Before we talk about your World School offering, I'd love to hear more about your personal travel origin story.

Leanna: So I grew up not traveling abroad, but traveling within the United States all the time. We were a road trip family, and so anytime it was vacation time or we needed to visit other family, we would hop in the car and across the United States we would go. Traveling was always just in my blood from the beginning. Of course, when I got a little older, I decided I wanted to visit Europe.

I'm also a screenwriter, so I took myself on a research trip at 23 years old, backpacking through England over to Paris. I had the absolute best time and there was no turning back. So for me, at that age, I already knew I was going to be visiting Europe a lot more. I want my kid to visit Europe a lot, and more of the world. We have so much more to see than just Europe as well. But I knew then that Europe really suited me and that we'd probably end up living there someday.

Suzy: What about Spain was really appealing when you made the leap over to Europe?

Leanna: So my mom is Puerto Rican. We're from the United States, but my grandparents were from Puerto Rico. And so due to an Iberian law—with some time and some red tape, of course—there is a pathway to dual citizenship for my mom, then myself, and for our daughter. And so that, to me, was invaluable. To be able to give her a European passport someday would be amazing. So we always knew that due to the background with the Spanish language. Our family is originally from this whole area, all the way up from Granada up to Madrid and the Canary Islands as well. And so we thought it's a way of going back to our roots, reconnecting with our culture, and dual citizenship is a very important bonus.

Suzy: Let's talk about your family travels as well. What led you to decide to embark on family travel? I know you mentioned that you wanted a little bit of a different life for your child and for yourselves.

Leanna: I saw from a very early age, I was taking my daughter everywhere. If my husband was working, then I was taking a trip to visit family somewhere. When she was three months old, we would do these trips all the time. And then when she was six months, we went to Florence with family and she slept for eight hours in the bassinet on the plane. People kept walking by and looking, "Is she okay?" She loves to travel and she always has. And so when you ask her what her favorite smell is, she will still say her favorite smell is the airport. I think, "Oh, all the things that are going on in an airport, are you kidding?" But she loves it because it means we're going somewhere new.

So we went to Florence, Venice, and Rome on one trip. We went to London and the Cotswolds on another, we went to Paris on another, and she did long-haul flights like a champ. And so we just always knew, okay, we've got a little traveler, another little wanderlust with us. On her bucket list, she's got, "I'd like to go to the pyramids next in Egypt," and "I'd like to make it to Thailand to do an elephant reserve, an elephant sanctuary." She always thinks big and far as well, so I think it just was innately in her.

Suzy: That's awesome. We had the bassinet story, but the opposite because it was a 14-month-old who never slept, oh no! The six-month-old in the next bassinet slept perfectly. It's good you got your start when she was of the age to sleep well, and then maybe it just kept going. And what are your goals for choosing a life abroad?

Leanna: So something that I learned early on—I mentioned I'm a writer and I'm also a life coach—one of the things that we were doing was life coaching young adults and teenagers here when we first moved here. But one of the things that we noticed was that there is definitely a different way of life here. And that's what was so attractive to me. And I call it, "we came here and we found mañana," right? Which mañana is a term that people use all the time here. And it can mean lots of things. It can mean we're gonna get to that tomorrow.

I have a great story. We were rushing and rushing trying to get our facilities ready for the students that were arriving for our program. And our handyman, who's now become a dear friend, said, "Let's go paddleboarding." And I said, "No, I really need this done." And he said, "We're gonna go paddleboarding because you are acting like an American in Spain right now and you need to be a little more Spanish." And so essentially he made us stop and break. It did get done. And the moral of the story was also, it didn't matter if shelves didn't get up in time; that wasn't the important thing. And so if we were always trying to fill ourselves with the next thing, we were gonna miss out on this mañana life, which was slow quality living, it was community with people around you. It's quality over quantity, all of these things. And so I write a lot about this, I coach a lot about this. But this lifestyle is what was so important to us that our daughter would grow up in this slow-living pace.

Suzy: Absolutely. I feel that when we pick up our kids from school and then walk home, everyone's in the streets playing, especially on a nice day, talking. It's just like we're not rushing home to do the next thing. And you mentioned you have a favorite memory that includes an annual beach party. Tell me more about this.

Leanna: We're known for throwing some fun American-style parties because we love holidays and celebrations. And so it started with a big Halloween party—Halloween wasn't really a big thing here at the time—and that's become an annual tradition and we taught all her classmates how to trick-or-treat. And so then we decided for her birthday last year, we would start a Hawaii-themed beach party because we lived in Hawaii for a while. And it was so much fun that it was requested that we did that again this year.

One of the fun things about it to me is that my husband said, "So should we plan for this to be about three hours?" And we left at the end of the evening and it had been an eight-hour party. And I just laughed at my husband thinking, you're so funny that we're gonna have a three-hour, limited party. We had somebody bring out paella that is a good friend of ours that volunteered to cook it for our party. We had somebody bring out hot dogs and then we also had jamón y queso and a whole spread on the beach. People picnicked, people hung out. The kids were in the water in the Mediterranean Sea, and we just thought, this is what all of this is. This is why we do this. Because the kids didn't need technology. They didn't need to be entertained. They were just for hours and hours on end, just playing in nature and it was beautiful to see.

Suzy: Send the invite next time. Yeah, absolutely. We'll make our way down.

Leanna: Come on over.

Suzy: Behind the scenes of every trip or move abroad is the financial and logistical side of the journey. How are you funding your life abroad?

Leanna: So we ended up moving here and opening up a Spanish business, which I'm not sure I would recommend to others. It takes some patience, but it has afforded us the ability to be here. So we're so grateful for it, as frustrating as it can be. We opened up a study abroad program, essentially for two locations. So we have a study abroad through the University of León in Northern Spain. And then what we opened here was a "gap year with handholding," is how I'd like to say it. So for students that weren't quite ready to go off to college and needed a little extra help in between, we had a lot of senior graduates from high school, and they were gonna take one year in between before heading off to university.

That was a wonderful time for us. They would spend three months here and we would teach them life skills, cooking. They would do art and music and they go on cultural excursions and learn some Spanish. But our life coaching was helping them figure out themselves, some executive functioning, and what is important in their life, while instilling a little bit of that mañana pace for them so that they could really figure out how to have a quality next step. We did that for the last three and a half years, and this summer is the first time we're not doing it. It's all-consuming. And the irony of teaching others about mañana when you're running around nonstop was not lost on us. And so although we were teaching and doing this beautiful thing for others, it was pretty exhausting for our own family.

So we took a switch. We still have our study abroad in León, but now we have turned all of our facilities into this hub. A creative hub, a worldschool hub where we do residencies for writers. We do wellness retreats, and then we have apartments and other community facilities open for worldschool families. The facilities have been here, we've been running it, and then we've had families come in between the semesters throughout the three and a half years. And because that was so wonderful, we thought, let's just move it to that full-time. And give us a little bit more of a break.

Suzy: So you are partnered in the sense that you're a referral on the Boundless Life website?

Leanna: Yes. Boundless Life is a worldschooling company that most people know about. And so they actually opened up an Estepona location about a year and a half ago, I think it was. And they opened one of their coworking facilities right next door to our digital cafe, which is a fun hangout for teens and tweens. And so we went over and we said, "What are you doing here?" And they, very similar actually. But they're bringing families. And so we said, "Fantastic. Do you need more apartments? Because we are bringing families here as well." And they said, "Of course we do." They have about 40 families a semester coming now. And apparently, Estepona is the favorite location of all of their locations they have across the world. So we all knew something when we all showed up in Estepona.

So now we're renting—if they send a referral our way, we rent through that. We do it on our own. And then we run some writers' residencies and I offer fellowships to creatives throughout different programs, Women in Film and Story Summit Writing School and things like that as well. So it's a hodgepodge. We have a couple of different arms to our Spain Abroad company, but it's been really fun and fruitful and wonderful to be able to figure out how to step back from the hustle just a little bit and now turn it into something a little slower.

Suzy: You're right. It can be very busy working with young adults in particular.

Leanna: Yes.

Suzy: It sounds like you've switched to working a little more with families that have younger children. What are some of the offerings specific for children?

Leanna: So because of what we used to do, my husband is a licensed mental health therapist. My mom is the other co-owner with myself; she is a licensed mental health therapist. And then I, and all three of us, are certified life coaches. I was also a K through 8 certified teacher. So we come with a plethora of experience in different areas. One thing we used to do, my husband and I, is we ran a nonprofit called Youth Unplugged in the United States, and that was a tech balance company where we would teach tech balance through outdoor camps and outdoor play. And so we still on occasion will run a Youth Unplugged camp or we can do workshops if there are groups that wanna do worldschooling at the same time. We're always happy to implement weekly workshops for the kids of various ages because we've done it with six to 12-year-olds and we've gone all the way up to the young adults.

And so tech balance is a really big thing for us. We do the Mañana coaching and parent coaching as well for parents that are trying to figure out how to do this lifestyle and how to find the balance for themselves while going abroad and being mobile. We also have art classes. So in this time, we've created great relationships with fantastic teachers and we've honed in on who have been the best that we've worked with. And so we have a concierge service available through our program as well, where we offer art classes for children up to adults, music classes with a phenomenal Irish instructor that we absolutely adore. We have a great Spanish school for Spanish language. There's pottery. We have excursions and can set up all of those arrangements for everyone.

But additionally, we have spaces available. And so part of our campus, as we call it, is that we have this digital cafe I mentioned, which becomes a wonderful place either for a teen hangout—it's lined with records and a record player and a coffee maker and a foosball table, and an old-school retro gaming machine that has Atari and Nintendo. And then also we've had people use it as a study space. And then we have the cocina and we do Spanish cooking classes for families, for kids, for adults that want to do something without their children when children are in classes or something. And then we also have what we call the Tea Shop. It was named that because it looks like an enchanted tea shop out of a Hobbit story. It's whimsical and beautiful and really fun. And so that is set up as a children's library workspace. It can be rented by the hour. We do bilingual story times out of it. And so we just have an offering, throughout town we're very connected to a lot of the things that exist here. And so we're happy to help connect anyone that needs it with any special interests that they have.

Suzy: It sounds like families could design a schedule or an educational situation for their family that really works well for them. There are certainly some places that I think have like drop-offs at times. Then there's others where there is more family involvement, and this allows that flexibility. Some families might want to do more things together. Some might need, based on the ages of their kids, more opportunities for that independence for the teens to go hang out. So that's great to design spaces that allow families to build an educational or a travel experience that works well for them.

Leanna: Absolutely. In a beautiful place.

Suzy: The apartments. Which I think is something that as traveling families find that it's always this struggle of like, where do I stay and what do I do? And so building that in obviously helps. I know that is part of the Boundless Life offerings is to have that accommodation. Do you find that some families are booking that separately and then piecing together activities that work well for them?

Leanna: Yep, absolutely. We have the range of people that want to just do the all-inclusive. "I wanna be a part of Boundless, drop my kids off, know that I have this system," and rent from there. And then we have people that are reaching out and saying, "Can I spend August and September and can you help me create something that is specific and very personalized for my family's needs," which I'm happy to do, of course.

We have a two-bedroom apartment in town right next to the Plaza De Las Flores, two-bedroom, one-bathroom. All of our locations are in the central walking town, very wonderfully located and very close to one another. We have a three-bedroom, two-bath on the beachfront. So the balcony, it's a large balcony overlooking a very quiet area of the Mediterranean Sea, which is stunning. And then we have a four-bedroom, two-bath, which are very hard to find in Estepona, the larger ones. Also on the beachfront. This one is a little bit more in the center, and then we also have a new addition and that's a five-bedroom villa that's also right in town. Has a large courtyard, a covered meditation reading room. It's a beautiful house and it's a three-minute walk from the beach as well, right in the middle of town.

So we have a little bit more larger apartments for families that might need a little bit more space in particular. And then the space that comes with the rental as well, which is access to this digital cafe or to the cooking cocina if you wanna have shared meals with other people that are in town at the same time as you. We can create community events in that way. So yeah, those are our facilities at the moment.

Suzy: Oh they sound lovely. And what is the seasonality, do you find that summers tend to be busier? Do you actually get a lot of families or interest throughout the school year?

Leanna: Yeah, honestly the interest has been high year-round. I've got quite a few people reaching out about next April already. I think that people tend to plan ahead, but I also have someone I'm talking to tomorrow that wants to come August and September. But year-round because we have phenomenal weather. So even in October, it's a beach day, and last Christmas I was playing beach volleyball with my brother when he came into town. We have over 300 days of sunshine and the weather stays relatively warm. Summer is always a huge travel time period. And so things get pricier in town and harder to find, but year-round there's interest for sure.

Suzy: And you mentioned for the two-bedroom apartment, it might be around €1400 a month or so.

Leanna: That's correct. And then all the way up to about €4,500 for the five-bedroom.

Suzy: And that does include utilities and cleaning. Oh, perfect. So there's no additional costs outside of what that fee is.

Leanna: It's nice to have it all together.

Suzy: Yeah. And like you mentioned, that also includes access to those resources.

Leanna: Exactly.

Suzy: I would love to hear more about a memorable moment from a past hub, past offering that sticks out to you.

Leanna: This isn't actually a moment of a family, but it was about a teen that was here. When he came, one of the biggest concerns that he had and that his family had was that he was very tech-obsessed, always on his phone, hours and hours. And he was so proud of the fact that he had gone down 70% of tech use while he was here for those three months that he spent with us. And that was through a combination of things. We coached about it. We helped him find interests outside of technology. But also the environment just lent itself to less tech time.

And this study is slightly old now, but about a year and a half ago when I was looking, the average tech time for 13 to 18-year-olds in America was seven and a half hours. Seven and a half hours. And at that time in Spain, it was two and a half hours. Now I'm sure it's even higher, but there was a five-hour difference in technology use. Part of that is what we talked about, this mañana life. It is very family-oriented. I don't see kids sitting in the plaza on iPads. They're running circles around the fountain. They're kicking a football, which is a soccer ball for Americans. And so that environment that we have, so much beautiful nature around us, it just lends itself to less tech time in general. And so I know that's a major concern for a lot of American families. This is such a beautiful place to naturally detox off of some technology and learn how to create a balance for your kids when they're really young, so that is implanted for their development as they get older. So for me, tech balance is such an important factor and we do so much around that issue that I think this is such a wonderful place to kickstart that or to hone in on it if that's something of interest.

Suzy: That's a great example and I think a big part of what a lot of parents are thinking about when they want to travel is how to balance technology, in that sometimes technology is essential if you are doing an online curriculum, but then how to balance that with real-world experiences. And a lot of families do really want to be out outside, out in nature. The weather in Spain is very conducive to that. That's what we found is it's just easier. With the later sunlight and yeah. In fact, it's actually just hard to get enough sleep, too much time to go out and play for the kids. I agree that the technology piece is very different here where partly just because if you go to a playground, there's so many other families, kids can just find someone to play with. I think they just are a little more creative and I've appreciated putting that to use and getting our kids really into soccer. It's just very nice to have those opportunities for outdoors.

Leanna: And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Estepona has an absolutely wonderfully safe feeling. Of course, we always watch our children and we always take precautions. There is definitely a sense of safety. So it is very family-friendly. The people in town are looking out for my daughter as we walk down the street and it's just a very kind, loving place. And on top of the safety, the family-friendliness allows for kids to be kids. We were at a restaurant where a kid ran into a wall and I thought the restaurant staff would say, "Stop doing that." And they actually went and checked on him first, and then they just let him keep running around. Just letting kids be kids is very much part of the culture.

Suzy: But part of keeping it real with discussing the realities of living abroad and long-term travel, what are some of the struggles or challenges that you or your hub you're offering are experiencing?

Leanna: So I am familiar with Spanish, but I am not as fluent as I would like to be yet. I'm still working on it. And so sometimes language can be a barrier. You go into a medical facility and I'm like, I don't know these medical words yet. So language can sometimes be frustrating as I'm still working on it. Additionally, the red tape, I mean we mentioned it, but I think Spain is notorious for this slow mentality, which is we are going to get to that when we get to that. And I go, yeah, but I have a deadline and they think that's not my deadline. So just learning to be a little bit more patient with things will happen when they happen. It is the best we can do.

I think it is balancing me out a little bit which is good. The things we love about a place can also be the things that drive us crazy, right? Just like in any relationship. And I think I absolutely adore that about Spain, and at times when I need something done, I need to go, it's not gonna be quite what I'm expecting, and that's okay. That's okay. But it is an adjustment. We have to adjust our expectations sometimes when traveling, as we know they do it differently here. And you have to not come here expecting to live as an American here, but as trying to adjust to the culture as much as possible while you are here and it will go so much smoother.

Suzy: Absolutely. It's a package deal. The slow pace of life does come with some other slow parts that are part of the experience, but I hear you on that. But to finish on a positive note, what are your current Hub wins right now?

Leanna: We've had so many. We have had so many wonderful people come through here. I've always loved being a host. And I'm like, "Oh, can I bake you cookies? Let's bring people over." That is really fun for me in a new way because travel has always been so important to me and seeing the world is such a priority for me and then for my daughter. To be able to now help families do that and now to open a wide-open schedule to families being able to just bring their children to some place that I am so confident in that you will love it. It's beautiful. You will gain so many things from it. I think it's a place for families to thrive and seeing that firsthand, seeing them enjoy that is just brings me so much joy. So yeah, just having it in general, but being able to see children's eyes opened up, families connecting here together, it's beautiful.

Suzy: I love to hear that. I hosted a pop-up hub in Sevilla last year and it was the same feeling of, I've really learned to love the city and all of its offerings and then to have other people come and be impressed with the same sites and experiences, there's definitely a joy to be found in that. So thank you for sharing. What resources have been helpful for you and your family or for your hub as you've built this business?

Leanna: I wish I had a handy list, but I felt like I did a lot of it on my own. I wish something existed that would make the move to Spain easier. What I can say is that I am an open resource for others. So if people are needing help or suggestions, I certainly have that knowledge and so I'm happy to help. Maybe there are other resources that I'll learn from your podcast about to pass along to others as well.

Suzy: I would actually like to hear a little more about the study abroad opportunity in León.

Leanna: Sure. So it's a beautiful program. It's been running for about 12 years in León. And we were able to join in to it about four years ago. And so there was a previous program there and a good friend of ours was the consul of Spain in Washington is friends with my mom. And he said, "Do you want this opportunity?" Of which we said, "Absolutely." And it worked out very well. We take anywhere from eight is the minimum and we go up to 25 students at a time. They are mixed with other students from around the world. So it's a beautiful international program.

And it's a homestay program, so you're staying with a Spanish family. These families have been part of this program for 10 years, most of them, so they've been highly vetted and wonderful, beautiful experiences have come out of it. And so you are living with that family for the 11 weeks of the program. You go to Spanish class at the University of León. There are amazing excursions, local excursions. The cathedral in León is spectacular. They have an absolutely amazing medieval museum. So local things all the way to UNESCO sites that are nearby. They can do a two-day Camino trip on the Camino de Santiago. So it's a wonderful experience where they get to actually acclimate and immerse themselves in the Spanish culture. They will definitely help their Spanish skills. This is a really great program for anybody that is looking to help build their resume, help get into a college of their choice, get extra Spanish credits. They can be transferable to your university, to most colleges. It's a beautiful program that we've had wonderful stories and success from and the team that run it up there are incredible.

Suzy: My husband did some study abroad and it's part of what I hope for my kids' future to have that opportunity, whether that's in high school or college. I just think that opportunity is so invaluable to be a little bit on your own. The language immersion, the cultural eye-opening at that stage of life is so invaluable.

Leanna: I'll add one more thing to that. Not only are we a smaller program within a larger system, but with that, because of what we've been doing down here, wellness and holistic wellness is really important. And I think oftentimes students will go off to study abroad and they might feel scared, lonely, lost. And not be able to work on things like balance in their life. And so we have a team of people, English-speaking, that are there specifically to also check on the holistic well-being of the child or the young adult. We help connect them to yoga classes and if there's anything spiritually that they wanna connect to, we help find resources for that. We wanna create balance and holistic wellness for any of our students that are at any of our programs.

Suzy: And you're right, there's a lot of feelings and emotions that can come up with being in a new environment. And so focusing on the mental health, and I think that's where some of that counseling and life coaching can come in to make sure that young person has a positive experience.

Leanna: Absolutely.

Suzy: And if people wanna connect with you more, where can people find out more about your offerings?

Leanna: For our creative hub, our worldschooling location here in Estepona, Spain, it's spainabroadcreativehub.com. For Spain Abroad in general, which is the León Program, study abroad for 18 to 23-year-olds, that is https://www.google.com/search?q=spainabroad.com. And then I also have an Instagram called Finding Mañana that does a lot of different tips on helping to find that balance. And I will be doing more talking about what's happening here at the Creative Hub on that location as well.

Suzy: It seems like a very awesome opportunity for people looking to create their own educational offering for their family. And I'll make sure to include all those links in the show notes so people can connect with you. Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing more about it.

Leanna: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.