BCN LIFE FOUNDERS

In 2005, a young American married couple from Los Angeles, California, Akida and Lia Mashaka (then Lia Morse), made their first trip as a couple together to Europe. As Akida was the stereotypical husband type, leaving the vacation planning to his wife, Lia chose to visit the Southern part of Spain, called Andalusia. While they visited several cities during their 3-week stay, including Seville, Cordoba, Malaga and Almería, it was their time in Granada which made them fall in love with Spain. It was in the summer of 2005, that Lia and Akida then made a promise to each other that within the next 10 years they would live for at least 1 year in Spain. 

Well, 10 years later, now with 4 and 9 year old boys, Lia and Akida decided to visit Spain again, but this time to live for 1 year possibly? Maybe? But where would they go this time in Spain? Where would be the best place to live in Spain? Where would the best place to move in Spain with a family be? What city in Spain had everything they would want? Lia secretly wanted to make that promise of 2005 in Granada come true and independently would go on to plan visits to schools while they would be in Spain this second time around.

After considering other cities like Madrid, Valencia, San Sebastián, and Marbella, they ultimately decided to plan their 5-week vacation in Barcelona because it was the only city in Spain with everything that they could every want. Barcelona had great weather, it was on the Mediterranean coast with beaches, with also mountains for hiking and skiing, an international airport with direct flights to Los Angeles, a walking city with great public transportation versus the unbearable traffic of Los Angeles, a unique Catalan culture, an open-minded expat community, family friendly, good tennis clubs and academies for their son to train tennis, and it was home to the world famous fútbol (soccer) club, Barça. 

Unfortunately, their plan ultimately didn't work to live in Barcelona for 1 year at that time because neither Akida nor Lia even knew that you need a visa to live as Americans in Spain (UK could though then at the time pre-Brexit... what a stupid decision). They also had a lot of trouble finding the right school for their kids, plus Akida’s work would require him to be in Los Angeles for the foreseeable near future.

Then a year and a half later, their close friends Ryan and Grace Lieberman announced at their annual New Years Eve party that they would be moving to Barcelona. Lia and Akida were so inspired. That night when they got home, they talked about what their reality would look like if they moved to Barcelona too. Lia was a little hesitant for a few reasons. First of all, besides studying abroad in West Africa during college, she had never lived outside the US. Secondly, Lia knew that Akida’s work responsibilities would require him to be in Los Angeles for significant periods of time. This worried her. Lia thought to herself. I don’t speak the language. How am I going to do this solo if Akida would need to travel back and forth for extended periods of time back and forth between Los Angeles and Barcelona? With two young children, the idea was daunting. However knowing that the Liebermans were going to be there, gave Lia the extra push to say like if the Liebermans are moving to Barcelona, so are the Mashakas!

After deciding to move to Barcelona in the summer of 2017, the next step to moving to Barcelona for 1 year was going to be to obtain visas. Akida and Lia applied for non-lucrative visas for their family, which is a residency permit to live in Spain for 1 year. They assumed that the process would be fairly straightforward, however, it turned out to be a complete nightmare. 

After failing to find a trustworthy relocation or immigration service provider to do the visas for them, Akida made the mistake of saying that he was going to be working while living in Barcelona and this was a no-no which Akida and Lia learned the hard way. Their visa applications were not accepted and they had to make new appointments and luckily the next time they did not get the mean lady! The visa process was taking forever and Akida and Lia still had not yet found a place to live nor the right school for their kids. So they had to fly to Barcelona without approved visas to figure out housing and school or this move to Barcelona had no chance of coming to fruition.

Finding the right neighborhood to live in took a lot of investigation. They were very fortunate that they have visited Barcelona 5 years prior. In the end they were very fortunate to choose the right neighborhood for them. Simultaneously during the neighborhood search, finding the right apartment proved equally as stressful, if not more difficult than the visa process. And what made it so stressful was that they had to negotiate and sign a lease in Spanish, which they didn't speak at the time, and their visas still had not been approved. 

Mind you the first lease they had previously signed had gotten canceled because they had innocently contacted multiple real estate agencies that had the same listing and both agencies were arguing over who gets the commission. And the two agencies got into a legal dispute and the compromise was that Akida and Lia would not be allowed to get the flat that they had already signed the lease for. Moreover, they had not yet found the best schools for their kids and had to settle on the only school that had spaces available. Basically, anything that could go wrong went wrong.

And throughout it all Lia remained relentless and committed to finding the right flat for their family. The week before the date on their return ticket, they found it, almost by sheer luck. During the lease signing, they also finally received some good news! They had received an email from the Spanish Consulate in Los Angeles that their visas had been approved. So they moved into their new flat, packed, and the entire family flew back to Los Angeles and picked up their visas and returned to start their 1 year stay in Barcelona. 

Akida and Lia never spent time apart as a family. But for Akida’s work, he needed to return to Los Angeles every other month and each time spend 4-6 weeks in Los Angeles, leaving Lia and the kids in Barcelona. They agreed that even with this sacrifice, it was worth living in Barcelona if just for 1 year. So, Lia put on her super mom cape, planted roots, and began to build a beautiful life for their family. Even if it was only for one year, it was going to be the best and most enriching one. 

The idea of being mom-solo was daunting at first. Finding the right doctors and making appointments, coupled with emergency room visits, going to school meetings, having to have parent/teacher meetings all in Spanish. Going food shopping, pick-ups and drop-offs, extracurricular activities, tennis lessons and tournaments in various tennis clubs, as you would imagine was incredibly challenging in a city when you're just learning to speak a new language. All the while, planning little get-aways and adventures around and outside the city so that they could make the most of the time they had. Everyday she just decided to just lean into the adventure and make it happen more and more. Little by little, Lia found her way, made friends, and built community. 

One of the activities Lia enjoyed was when she and a few friends would meet up in their local plaza (square). The kids would play, and the parents would rest, connect, and enjoy each other. It started with just 3 other families but grew into something incredible. Akida was used to being the ultimate host in the restaurant business and so, with his personal characteristics, he began to grow and coordinate this weekly social get together with expats who lived in or near the neighborhood of Gracia. This would eventually earn him the nickname of the Mayor of Gracia.

Every Friday rain or shine, the families would go to meetup in the main plaza of Gracia, plaça de Vila de Gràcia. The kids would play wonderfully with no screens in the plaza and the non-helicopter parents would order tapas and drinks and enjoy themselves separately on the outside restaurant terrace into the wee hours of the night. This Friday expat social meetup that Lia eventually named Fri-Yays went on for 2 years without missing a single Friday until the Covid epidemic. It was a magical moment in time. The Fri-YAYS group still lives on today as a WhatsApp group.

Six months into living in Barcelona, Akida had just returned from a 12-hour flight back to Barcelona when his partners of his restaurant group called him on the phone and told him that he was not only fired but also he had been involuntarily bought him out of the business that he had started from scratch and was not allowed to inform the investors. Well his partners never did inform the investors to Akida's dismay. While this was a devastating blow, Akida was left with the choice. To fight his partners in court all the way back in Los Angeles, or take the high road and stay in Barcelona for the rest of his visa period and see were the chips would fall.  If "a blessing in disguise" was a predicament, this would be it.

Akida eventually saw the light and noticed that Lia loved living in Barcelona. Even with all the ups and downs and navigating their new life 6,000 miles from Los Angeles, sometimes incredibly challenging solo, Lia truly felt at home in Barcelona. She would comment on the simplicity of life, how you live more presently and honestly. Lia realized how she had become so tired of the lifestyle of Los Angeles. Feeling like you were on a hamster wheel, going round and round and getting nowhere. One of the main reasons why she wanted to live abroad was to raise their children as global citizens or citizens of the world. Not only in becoming polyglots but to have them learn how to navigate across difference was incredibly important to her. Equally important was to provide them a safe environment where had the ability to be children for as long as they could. To put them in a city where they had the space to learn who they are and how they choose to represent themselves without the constructs you see in the US whether it be social, racial, economical and including gun safety.  

In Los Angeles, Lia had to wear so many hats, whereas in Barcelona, she could just be one, authentically Lia. Akida could see this and how the kids were thriving and happy. Moreover, Lia and the kids had put down roots and made plenty of friends at Fri-YAYS. Life in Barcelona even with no money coming in and on a severe budget, was so much better than going back to live in the US. Akida and Lia had decided that although Los Angeles was where they were from, their home was now Barcelona.

Akida and Lia realized that the difference between Barcelona and the US, especially Los Angeles, is that the people in Barcelona worked from a place of integrity which has always been and important principle of what makes a person great. In Barcelona people work to live. Not live to work as they do in the US. It is a core value in what makes the quality of life so much better in Barcelona. Moreover, in Barcelona, Americans were not judged by the color of their skin, gender or orientation, but rather by the content of their character, a principle of Martin Luther King.

Another principle of Martin Luther King was one of Akida's favorites. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. So after licking his wounds from his partnership ouster, Akida was inspired to start a new business but this time in Barcelona, a place that was based on integrity not just the mighty dollar. Utilizing Akida’s 20 plus years’ experience as an entrepreneur and Lia expertise in client services, they decided to build a business based on what they knew and where they saw a hole in the marketplace. 

And so, BCN Life, was born with the principal to not only to help people to not have the experience and go through all the problems they had when moving to Barcelona, but also to be there for them personally and emotionally in times of need. Shortly after BCN Life was created things began to take off. Even Lia's best friend of over 20 years and her husband, Staci and Mark Liu and their kids followed Lia and Akida to Barcelona from Los Angeles as early-on clients of BCN Life. Then suddenly Covid hit and nobody was flying or moving anywhere in the world, let alone Barcelona.

Akida and Lia then noticed something very interesting happening during Covid. People, all over the world, especially in the US, realized that they could work remotely and live anywhere in the world. And also they didn't have to settle to live in a place they really didn't like anymore, as they had always done in the past particularly as a requirement for work. Well since Barcelona is literally the best place to live in the world, especially for families, once things opened up after Covid, the startup business that Akida and Lia founded together as trustworthy partners soared.

BCN Life quickly became the best way for people to truly move to Barcelona stress-free and with the extra support they would need. Combining their unique understanding of the caliber of service expected by Americans with VIP service ethos, BCN Life was the only way to create people's best new life in Barcelona. In hindsight it seems so obvious now, but it is logical that if people only get one chance to get relocate to Barcelona, especially with family, they would only use people they could trust. And obviously they would want to get the best help they could especially from people who had already personally experienced so much from when they moved to Barcelona 7 years ago.

During this time Lia and Akida began thinking about middle school for their older son and his needs academically, socially, and as a competitive tennis player. They realized that what they needed and desired, did not exist. The traditional educational model/constructs and daily schedules in Barcelona, would not work their son. This became even more evident during Covid when things began to reopen. So Akida, as the relentless self-starter, did what seemingly came natural. He founded and opened a school, all by himself, that was rooted in the educational ideas and principles he and Lia so deeply believe in. With only 5 students and in the basement of a co-working space, Barcelona High School (BHS) was born. 

BHS, with its revolutionary education model, places equal importance on academics and   nurturing the path of character building, finding one's true talents, positive social engagement, and emotional well-being of each individual student. As the founder, Akida now oversees the fastest growing school in Europe, as BHS went from 5 to 200 students in just 4 years. BHS is now even becoming a big reason why more and more people with teenage children are choosing to move to Barcelona. 

While Lia champions the success of BHS, she takes the leads and along with her team runs the only American quality relocation company with VIP quality service in Barcelona. Akida is there of course with counsel and advisement when needed as they are forever partners in life and love. 

Akida and Lia now live a flat designed by Lia in Gracia, with their Spanish cocker spaniel. In their downtime, they spend as much time as possible in their cozy beachfront apartment in their favorite costal village in Costa Brava.

For all these reasons and with everything that has happened over the last 7 years, Lia and Akida often pinch themselves and knock on wood because moving to Barcelona has turned out to be the greatest decision they have ever made in their lives. Lia and Akida truly feel blessed to live in such a wonderful place and to be where there are in life. They know how hard it was to get everything in order to live here in Barcelona, which is why they get so much pleasure helping so many people relocate to Barcelona to not experience the same issues they had to deal with when they first moved to Barcelona.