Great article! I always enjoy reading people from other countries talking about life in Spain, because as a local its sometimes hard to appreciate what we have, because we have problems like any other country.
I live in Andalusia, in Córdoba. It's quite comparable with Orense, as its not a big city and cost of living is similar.
Summers here are horrible though, temperature reaches 45 degrees sometimes. But on the other hand, winter is not that cold.