Things that are different in Spain

Siesta Time: I still can’t get used to all the shops (apart from hypermarkets) being closed from about 1.30pm each day until 5.30pm, and Saturday afternoons after 11.30am. Saturdays are the worst for me. On a Saturday I want to get up late, spend leisurely time getting ready, and go shopping. But I can’t – unless I want to browse around a hypermarket. Not quite what I had in mind!

Going out to bars at bedtime: Bars over here only begin to come alive around 11pm. Now that is fine for a ‘night person’ like me and I’ll stagger home at 2am on a Saturday morning quite happy… but when you have to get up early because the shops shut at midday…. it just doesn’t fit!

Absolutely everything closed on a Sunday (apart from the local bar): Now I am a great believer that everyone deserves a day off with their family, so part of me agrees with Sunday ‘close down’ … but when most shops close by midday on Saturday, what do you do when you missed the chance to buy water and milk? Probably explains why Carrefour is so busy on a Saturday…

The ‘Evening Stroll’: Every evening around 6pm (later when it’s hot) all over Spain, you can see people strolling along the roads between villages. I used to think they had somewhere to go, but no, most of them were just strolling for the sake of it. They stroll in small groups or alone; they don’t seem to acknowledge other groups, they just stroll. Now this seems to be a good idea – good for the health certainly – except when those strolls are taken along busy or dangerous roads with no footpaths, as is most often the case. Which is why I have yet to participate in the evening stroll.

So many holidays!: In Spain there are ‘Saint’s Days’ when everyone (often including TV station workers, Telefonica workers, etc) has a holiday. Sometimes Saint’s Days are so close together that workers take the days off in between as well. On these occasions industry and commerce can grind to a halt for almost a week. And then there are Saints Days as extra birthdays. Everyone in Spain has a birthday and a Saint’s Day and most people insist on the right to take these as days off also. Must find out when mine is!

Tapas Bars: Other countries try to emulate these but usually fail miserably as they do not understand the concept of tapas. Tapas are served automatically with your drink; either placed as a selection at the bar or on your table, or delivered to you as you drink. And tapas are not just small, bite-sized delicacies: some are whole bocadillos or meals that you would pay a fortune for in a fast-food outlet. Yet in many areas of Andalucia tapas are still free. Our local bar has a reputation for serving the best tapas in the area and I have to agree. And it’s all free for the price of a beer or two. So if you just want to spend money on alcohol rather than food here you’ve got it made!

Spanish people actually like children: Yes, I know that many of us profess to like children… as long as they don’t make a noise or interrupt us when we are talking; as long as they sit quietly in the shopping trolley in the supermarket and don’t ask us for anything; and generally, as long as they are ’seen but not heard’. But people in Spain actually seem to enjoy childrens’ company! In Spain you can see children in the hypermarket playing with display toys and no one complains; or you will see them happily playing on the swings outside the local bar or even joining their parents inside. Either way they will join in with conversations with no complaints from the adults. Carnivals have special themes for children. On ‘King’s Night’, for example, the ‘Kings’ and all their helpers travel on carnival vans (or tractors in the villages), throwing thousands of sweets to the crowds. Children rush to scoop them up in their buckets. There are no ’safety barriers’; no policia saying “stand back”, because it’s a childrens’ night and everyone in the crowd watches out for them.

I think I would have loved to grow up as a child in Spain!

Those are just a few of the things I have noticed so far that are different about life in Spain (certainly when compared to the UK anyway). But I’m sure I’ll think of more to write about later!

Tengo Un Problema!

So here is the problem: it’s too darn hot here now to do anything in the day!

Housework has to be done first thing or last thing at night (not that I’m too worried about that!). The washing machine can run at any time it’s true, but taking the washing up to the roof terrace to dry (we have no garden) is best done early or else you are likely to fry in the heat in the short space of time it takes to put the washing on the airer!

Dog walking (or running… ) has to be done first thing and last thing (with a couple of very quick walks down to the (relative) shade of the pines during the day, especially as our greyhound can’t bear the heat of the street and hops and skips along as only a hot dog can!

So we end up indoors (or at the local bar……) in the comfort of the air con. The tendency then is to go on the net or watch tv. Either way, it’s not much exercise and certainly not much to do for a ‘I must do something!’ person like me.

So why can’t I just relax (‘chilling out’ isn’t really an option…) and enjoy my time here? After all, if I can’t find any decent-paying job here soon I will have to return to the UK for a few more month’s ‘temping’.

But it’s precisely because of that! I need to find work here. I don’t want to go back to the UK. I love seeing my kids there I’ll admit, and I miss them all like hell when I am here, I’ll admit too. But Spain is now my home. We have been through a lot to live here in nuestra casa and now I want to get on with my life here.

I want to be able to sit on the village wall and chat to the neighbours in the evening sun; I want to be able to have a proper conversation in the local bar; and I want (need) to find work here. But for all those things I need a better command of the Spanish language.

The time we had spent here I was ‘getting there’. I could hold a (very) simple conversation with the neighbours; I could buy things in shops without too much ‘missunderstanding’ (but of course, as most women know, the ‘language of shopping’ is universal!); and I could deal with most ‘official’ things when my husband could not. I had even begun to think in Spanish; a very poor version of Spanish I’ll admit, but, as I said, I was getting there!

But working in the UK for nearly four months has ended all that. Apart from catching the odd conversation of a Spanish-speaking mobile phone user and listening in surreptitiously, I hadn’t heard a word of Spanish for months. And now it feels that I will never master this language, certainly not enough to be taken seriously in the job market anyway.

And there is the rub… But I’ll work on it….. when it is a little cooler that is …… maybe next week….