Things that Bug me about Spain

Ok.  First, I want to divert your attention to this disclaimer.  Although this blog entry concerns the negative aspects of my time here in Spain, I do not want you to think that I view this experience as negative.  Like every other experience in life, you must take the good with the bad.  The goal though is to try to find a silver lining in everything

Things I do not like about Spain:

                1.  The educational system.  Students have their own designated classrooms, while the teachers move from room to room.  This makes the teacher the guest in the classroom, not a figure of authority.  Also, there is no punishment.  The “no pasa nada” syndrome is widespread here.

                2.  Tardiness.  Punctuality is not a concern for many students as well as some teachers.  In fact, the bell for class to start is the bell by which the students begin to move on to class.

                3.  The siesta.  While awesome at first, the time period of rest from roughly 2:30 to 5:00 pm seems like a blessing…until you need to go to the bank or shopping.  Most smaller stores and all banks seem to be closed during this time.  Not a very good business strategy nowadays…especially for people who also work

                4.  The toilets.  This goes for German toilets too.  Although I have never had one clog, they frequently do not flush all of the toilet paper down.  Usually, two flushes is needed.  They are very deep but not filled with much water, so backsplash is a constant problem.  Also, this design lends to constant scrubbing of the toilet…something I rarely had to do in the US.

                5.  SHOVING.  People cut in line and push and shove CONSTANTLY.  When the bus door opens, the shoving and line cutting beings.  For a culture who is not very concerned about punctuality, they sure do seem to be in a hurry.

                6.  Walking the Width of the Sidewalk.  It is very common for a group of Spaniards (Usually about 3 or 4) to walk side by side down the street talking to each other.  Will they move?  Probably not.  Will they form a single line…don’t hold your breath haha.  Sharking is a constant survival technique on the narrow walkways of Spain.

                7.  NO DRYERS.  I have yet to encounter a piso or a house with a dryer.  If it is rainy or below freezing, you have to hang your clothes to dry…indoors.  My room is already the size of a closet, and now I have to get my ironing board out to hang my clothes on it to dry.

                8.  NO AIR CONDITIONING.  AC is unheard of here.  I have heard that you can find it in the south of the country, but only certain businesses seem to think it is important.  I have lived fine here in Burgos without one because of its mild to downright cold climate.

                9  The stares.  Everywhere I go, I am stared at, especially when I am talking on the phone in English.  I swear, sometimes I think I have two heads.

                10.  People Taking Advantage of You.  As a private tutor and a friend of private tutors, I can testify that everyone wants their child to have English lessons…for free.  The parents do not understand the amount of time and preparation it takes to give their child a one on one lesson.  It is barely worth 15 Euro an hour, because you spend at least an hour in preparation.  Americans stick out like a sore thumb, and many will try to throw you for a ringer.

                11.  Smells.  Whether it is a pescadería (fish shop), the smell of alcohol, or the smell of body odor, chances are, you will catch some rough wiffs throughout the day.  Working with adolescent teenage boys can be rough sometimes in a culture that is not to deodorant conscious.

                12.  NO FREE REFILLS…not even with water.  And forget about tap water…it’s all pricy bottled stuff.  In the US, it is customary for establishments to provide a pitcher of water when alcohol is being served…but not here.  I don’t really like alcoholic drinks, so I will usually get a Coke…the glass bottle kind.  At 2.30 Euro for one glass bottle of Coke, you can see why people drink the beer.

                13.  No spice.  The food here is not spicy.  Although a lot of it is very good, it just isn’t spicy.  This is a minor complaint.  Also, peanut butter is scarce.  If you come by a Capitán Mani, you are in luck.  It is very close to Jif.

                14.  People are much colder here than they are in the southern United States.  Everyone there is friendly, even if it is at a superficial level.  Here, you have to know the person before they will give you the time of day in the street, but once you know them, they can be very nice.

I think that 14 is a good number to stop with.  I made this list because people always talk about the great things about a foreign country.  They never choose to include the odd, the frustrating, or downright crummy parts haha.

I will try to write 14 great things about Spain soon.  But this one was just more fun haha.

I have enjoyed my time here in Spain and I will always cherish this experience.  Please don’t think that I am just complaining and I have not enjoyed or learned from the experience.

Update

     Just as I thought, I would begin to slack off on this blog writing thing, but for those of you who are reading it, here is an update.  When I got back from Segovia, I thought that I would just go to bed on Friday night, but this rarely happens in Spain.  I ended up going out till the sun came up.  We had a great time.
     
     The next weekend, my fellow auxiliares and I had to travel to Madrid for our program orientation.  I met a few nice people.  The hotel was very nice; I believe it was four stars.  All meals were included for Friday, and we had free breakfast on Saturday.  I am glad that I live in Burgos because EVERYTHING is more expensive in Madrid; however, those placed in Madrid receive 300 Euros more per month than we do.
95% of the orientation was in Spanish, as it was everyone´s common language.  There were people from France, Germany, Austria, Australia, Italy, the UK, and even China.  We received our insurance papers, but we are still waiting for our cards.  We headed back to Madrid on Saturday afternoon.
     
      Last weekend, I started tutoring two kids after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  One is a kid named Javier and the other named Eva.  Their parents are very nice, and they have offered their help with anything that I need.  Their family is very school oriented, and studies are valued greatly.

     My other student is actually the art teacher here at my high school.  We just hold lessons in the department of art.  Her reading and writing in English is very good, but she needs a lot of help with her conversation.  She has to take an exam in December.  I hope she will be prepared for the exam when she takes it.  I am sure she will be.  I see her 3 times a week.

     Everything is going fine here in Burgos.  I still have not gone inside the famous cathedral, but I figure it is going to be there for a while.    A group of friends here might go see the “Greatest Michael Jackson Imitator” this weekend at the Teatro Principal.  Who knows?                                                             

Excursión

It has been a little while since I have written on here I think.  I don’t remember actually.  Last night my roommate and I went to El Wagón with my roommate.  It is a little venue next to a bar that has live music on Wednesday.  There were two bands from Australia that played, and they were pretty good.  Since I know what it is like to be in a country that does not really speak English, I wanted to talk to them and buy their CDs.  I haven’t listened to them yet.  They were really nice.

Right next to the venue is an old castle that Napoleon attempted to destroy in its entirety, but a lot of the structure still remains.  The castle and the venue are on top of a large hill, and the view is breathtaking.  One morning I am going to go up there with my camera and take some pictures.  You can see the entire town for miles.

Although Fridays are supposed to be free for language assistants, we are all going on a field trip to Segovia tomorrow!  Totally free!  What a treat!  I hear that it is beautiful, and I will be sure to take my camera.

The head of the bilingual program here has a colleague that wants to start up a program to help tutor the athletes here in Burgos in English.  Since many of them are Spanish champions, they are interviewed after races and such, many times in English.  Yesterday, we met up with the team, and they were all very nice.  I didn’t run with them, but I met a lot of good people.  I hope the program takes off.

The classes here at the high school look like they are going to be fun!  However, things are a bit crazy here right now.  Our schedules are still up in the air, and things are not very organized yet, but soon things will change.

First Week

It has been a week since I have written here.  Things have been kinda going non stop.  I found a piso (apartment) on the west side of town.  It is pretty nice, but like all buildings here, no AC.  Just have to have the window open all the time.  That's okay though since bugs are not really an issue here.  I finally got a bank account open yesterday with Santander, but they still refuse to put money from my traveler's checks in my account.  Still don't know what I am going to do with all that.

My school is filled with very nice and helpful professors, which is nice because Spaniards tend to be stoic and hard to approach.  The students in the one class that I have attended are nice and well behaved so far, and their English is pretty good too.  My roommate Íñigo is pretty cool.  He´s very nice and has helped me out a lot.

I really need to try to figure out the bus route because walking everywhere is pretty tiresome.  I am prolly walking at least seven miles a day, but this will probably change soon enough.  There is a nice grocery store 5 minutes walking from my apartment.  I have a good supply of food now which is good because eating out is quite pricy here.  I need to walk over there today and get some laundry detergent because I really need to do laundry.

Last night, my roommate and I went to the centro to see a parade, but it we waited almost 2 hours and it never started.  There was a workers protest against corporations too.  I took some pics of that too.

So everything is going well except the whole traveler´s check thing, but that is really stressing me out.  I am definitely exhausted, as I took a couple hour nap yesterday and I went to bed at midnight and just woke up at 2 pm.

Till next time.

First Impressions

Well, I had some mishaps upon arrival in Spain.  My checked bag didn´t arrive with my plane, but luckily it was on a plane that arrived 2 hours later.  Also, when I got to the Avenida de América, I went to buy a bus ticket to Burgos, but it was full.  So I had to wait 3 hours until the next one came.  I arrived at my hostel some 5 hours late, but the receptionist said it was no problem.  Almost all of the people I have spoken to have been very friendly except for this one taxi driver.  I asked could he take me to my hostel and he looked very flustered and asked for me to go to the first cab on the street.  Luckily the cab driver at the front of the line was so nice.  We he showed be the sites on the way and told me that he wants his kids to learn English once I told him that I am here to teach English, but he admits that it is very hard.


On a side note, all of the English that I heard has been quite bad to tell you the truth, which can only mean good things for me!  Job security :) And I will always have to speak Spanish.  The flight attendants on Iberia were unintelligible in English, sounding more like Spanish than English.

The ride to Burgos on the bus was cool.  So many cool sites, modern windmills, mountains, and little houses.  However, it was interstate and for the most part kinda boring.  Not much to see.

I woke up around 6 or 7 this morning, and I decided to take a walk to my high school.  Seeing as how I cannot use my iPhone, I had to write the directions down.  Street signs are IMPOSSIBLE to come by in Burgos.  Some buildings, presumably more important than others, have the names of the streets on little plaques, but they are few and far between.

After taking a few pictures, petting a dog, getting lost, telling an Asian in Spanish that I had no clue if taxi's came by this street or not, and hoping for the best, I found my school.  It seems as though everything educational in that area is in the same "Conjunta" surrounded by a rather brash fence.

This morning's temperature was perfect.  A slight chill in the air and pretty dry.  My room in my hostel gets pretty toasty during the day.  There is no air conditioner, but that is okay.  On my walk, I noticed that there are no fast food places, just small cafés and restaurants.  So many people, young and old walk.  It is such a nice community.  I love it so far.  Recycling is very easy here, as there are bins on the streets for it.  There are even bins or kitchen oil!

I just woke up from my first siesta and had a café con leche in the break room.  I have only spent a euro today, as I have been taking advantage of my hostel´s break room (free of course)

Well, that´s all I have.  Ill upload my pics to facebook.  My camera is not the best, and it has been a while since I used it, so some pics might be blurry, I´ll do better next time.

It's Almost Time

I am done packing for the most part...phew!  It took like 3 hours, but I think I am ready to head to Hartsfield and say adiós to the United States for a while.  I was expecting to have a very relaxing last day at home, but a call to American Airlines ended that.  Long story short, I worried about nothing...hopefully.

I am really going to miss home.  I know this already, but the feeling hasn't kicked in yet.  I have been too busy to think "OH MY GOD IM GONNA BE OUT OF THE COUNTRY FOR 9 MONTHS." O_o  I will miss my parents.  I will miss my close friends.  I will miss my grandmother, and I will miss my dogs Hank and Sadie.

My original plan was to spend the weekend in Madrid, but after this weekend and the realization that staying at hostels is not as cheap as one would think makes me want to learn Burgos' layout and start finding permanent housing ASAP.

I could not sleep last night; I ended up falling asleep around 6 in the morning, and I woke up at about 10.  Needless to say, I am exhausted.  So I'm saying buenas noches to you all.  Wish me luck tomorrow!

Waiting to Go

Only three more days until I get on an airplane and fly to Madrid and stay for the weekend.  Due to an error on my preferred hostel's website, I cannot make a reservation.  I hope there is space when I get there.  There is still some more shopping that needs to be done, but I think I am ready.  On Sunday, I will travel to Burgos.

I created this blog mainly as a diary for myself, to record what I do because I doubt too many people will follow this...:P oh well.