Author: Ben

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notes

Later Notes on Parenting…

Tireeeeeedddddd…. very very tiiiirreeeeeeeddd…. I’m told the sensation will pass in about 7 years time, when our son starts sleeping a little better, but right now, wow. Why did they do so many drugs in the 60’s? They should have just had more kids and experienced the joys of halucinagenic sleep deprivation for FREE!

So you may have noticed that this blog has been, well, a little quiet recently, and now you can guess why. Reserve energies left after parenting duties are being used mainly to keep everything running smoothly at notesinspanish.com, the website that really pays for the nappies. That doesn’t mean things over here at Notes from Spain are being abandoned, far from it – we’ve done more in the last 2 months to boost the wonderful forum than we’ve done in it’s entire history – do join in!

As I get increasingly used to life after few hours sleep, expect more blogging here soon, especially now the weather is so wonderfully inspiring – sitting at a cafe terrace table in Madrid’s Retiro park on Sunday, sipping Estrella Damn number 2 (rather it was Mahou), a sense of great happiness came over me – could have been the beer, could have been the sleep dep., but I think it was that wonderful sensation of ‘soaking up early spring sun in Spain’… and knowing there are 7 months of hot blue skies ahead…

Expect more Spain here this week and beyond, when I hope to be reporting on this wonderful country as well as my friend Richard does, with his excellent Spanish-Granny-Warrior post here: Chariots of Ire

Categories
Spain Travel

Spring in the Retiro Park

Nothing like watching those horse chestnut leaves appear at this time of year. Here’s a slide show:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=67348

Larger version here (Worth it!) Plus:

Help: Notes from Spain flagging in ‘best expat blog’ category of the Lonely Planet awards, please vote today!

Categories
Spanish

Spanish learners, amazing ideas to improve:

We’ve used great ideas from our Spanish podcast listeners to come up with an amazing free report that is going to help any Spanish learner leap ahead.

Get it here while it’s hot! Here’s the link:

Free Spanish learning report available here

Have a great weekend! Ben

Categories
Spanish Culture and News

Spain to 5 Million Unemployed?

For once, when surveyed on a nationwide scale, the Spanish population’s biggest worry is no longer local, separatist terrorism. The biggest worry for the average Spaniard is now the country’s financial situation. As one newspaper puts it, “El paro ‘quita el sueño’ al 75,2% de los españoles” – The fear of unemployment keeps 75% of Spaniards awake at night.

And well they might worry. As the unemployment figures creep towards 4 million, some say things will get as bad as 5 million unemployed by the end of the year, accounting for an unprecedented 20% of the working population.

Madrid keeps it’s head held high, it’s economics based largely on wealthy service industries, but the situation on the Mediterranean coasts must be going downhill quickly. Where once there were always new houses to be built, equipped and furnished, now there are no more eager buyers, and nothing to be built.

The question is, for a country that has experienced and enjoyed exceptional growth and prosperity over the last 10 years, what might a Spain with 5 million unemployed workers soon look like? And can anything be done?

Categories
Spanish Culture and News

Spain’s Most Respected Newspaper El Pais in Free DVD Shocker

How as a ‘healthy’ 17-year-old I longed to be allowed to stay up late enough to watch those Spanish films on channel Four with the red triangle displayed prominently in the top right-hand corner of the screen, when anything that came out of Spain or France, had subtitles, and ended up on British TV late at night, was bound to have a decent bit of flesh in it.

At last, my dreams are to be fulfilled! El Pais, Spain’s most respected of newspapers, is giving away soft porn every weekend for the foreseeable future, starting next Sunday with ‘El Portero de la Noche’ – “The Night Watchman” ( … the “naughty” night watchman, I imagine…)

Under the banner “Vuelve el Erotismo” (Erotic is Back), this latest get-something-free-with-your-paper campaign is likely to send sales through the roof. As I said to the wife, better get down to the kiosko early next Sunday for a chance of getting the first instalment, especially at 1 Euro a pop!

But hang on a minute (says the old British person still hiding inside me), free ‘dirty videos’ with El Pais? Can you imagine The Times of London, or the venerable Sunday Observer giving away this sort of ‘filth’? It’s a disgrace!

For more details, be very careful about checking out the special promotional webstie, http://www.quevuelvaelerotismo.com – just don’t look behind the third door for the good stuff… a blooming disgrace, that’s what this is…

Categories
Everday life in Spain

Holy Balls

Rainy crappy weather in Madrid so I didn’t make it out of the house until past 6 p.m. and then only to a bar up the road for a quick caña.

There were a couple of policemen in there, one drinking non-alcohol beer, the other a clara con limon: shandy. Not sure British cops would drink shandy, even on duty.

I kept my ears peeled for some fine Spanish vulgarities from the local constabulary, but was disappointed. They just ate their bocadillos and stared blankly at the chat show on TV.

Never mind, the portero made up for them as I walked through our lobby on my way home.

How are you I asked?

“As they say on that Police program on TV,” he said, “hasta los santos cojones” – Pissed off to my holy balls.

Categories
notes

Nice Spain Links

Great old friends of mine have moved to Seville. Matt works as a surfboard shaper (and a world-renowned one at that!) and Sheila, his wife, put together this website from scratch, with no previous knowledge of html, ftp etc, in a matter of weeks. Pretty impressive! Do say hi at:

Matt Barrow Surfboards

Meanwhile, Richard Morley discovers some quite unbelievable health initiative going on beneath Madrid:

In Training

Saludos from Madrid,

Ben

Categories
green spain

Asturian Bears and Marmite and Olive Oil on Toast

Asturias, Picos de Europa

Photo: Asturias, Picos de Europa
Midnight nearly, and I’m too full of Marmite and olive oil on toast to sleep properly. Marina bought the Marmite – strange considering only 50% of British people are supposed to be able to stomach the yeasty black spread (I think it’s genetic, you have to like it at birth), and it is said to be all but deadly to anyone from beyond the UK at a distance of anything less than 10 feet.

A small jar cost us 7 euros in Madrid. Worth every centimo. Especially when spread over Extra-Virgin Olive Oil on white Galician bread. Really. I feel like I’m en la gloria.

Actually I think this insane happiness coursing through my veins at midnight near the end of February has got a lot to do with a) a very sunny afternoon walk in Madrid’s early-blossoming Retiro Park, and b) fruit trees.

We (‘the company’) just bought 120 fruit trees through a charity in Asturias called Fapas: the “Fondo para la protección de los animales salvajes”. They will be planted somewhere in the Picos de Europa mountains to help feed, and thus repopulate, the dwindling wild bear population, (plus sort out a bit of this pesky CO2 problem at the same time.)

The money for these trees came from the sale of our latest product at notesinspanish.com, the ‘Crisis Collection’, recorded with our good friend Isabel who is profoundly and infectiously in love with the environment and suggested we donate our promised percentage from this latest launch to this particular charity.

So, there are to be 120 trees with Spanish learners names on them (figuratively) in those wondrous fairy tale mountains in Northern Spain, and that makes me very happy and incredibly grateful to everyone that buys our stuff. This post is really by way of thanks, thanks for El Bosque Notes in Spanish – The Notes in Spanish Forest.

We shall continue to send a percentage of any profit we make to worthy destinations, and I hope you won’t mind if I very occasionally tell you about it. I feel genuinely happy about it, and really hope this doesn’t come across as smug or ‘halo-polishing’. It simply makes work even more rewarding and fun than it is already. And again, this is by way of thanks to anyone that reads this or uses our Spanish materials.

On a sort of related/unrelated note…

When I was young I was obsessed with the idea of being a nature program film maker. This is probably a very very common ambition – especially amongst Spanish people I imagine, who love to siesta to overdubbed nature programmes on hot summer afternoons. Perhaps one day I’ll get the chance to go and film those bears in Asturias. Now there’s a dream worth pursuing… an idea even more exciting than another slice of Marmite and olive oil on toast.

Update: Email from the charity Fapas… “Hola Marina: vamos a preparar una ficha específica del Bosque Notes in Spanish que podréis ver en la web del proyecto … Mi compañero Luis, la persona responsable de las plantaciones me comentó ayer que tiene ya localizada una finca para plantar vuestros 120 árboles … Un saludo y gracias por vuestra generosa colaboración”

Categories
Living in Spain

9 Things To Consider If You Want To Move To Spain

Las Cruces, Granada

I’m all for not thinking toooo hard before making life-changing decisions, but when I moved to Spain in 1998 I was young, free, and single… so it was a bit of a “no-brainer”.

However, I’ve noticed a few comments on the blog recently from people wrestling with the decision: to move to Spain or not to move to Spain.

So, in no particular order (but all important!) here are 9 things to think about (even just a tiny bit!) if you are planning a move to Spain:

1. Language: Do you speak Spanish?

I turned up here 10 years ago without a word, but as I planned to be an English teacher in Spain for the first year, this didn’t really matter. Plus I planned to get very fluent very fast, which, with classes, intercambios, and massive motivation, I managed.

But will you have time to learn Spanish? Will you need it for a job? Are you bothered about it?

In general, I would say: count on needing to learn Spanish if you want a successful life in Spain. If you live outside the expat zones on the coasts, do not expect people in banks, landlords, people on the end of a phone etc, to speak English.

No problem anyway, learning Spanish is fun!

2. Expat guilt: Will you face it?

Are you leaving people behind that you will feel guilty about? Do you have responsibilities at home you really might feel bad about running away from? This isn’t the case for everyone, but where possible I highly recommend tying up any loose ends before you go that might tug at your conscience later. Or getting work here that frees you up to pop back often…

3. Work

What are you going to do for a living in Spain? Working in Spain is not as easy as it was where you came from, unless you plan to be an English teacher in a big city.

Spain is in the middle of its own economic crisis, and has very high unemployment at the moment. So make sure you think ahead, or better still, have something lined up for when you arrive.

If you arrive without work, aim to have at least 5,000 Euros in the bank before you get here to tide you over while you find work in the first few months.

4. Responsibilities

Will you be bringing a spouse, or children, that depend on you? Then things get a LOT more complicated. You need to work out what they are going to do in Spain too, work-wise or school-wise, and you need to have a LOT more money in the bank as a safety net before you arrive, not to mention a job lined up or very very solid plan.

If this is you, read this cautionary tale about leaving Spain.

5. You may never want to leave

OK, enough of the ‘warning shots’ above, this one is positive. Be warned that once you get here, you may stay forever… I planned to be in Madrid for a month, Spain for a year. That was 10 years ago, and I’m still in Madrid. It’s great, but something to keep in mind!

6. You may be changed forever!

Moving to Spain long term will almost certainly make you more independent, broaden your horizons, and will enrich and stimulate you mentally and culturally.

What’s wrong with that? Nothing! But you may find that after a time you loose touch with life and culture back home, and only have half a clue what’s going on here! It’s a weird transition, but in the end, you may end up more culturally Spanish than whatever you were before.

Again, no problem, but makes it hard when you go home for a visit and you have no idea about the celebrities, scandals and TV shows your old friends are talking about at dinner parties.

7. New friends

How good are you at meeting people and making new friends? Where will you find them? Lots of idea on that in this forum post: A happy landing in Spain

8. Leaving your comfort system behind.

By way of summarising the scary bits above, you will be leaving established work channels, friends, support systems… weather systems for that matter! You will be stepping out of your comfort zone. Make sure you are feeling good, fit, mentally strong, and up for an amazing challenge. And be determined to fit in with your new surroundings (see “The Ex-Pat Manifesto”…)

And don’t worry, as I always say, if I can start a new life in Spain, anyone can…

9. Over to you…

What would you add for number 9? Please add to the list or just comment below!

Categories
notes

Notes in Spanish News: New Audio

For those keen Inspired Spanish learners amongst you, I just wanted to let you know that a big project I’ve been working on with a friend of Marina’s is finally ready!

Full details on the Notes in Spanish blog

Saludos from Madrid,

Ben