Category: notes

Photo: Me trying to ‘blend in’ and not to look like an expat (Fail?!)
OK, so technically if you live in Spain and aren’t from here, then you are either an immigrant, or an ex-pat – probably both. Nothing wrong with either of course, but there are certain aspects of ‘ex-pat-ness’ that it is certainly wise to avoid, if only for the benefit of your own long-term self esteem!

So, here is my quick guide to ‘How to avoid being “too expatty” in Spain’ – and, more to the point, really fitting in with the locals! Please add to the list in the comments!

1. Never drink in Irish bars, no matter what sporting event you just can’t miss and isn’t on anywhere else.

2. … and don’t say things like ‘I counldn’t half do with a decent pint instead of these tiny bloody caña beers they serve over here’.

Photo: Try to drink in bars that look like this
3. In fact… only drink in bars with crap all over the floor, a few old Spanish men permanently stuck to the bar, and at least one well dressed barmen, over 50, who’s worked there since just after birth.

Photo: Clearly NOT expats – expats wouldn’t bother with the matress
4. Don’t ever get obsessed about eating “at least one good meal from home” a week. Spanish food is much better for you. You’ll live longer. (4.b. Don’t do all your food shopping in the ‘gourmet’ section of El Corte Ingles).

Photo: Avoid El Corte Ingles – try food shopping in places like this!
5. Don’t spend more time on Facebook than you do soaking in your new surroundings.

6. Don’t wear white socks, shorts and tennis shoes in public.

Photo: To blend in, dress like this
7. Learn some more Spanish! Come on, you live here! Join in!

8. Swear more (and only in Spanish, joder).

9. What would you add for number 9?

Comments below please! (Later note on some comments below: I’m amazed that some people used this as an excuse to reinforce idiotic stereotypes about the Spanish – says a lot about a certain class of expat I’m afraid…)

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

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

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

I’ll have to turn my oh so critical eye away from Spain for a few days to work hard on a project for Notesinspanish.com, so things might be quiet here on the blog.

Suddenly I’m feeling a bit overloaded!! Even when we get to bed at 10.30 I don’t seem to get up before 8.30! In the meantime, don’t forget the wonderful forum is still as busy as every, do check in there.

Finally, if you are learning Spanish and can help us out with the new project by taking a super-quick survey, please read this post here. Thanks! Back soon!

Update: While I’m busy, check out Ivan’s blog enthused with all the wonderful energy of a new life in a new place in Spain…

I’ve known Ryan and Gabriella from Catavino.net for, what, 3 years? 4? Their story is uncommonly inspiring compared to most non-EU visitors to Spain, who often find it hard to find a way to stay in Spain long-term. But these guys have not only stuck around, but they’ve also started a Spanish-wine-watching on-line empire, and built a company around it to boot.

You can read their great story on their about page, but more importantly, they are running a competition right now to win a very beautiful wine/art prize… and all you have to do is ask a question! Please do take part! Click here…

We were in our favourite local (smoke free 🙂 ) bar today, when the waitress came round with a tray of tasty looking jamon Iberico rolls announcing ‘Pulgas de la crisis a 80 centimos’ (“Crisis ham rolls for 80 cents”).

This is a very good deal, but I’ve got a feeling it’s more a product of an enterprising bar owner than anything else.

There is evidence of ‘la crisis’ in some sectors clearly (over 30% of Spain’s GNP is based directly or indirectly on the totally-ruined construction business), but in other apparently troubled sectors, such as the media, it seems that some canny CEO’s may just be using ‘La Crisis’ as an excuse to kick out a percentage of their less than productive staff members.

Still, harsh realities aside (and I don’t want to mock those horribly effected by this economic downturn that looks set to last at least another year in Spain), you can’t beat cheap ham sandwiches, especially when it’s Jamon Iberico! Looking forward to ‘Crisis Vino Tinto a 50 centimos’ next…

My recent comments about smoking in Spanish bars and restaurants received the usual amount of moody replies, many of the more offensive ones deleted. There are two possible reasons for this: 1. Smokers hate criticism, 2. Negative blog posts lead to angry replies. The latter is certainly true.

I don’t like being critical of Spain, but as the years go by it seems that one finds more to be critical about. The other day whilst walking around the Retiro park, I tried to work out why, and came to the conclusion that it is simply the product of living somewhere for a very long time.

After the honeymood period wears off, one starts to see the chinks in the armour. But what made me fall in love with Spain in the first place?

The new-found freedom you get when you escape abroad, wild escapades with friends to different fieasta-ful corners of an undiscovered country, stunning fresh landscapes to look at, wander through, and photograph, a beautiful new language to learn, new people to interact with, a wonderful, rich, new culture to get to grips with, new food, the Spanish love of outdoor life, Spanish film (not TV!), fine wine, fine ham, beautiful people, a passion for valuing tradition… the list is long.

But then you live here for five, eight, ten years and you start seeing beyond all of that to the workaday country beneath. A country with the same problems as the one you came from, with it’s own silly annoyances that you realise do come to infringe on your everyday life (like the smoking thing).

You start moaning about the same things the locals do, but when you do it, there is a real danger that, as one commenter put it a few months ago, you just become “yet another foreigner sticking his nose into complicated issues and drawing the same old negative conclusions about Spain”.

The same conclusions a Spaniard will draw, but as a foreigner, woe betide you if you mention these things in public!

Anyway, what am I on about? I knew long ago that Spain would be a ‘life-partner’, like a great wife (like mine) that you know you plan to keep forever (hope Marina reads this, few bonus points here for the taking perhaps?!)

And just as we go might go through rough patches with a husband/wife/boy-girlfriend, in the end the best thing to do is to find a perfect middle ground where we live happily together, in love with each others’ virtues, and putting up with the foibles.

So my plan is to get my head out of my office, and start enjoying those virtues again, keeping everything positive (as is my wont), and putting up with the day-to-day annoyances that probably crop up wherever you live. I mean, if I still lived in the UK, I know I’d be moaning a hell of a lot more. (Then again when I phoned my great uncle recently, and he immediately commented on the weather, I felt deep pangs for such wonderful Englishness!)

Have you ever fallen in and out of love with somewhere you’ve lived for a long time?

It’s quiz time again! Once more I’m looking for those that really know the country inside-out. Can you name the eleven places pictured below?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

¡Suerte!

Aplogies for the complete lack of blog posting this week. Call myself a blogger? It’s a disgrace!

Part of the reason for the silence has been due to working a little on our wonderful Spain and Spanish forums.

When I started the forums, the aim was to build the best Spain and Spanish speaking forums on the net, a goal I think in many ways we have reached, and I still stick to 100%.

With that in mind, this week we arranged for one of our great friends, Isabel, to start coming in for an hour a day to help out with people’s Spanish.

We’re going to try this out for a couple of weeks, and hopefully continue afterwards if people enjoy having a Spanish ‘profe’ around.

So far results have been great. In the last two days we have had nearly 200 new members, and Isabel’s first ‘Hola’ post has, right now, 87 replies. The forum is buzzing with all the new faces, which is wonderful news.

So, I’d just like to invite everyone again to register and use the friendliest forum on the net. Whenever you have ANY questions about living or travelling in Spain, or learning Spanish, you know where to go to get a host of great answers. Do register if you haven’t yet, and say hi!

And if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve the forum further, do let me know.

Saludos from Madrid,

Ben