So, I wanted to share some of the sweet nothings that Spain has been shouting in my ear. Yea, so normally one would say whispering, but here in Spain, there is no such thing as whispering. BE LOUD OR BE UNHEARD!!! Oh, you are talking? Oh well I AM JUST GOING TO YELL LOUDER!!! It's a fun lil anecdote about Spanish culture. All my years of loud headphones do not compare to what I endure during a typical conversation. However, no pasa nada. It's all good. I find it funny.
This leads me to talking about my lovely walk to the bus stop every morning. First off, to follow up on what I was saying earlier, there is this lady that rides my bus and is so funny. She has huge bug eyes, and is really old, and is full of life! She paces back and forth at the bus stop and yells to herself (haha) about "where is the bus?" and such things. Not that the bus is ever late, but she is just impacient I suppose. She goes and stands in the middle of the street and looks down to catch the first glimpse of the bus and when she does, she alerts everyone that it is waiting at the traffic light, and we don't need to worry, it is coming. I just love that she does this EVERY DAY. It never gets old. And then when the bus opens she yells, "ALEJANDRO!!!!!!" and sits a few rows back and yells in conversation to the driver. Oh, Spanish people. But back to my walk to the bus stop, there is a quite unusual sight that I see every day. There is this guy that is always sitting on the ground, and I mean, he has a little hat out where you can put the money, but I think he sits there to… socialize? I mean he always paint on his face, not in a face painting sort of way, but a kind of, paint fight kind of way, or Indian tribal painting lines and such… but he isn't Indian… So anyway, he is always accompanied by the most adorable puppy/puppies ever… and a few dogs. It varies though. They aren't always the same dogs or puppies, they change. There is ALWAYS though a puppy at least. He just chills there and plays with the dogs and smokes, and so my original thought was that he was a bum or street dude. But recently, people have been joining him. The other day I saw three more painted people sitting with him, but the other day I saw a very well dressed chica hanging out with him. And then today I saw him hanging out with a man in a suit. I mean, I am always on a mission to get to my bus stop, and I am a little intimidated about stopping and seeing what the deal is, but it remains a mystery that occupies my thoughts on my transport to school.
On another note, I was having a lovely conversation with my friend Peter the other day about how I think he exaggerates in his blog about his funny sightings around town. Well, he was talking in his blog about how when we were walking the other day we saw these girls dressed up as PacMan. He said that he sees things like that all the time. I was in a complete state of denial when I left my house to go for a run, and what do I see but three ladies dressed up as Minnie Mouse on a Sunday morning. Just when I was thinking it was a freak coincidence, I was on the bus leaving work yesterday when I look out in to the gleaming Spanish sunlight in my tiny pueblo and see a man smoking a cigarette with a giant blue and green macaw perched right next to him on the patio railing. Now I know that these things can happen in America too, but they are more fun since they are happening here in Spain haha.
There is also the whole aspect of rules. Rules are really crazy here in Spain. Sometimes they are all like, "oh it doesn't matter that your identity card has the wrong address and wrong profession", but other times they are all "yea, so we can have more than 4 people in the taxi" or "I don't know if you are really who you say you are even though you have 3 forms of (correct) identification, so I can't take your fingerprints to send to the FBI (who obviously don't already HAVE my fingerprints on record to compare them to)". The way the police function around here is really crazy. I mean, apparently it takes forever to be able to become a police officer, but yet if you go to a police station they never know how to answer your questions. Maybe it is just because they aren't used to foreigner questions. Anyway, a fun example of how the police are different here is when I was teaching my adults that work in the weapon factory (General Dynamics), and I was asking how often people get pulled over in Spain, to which they replied, "What does 'pull over' mean?" And there, is my point.
Going along with the rules thing, a lot of the rules that they actually do have and enforce here in Spain make everyone's life more difficult. And not really in the way that makes any sense. In the preschool where I work, the outside gates are locked with padlocks. Therefore, if anyone wants to come late to school or has to leave school, you need to go out there with your key. Heaven forbid there was an emergency where people had to get out of the school fast. And, there are different keys for both doors (which is the case for the doors at my elementary school as well), so maybe you ask someone to let you out of one door, but they will only have keys to the other one, and therefore you have to walk around half of the pueblo to get to your destination (which is only the case for the elementary school, but still).
There is also the lack of variety thing. There are generally ONLY Spanish restaurants here, with the exception of some Chinese food places. So, the other day when Peter and I were making Tex-Mex tacos, and I offered my roommate one, she looked at me, and then looked down at the separate pans of sautéed veggies, chicken, rice, beans, mixed cheese, tortillas, and salsa, and said, "what do I do?" This utterly flabbergasted me, because how does anyone not know how to make a TACO! Oh dear god I almost passed out.
But, there was just another example of how I am teaching here in Spain, whether it be to explain what "pull over" means, or how to make a taco. I'm enlightening the lives of others. Woohooo! And they sure are enlightening me! (If any of my Spanish peeps read this, I am not making fun, I am most definitely enjoying the differences between cultures; without differences, life is boring.)
