Take Off the Rose Colored Glasses
Through a link, I reached an article in the Kentucky Kernel, which seems to be the online newspaper of the University of Kentucky. It's short, and written by a student who studied abroad in Spain a couple of summers, once in Barcelona and once in Sevilla, then returned for an internship in Madrid. In it, the young woman listed five things she loved about Spain after her short experience here.
Two of those I agree with, mostly. Most cities and towns are walkable. It's not much of a feat to walk a few blocks, and there is much to involve the senses. The other thing is the food. It is quite varied from one region to another, and the tapas are good, in general. Yes, there are some places that aren't worth blackening the threshold with one's shadow, but other bars and restaurants are sublime.
However, I take umbrage with the other three reasons to love Spain. They prove that the young lady hasn't really bothered to dive more profoundly into the country and its quirks, and has experienced the country only on a more shallow level. One is the sense of fashion. Yes, there are women on the streets, and a few men, who have stepped out of a fashion magazine. But the author's claim that you don't see hoodies, leggings, sweatpants or sneakers in the streets is simply wrong. Either she only moved in certain circles, or she kept her eyes shut to what she didn't see as "different" from the United States. And her exclamation that her favorite stores are Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear is funny. They all belong to the same parent company, so they all tend to have the same styles. And, while they do have some nice clothes (if you fit into them) they also have what she calls "workout clothing" as part of their street fashion.
The next reason where I don't agree with her is the public transportation. She claims it is wonderful, and that the entire country is connected by bus and rail. According to her, there is no need for a car, and that everyone uses public transport. Also, that plane fares to other European cities are cheap. Well, here there's even more beef. To begin with the last one, cheap is relative. To an American with a much higher per capita income, yes, they are cheap. But it is not quite so simple for a Spaniard to just hop on a plane and spend the weekend in Berlin or Budapest, or even just Paris. Yes, there are people here who have well-paying jobs who didn't suffer much during the Great Recession, but the majority simply can't afford it except after saving and scrimping for many months or years. My husband and I went to France for a week four years ago, and we could afford it because we drove our own car. But now, we can't afford it, and I don't know when we will be able to, again, let alone a plane fare to Paris.
As for the connections within Spain, yes, some of them exist, but there are many smaller cities and towns that are complicated to get to using buses or trains. Either you have to change a couple of times, and take more than one day to get there, or they simply have no bus service other than local. As for trains, to get to Extremadura from Madrid takes about as long as to get to Galicia, over five hours. Yet, Extremadura is closer than Galicia. That one doesn't need a car to get around? Perhaps not in Madrid, which does have an excellent Metro and bus system, although slightly expensive, but in the rest of Spain, a car is a glaring necessity.
The reason I save for last is the one she gave first, the Spanish lifestyle. She claims that everything here is relaxed and that there is a "no pasa nada" (everything's okay) attitude. Also, that Spaniards work to live, instead of live to work. Lady, you don't know the half of it. Yes, there's a relaxed attitude, but on the outside. Because the relaxed attitude is a defense mechanism so as not to go insane, sometimes. The banks don't have that attitude. If you're behind on your payments, "pasa algo" (everything's not okay), just like in the United States. The same with all the bureaucratic idiocies most of us face almost every day. Do we work to live, and just enjoy a beer at the end of the workday without worrying about the next one? Some do, so as not to cry. Too many people have jobs where they work long, unpaid hours, and earn a pittance at the end of the month. But, hey, it's a job that pays some bills, if not all. Some don't even get to be able to live with all they work. Perhaps next time she should ask the waiter who serves her her coffee and croissant if he is fine with his life, with all the hours he puts in, serving innocent guiris like her. Even the older people in the villages don't live a laid back life like she thinks, just sitting in the shade and gossiping. They are worried about their potato crop they are hoeing, they are worried about the insects devouring their tomato plants, they are heading out to spread manure to later sow the corn. They are not sitting on their hands letting the world go by.
Spontaneous? Well, yes, some plans are spontaneous, but mostly because we simply can't plan ahead. When we do so, something always arrives, usually in the form of work, to make us desist from our plans. In that sense, we have learned to live in the day. But, even so, don't expect to be spontaneous every day. As for the siestas she mentions, they are a thing of the past. There is still an afternoon break almost everywhere, except some offices, but the siesta is something practiced in the villages in the height of summer, when the sun is best contemplated from behind closed blinds. In the cities and towns, people do other things in the afternoon, even going shopping. Supermarkets now open continuously from nine in the morning to nine in the evening. Many stores in tourist locations, and all those in shopping malls, do so, too. While some offices may close to the public around two o'clock, the workers don't leave until later. And those lunches at three, and dinner at eleven she mentions? The same waiter is probably serving at both, after having arrived for work at eleven in the morning or noon.
When one writes about a place one loves, one must understand that there are lights and shadows. Where one person sees only the lights, another sees the shadows shifting beneath the surface. They are there, only one must shield the eyes from the light to see them. I don't argue that the young woman loves Spain, but I do argue that she doesn't yet know it well enough, and that she hasn't lived here long enough to understand it well beyond the lights that she sees. If she settles here and spends ten years of her life in this country, moving outside her milieu, she will understand it better, and then she can rewrite the article, giving it a better sense of reality.
Two of those I agree with, mostly. Most cities and towns are walkable. It's not much of a feat to walk a few blocks, and there is much to involve the senses. The other thing is the food. It is quite varied from one region to another, and the tapas are good, in general. Yes, there are some places that aren't worth blackening the threshold with one's shadow, but other bars and restaurants are sublime.
However, I take umbrage with the other three reasons to love Spain. They prove that the young lady hasn't really bothered to dive more profoundly into the country and its quirks, and has experienced the country only on a more shallow level. One is the sense of fashion. Yes, there are women on the streets, and a few men, who have stepped out of a fashion magazine. But the author's claim that you don't see hoodies, leggings, sweatpants or sneakers in the streets is simply wrong. Either she only moved in certain circles, or she kept her eyes shut to what she didn't see as "different" from the United States. And her exclamation that her favorite stores are Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear is funny. They all belong to the same parent company, so they all tend to have the same styles. And, while they do have some nice clothes (if you fit into them) they also have what she calls "workout clothing" as part of their street fashion.
The next reason where I don't agree with her is the public transportation. She claims it is wonderful, and that the entire country is connected by bus and rail. According to her, there is no need for a car, and that everyone uses public transport. Also, that plane fares to other European cities are cheap. Well, here there's even more beef. To begin with the last one, cheap is relative. To an American with a much higher per capita income, yes, they are cheap. But it is not quite so simple for a Spaniard to just hop on a plane and spend the weekend in Berlin or Budapest, or even just Paris. Yes, there are people here who have well-paying jobs who didn't suffer much during the Great Recession, but the majority simply can't afford it except after saving and scrimping for many months or years. My husband and I went to France for a week four years ago, and we could afford it because we drove our own car. But now, we can't afford it, and I don't know when we will be able to, again, let alone a plane fare to Paris.
As for the connections within Spain, yes, some of them exist, but there are many smaller cities and towns that are complicated to get to using buses or trains. Either you have to change a couple of times, and take more than one day to get there, or they simply have no bus service other than local. As for trains, to get to Extremadura from Madrid takes about as long as to get to Galicia, over five hours. Yet, Extremadura is closer than Galicia. That one doesn't need a car to get around? Perhaps not in Madrid, which does have an excellent Metro and bus system, although slightly expensive, but in the rest of Spain, a car is a glaring necessity.
The reason I save for last is the one she gave first, the Spanish lifestyle. She claims that everything here is relaxed and that there is a "no pasa nada" (everything's okay) attitude. Also, that Spaniards work to live, instead of live to work. Lady, you don't know the half of it. Yes, there's a relaxed attitude, but on the outside. Because the relaxed attitude is a defense mechanism so as not to go insane, sometimes. The banks don't have that attitude. If you're behind on your payments, "pasa algo" (everything's not okay), just like in the United States. The same with all the bureaucratic idiocies most of us face almost every day. Do we work to live, and just enjoy a beer at the end of the workday without worrying about the next one? Some do, so as not to cry. Too many people have jobs where they work long, unpaid hours, and earn a pittance at the end of the month. But, hey, it's a job that pays some bills, if not all. Some don't even get to be able to live with all they work. Perhaps next time she should ask the waiter who serves her her coffee and croissant if he is fine with his life, with all the hours he puts in, serving innocent guiris like her. Even the older people in the villages don't live a laid back life like she thinks, just sitting in the shade and gossiping. They are worried about their potato crop they are hoeing, they are worried about the insects devouring their tomato plants, they are heading out to spread manure to later sow the corn. They are not sitting on their hands letting the world go by.
Spontaneous? Well, yes, some plans are spontaneous, but mostly because we simply can't plan ahead. When we do so, something always arrives, usually in the form of work, to make us desist from our plans. In that sense, we have learned to live in the day. But, even so, don't expect to be spontaneous every day. As for the siestas she mentions, they are a thing of the past. There is still an afternoon break almost everywhere, except some offices, but the siesta is something practiced in the villages in the height of summer, when the sun is best contemplated from behind closed blinds. In the cities and towns, people do other things in the afternoon, even going shopping. Supermarkets now open continuously from nine in the morning to nine in the evening. Many stores in tourist locations, and all those in shopping malls, do so, too. While some offices may close to the public around two o'clock, the workers don't leave until later. And those lunches at three, and dinner at eleven she mentions? The same waiter is probably serving at both, after having arrived for work at eleven in the morning or noon.
When one writes about a place one loves, one must understand that there are lights and shadows. Where one person sees only the lights, another sees the shadows shifting beneath the surface. They are there, only one must shield the eyes from the light to see them. I don't argue that the young woman loves Spain, but I do argue that she doesn't yet know it well enough, and that she hasn't lived here long enough to understand it well beyond the lights that she sees. If she settles here and spends ten years of her life in this country, moving outside her milieu, she will understand it better, and then she can rewrite the article, giving it a better sense of reality.
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