Abroad in Spain: Travel Blog

I’ve lived in Spain for about two years now, yet I’m still very much a guiri in certain aspects.  For those of you who don’t know what a guiri is, it’s basically Spain’s term for a laughable, pasty-white, foreign tourist who is here on vacation but doesn’t really “fit in.”  Yes indeed, the beaches of Spain fill up with guiris in the summer months and in the winter a few of us — me, for example – stick around. 

Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself pretty well-integrated into Spanish society; however, I’ll always have certain “guiri characteristics” when it comes to a few things.  Here are the top five reasons why I still consider myself to be a guiri:

1. I eat fast food: In Spain, the land of the Mediterranean diet, I eat fast food — and I eat it quite regularly.  In fact, when I confess to Spaniards that I make at least one trip to McDonald’s a week, they simply cannot believe me.  Eating fast food just isn’t as common here as it is in the States.  I guess if you eat a lot of fast food you’re still a guiri in some respect (you’re also probably at a higher risk for heart disease, but let’s save that for a different post).
    
2. I have a different concept of time: Most Spaniards have a different concept of time than I do (I’m not saying that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it is something I notice).  For example, if I tell a group of Spanish friends that I will meet them at 10:00 PM in the city center, I arrive to the city center a little early — perhaps at 9:53 or so.  Spaniards, on the other hand, begin to arrive around 10:00 and it’s not really unusual for them to arrive even a tad later than 10:00.  So, while the Spaniards are living it up with their laid-back lifestyle and arriving at their earliest convenience, I (the guiri) am nervously looking at my watch and wondering where everybody is at. 
    
3. I eat lunch at 12:30 or 1:00: In Spain, a late lunch is king.  The normal lunch hour is from 2:00 to 5:00 PM and people typically eat at any time during that three-hour span.  I, as a guiri, do not like waiting that long.  In fact, when I lived in the USA I often ate lunch around 11:30 AM; so, waiting until 2:00 is something that I try to avoid (if I can).  My Spanish housemates laugh when I eat so early and tell me that I have some very “strange customs.”  Still, I persist with my “guiri ways.”
    
4. The kissing thing confuses me: It is very common here in Spain to give kisses on the cheek when you are meeting someone for the first time or to greet someone that you haven’t seen in a while.  This is something that is never done in the USA and, as a result, it’s something that has always confused me.  I never know who I should give two cheek kisses to and who I shouldn’t.  Sometimes the person who I’m meeting expects two kisses and other times they don’t… the whole cheek kissing thing is really a bit of a mystery for a poor guiri like me, even to this day. 
    
5. You tell me: If you’re an expat living in Spain, help me finish this post by writing how you are still a guiri in the comments section below.  If you’re a Spaniard, perhaps you’d like to comment on some of the strange things that guiris do in your country.  Continue reading this post…

A shop window is decorated to advertise the "rebajas" (sales) in Spain, which began on January 7th.

Here in Spain there are two major sales per year (known as rebajas in Spanish): one is set in January and another is set in July/August.  During these sales, people pretty much go crazy trying to buy up anything and everything that they could possibly need — at a bargain price, of course.  Think of it as a month-long version of the USA’s well-known “Black Friday.”  Long lines, shot nerves, and more than one overwhelmed, crying store employee are all common traits of the rebajas of Spain. 

As a foreigner I don’t really understand where Spaniards get the money to buy things during these sales.  You see, the winter sales begin on January 7th, which just so happens to be the day after the infamous Three Wise Men visit children’s homes to bring them presents (like Santa Claus in the States).  In the USA, most people are pretty much broke after Christmas from buying all the gifts.  In Spain, on the contrary, people go out and “shop till they drop” the day after Wise Men Day, their biggest gift-giving holiday.  Logical from an economic standpoint?  Not for me, at least. 

In any event, if you’re Spanish and you’re looking for a deal during these rebajas, I wish you the best of luck.  If you’re not Spanish, well, I guess you can save your money this January.  Continue reading this post…

Visitors view the humongous Nativity of the Burgos Cathedral.

I have memories from when I was a child of helping my mother set up the Christmas tree and the Nativity set in our home.  I never really liked doing the task that much because there were always so many lights to put on the tree and so many little figures to put into the Nativity set.  In fact, I’m sure my mother would tell you that I complained quite a bit about having to do the chore. 

It turns out that I probably shouldn’t have complained so much.  Why?  My mother’s Nativity set was nothing compared to the monstrous ”Nativity on steroids” of the Burgos Cathedral.  In fact, I think my mom’s Nativity contained a Joseph, a Mary, a Baby Jesus, the Three Wise Men, and a couple of camels… it probably had no more than ten pieces.  The Nativity set of the Burgos Cathedral, on the other hand, contains over 1,200 pieces.  How’d you like to be the guy who has to put that thing up?  

All joking aside, it’s not all that uncommon to put up a very large Nativity set here in Spain.  Continue reading this post…

Happy New Year to everyone!  This is the second New Year that I have spent in Spain and, after ”living” the holiday twice here, I thought I’d write a short post to tell those of you who are less familiar with Spain’s traditions a little about the holiday.  Basically, if you’re a Spaniard about to “ring in the New Year in style,” you need two essential items in very large quantities: grapes and fireworks.  Let me explain:

Essential item #1 — Grapes: Grapes are used during the final New Year’s Eve countdown right before midnight.  As Spaniards are counting down the final twelve seconds of the year, they eat grapes — one grape for each second marked by the clock.  As a result, it’s very typical to buy large amounts of grapes right before New Year’s Eve and then sit in front of the TV with your family on December 31st to eat the grapes during the “official countdown,” which is televised live from Madrid. 

Essential item #2 — Fireworks:  After counting down the final twelve seconds of the old year, Spaniards grab their fireworks, firecrackers, and other miscellaneous, loud pyrotechnic devices and head for the streets.  In fact, there are usually so many Spaniards on the streets shooting off fireworks just after midnight that the entire city fills with smoke and sounds like a war zone.  To be quite honest, the first time I saw this happening last year I didn’t really know what to think — it appeared to me to be a loud, dangerous pandemonium with fireworks flying everywhere.  I still wonder how more people don’t have accidents with all those firecrackers going off everywhere.  In any event, along with the grapes, fireworks are a “must” on any Spanish New Year shopping list. 

There you have it.  Two “essential items” for the New Year in Spain.  What are your “New Year Essentials?”  Continue reading this post…

As part of the Christmas festivities in Burgos, a "Christmas Fair" was set up in the Plaza Mayor in which people purchased crafts from local vendors.

I’ve decided to title this post “Merry (ongoing) Christmas.”  You may be asking yourself why I’ve put the word “ongoing” in the title and the answer is really rather simple: in Spain, Christmas is not over yet.  In fact, I’ve discovered that the Spanish love to “make the most” of their holidays — no matter how big or how small they are — and that’s exactly what they’ve done with Christmas (you’ll see what I mean in a moment).  Continue reading this post…

Signs advertising the Christmas Lottery are EVERYWHERE in Burgos.

I was walking home from a class tonight when I noticed a small “pattern” start to emerge: lighted signs advertising the “Christmas Lottery” were on just about every street corner.  I always knew that Spaniards were a little crazy about their “Lotería de Navidad;” but, I guess I’ve never before noticed the extremes to which the craziness goes. 

If you’re not familiar with the Christmas Lottery in Spain, it’s basically a huge lottery drawing held around Christmas that the entire country buys a ticket for (or maybe two tickets, or sometimes three tickets, and there are probably cases of people buying four tickets, or five, but certainly not more than six… or seven).  The truth is that the popularity of this lottery is unbelievable.

Since I’m not Spanish, I don’t totally understand the attraction to the Christmas Lottery — I suppose your odds of winning are higher or the jackpot is bigger, but since I don’t play I’m not really sure.  In any event, I can tell you that people stand in long lines to buy Christmas Lottery tickets at places where winning tickets have been sold in the past and, in general, the entire population goes “crazy” buying up all the tickets in existence in places like tobacco shops, bars, and official lottery retail outlets. 

So, if you’re Spanish and you’ve bought a ticket for the Christmas Lottery this year, let me wish you all the “suerte” in the world… and please, do leave me a comment explaining what you think is the attraction to the Christmas Lottery in Spain.  Continue reading this post…