Posted by Chris Showers on August 1st, 2009.
 The Burgos tourist train chugging along. I don’t know if this is exactly what Quad City DJs had in mind when they created the song “C’mon Ride the Train” back in the mid-1990s. It’s the Burgos “choo choo” tourist train and, for a small fee, it will take you to the most important monuments in the city of Burgos for your sightseeing pleasure.
I still remember the first time I saw this unique creation creeping along the streets of Burgos at a whopping 5 miles per hour. I was just walking along the sidewalk — minding my own business — when I suddenly looked up and my eyes laid upon it for the first time, a thing of beauty: the choo choo train. You know, it’s not every day that you see a motorized, wheeled train chugging down the street, obeying traffic rules, and generally running without a train track; thus, my first reaction was to chuckle a little. After the initial chuckle, I looked inside the train and saw all the tourists — cameras in hand – comfortably seated in the “passenger compartment” and I chuckled a bit more.
Obviously, after seeing the tourist train, I just had to ride it. A few days after the initial “sighting,” I got together a group of my friends and we had at it. The ride lasted about 45 minutes and it passed by all the most historic places in Burgos. The train came complete with an overhead loudspeaker which explained all aspects of the ride to the passengers: where the train was headed, what we were currently passing, etc. To my surprise, the ride wasn’t that bad. Of course, I don’t know if I’d rely on the Burgos tourist train to get me to Madrid (I suppose Renfe is better for that), but I guess it isn’t bad if you’re a tourist who wants to see the most important parts of the city. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on July 22nd, 2009.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in a dance club in Burgos and suddenly the DJ began to blast that famous song sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the film “Grease” — you know, the one whose lyrics say ”you’re the one that I want.” When I first heard the song come on, I couldn’t figure out why the DJ had chosen it. After all, it’s not exactly the most “current” or “best to dance to” song on the market. At least that’s what I thought. Apparently, I was wrong.
As soon as the song started pumping from the speakers in the club, all the Spaniards formed a line and began to dance in sync — with choreographed movements and beautiful timing — just as if they were actually living in the movie. That’s right, they danced just like Danny and Sandy in the movie, complete with the wavy hand movements and the “ooo, ooo, oooooo, honey” lyrics. What was really surprising to me was the fact that most of the Spaniards were even able to mutter out the chorus in English (with pronunciation that, well, more or less resembled English).
Now, this entire spectacle left me quite perplexed. After all, it’s not every day that you see a bunch of Spaniards suddenly form a line and dance as if they were performing an off-Broadway musical right in the middle of the discoteca. What’s even more surprising is that the “song of choice” happened to be from an American film as opposed to a Spanish one. So, since I was so stricken by this whole affair, I began to do some research by asking my Spanish friends what they knew about the film “Grease.” I came to find out that, in Spain, “Grease” is a true classic and most Spaniards have watched the film numerous times. Pretty surprising considering that most Americans have probably only seen the film once (at least I think that most Americans have only seen the film once — it doesn’t seem too popular in the USA to me).
In any event, I’d like to get down to the bottom of this whole “Grease Popularity” issue and I need your help. Please post your own opinion about the movie “Grease” in the comments of this post. It would also help if you posted the country you are from and the number of times that you have seen this film. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 17th, 2009.
In the USA I always go to the dentist twice a year to have a routine checkup and to get my teeth cleaned. This month I was due for an annual cleaning and I decided that, since I’m living in Spain now, I may as well get it done here. I had never actually been to a dentist in Spain before so I was a little unsure of what to expect. Nonetheless, I figured that it couldn’t be much different from the USA… and really the checkup itself wasn’t that different, although the dentist’s personality sure was.
My dentist in America barely talks to me and the truth is that I am quite used to going in, having my teeth cleaned, and leaving without much more than a “how are you” being exchanged. Here in Spain, however, the dentist that I saw had a bit of a different “approach” to dealing with his patients — I guess the best way to put it is that he was quite outspoken. In fact, the first thing that he said to me after taking a quick peek inside my mouth was “joder” (fuck). Now, “joder” is something that you never want any doctor to say the minute he lays eyes upon you and, when I heard this one little word, I instantly began to fear the worst. I immediately asked the dentist what was wrong and he began to explain to me that I had the largest teeth he had ever seen in his life. He went on to say that he hopes I never have to get a tooth pulled because those big chompers of mine must surely have some humongous roots and therefore yanking on them would hurt a lot. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 10th, 2009.
 Here's a "Telemoped" used by "Telepizza" to deliver food. If you thought being a pizza delivery boy was a bad job in the USA, you should try being one in Spain. As you can see from the above picture, here pizzas are delivered on “motorized pedicycles” (commonly known in the USA as “mopeds”) instead of being delivered in cars. Imagine doing that job in the rain.
You know, for as long as I’ve lived in Spain and as many pizzas as I’ve seen delivered, you would think that this would be something “normal” for me by now… but it’s not. I just can’t help but notice every time I hear the “roaring” sound of a Telepizza moped zigzagging through the busy streets of Burgos at top speed (5 MPH) or whenever I see an unusually large man perched atop an unusually small moped, fulfilling his pizza delivery duty. It’s just so different to me. In the USA, pizzas are always delivered by car. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 11th, 2008.
 Prime Minister or Comedy Star? You be the judge... There is a joke in Spain that says that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the current Prime Minister of Spain, looks a lot like Mr. Bean, the ridiculous British comedy character. I’ve decided to place a little image above to allow you to compare the two. Zapatero, of course, is on the left and Mr. Bean is on the right. What do you think? Continue reading this post…
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