Posted by Chris Showers on July 12th, 2010.
 A large screen was put up in the Plaza Mayor of Burgos this afternoon so that soccer fans could watch the final match of the World Cup. Right now as I’m writing this, the Queen song “We are the Champions” is blasting from speakers on the street below my house. No, Spaniards don’t just really like Queen — the song is being played over and over again because Spain won the World Cup this evening. It goes without saying that, since the win, there has been some massive celebrating going on here in Burgos. It’s safe to say that these Spaniards really know the meaning of the phrase ”party hearty.”
The afternoon started peacefully enough with almost everyone in the city heading to the Plaza Mayor to watch the final match of the World Cup on a large screen that had been set up just for today. As you can see from the picture above, there was a big turnout of red-clad, Spain-supporting, Burgos-dwelling people. The afternoon turned out to be a tense one: it was a really close game. Still, Spain won in the end.
When Spain won, what did those watching the game in the Plaza Mayor do? They went to the Plaza España, of course. Why? To jump in the fountain and celebrate the victory. Now, I’m no soccer expert and I could be missing something, but I don’t really see the connection between “victory” and “jumping in a city fountain full of cold water to celebrate.” Of course, that’s just me. In any event, the celebration started about two hours ago and it’s now 1:00 a.m. and still going strong. I have a feeling it will last well into the night.
In any case, I send my congrats to Spain’s team. This is the first World Cup that Spain has won and it deserves the victory. ¡Enhorabuena España! Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 8th, 2010.
I woke up this morning at the usual time and, just like every other day, set out for the Plaza España to catch the bus that would transport me across the city and to the school where I work. After a few minutes at the bus stop, I began to realize that I was having to wait for the bus for a lot more time than usual. At first I thought my “number six” bus line was just running a little late… but then it dawned on me: the civil servant strike.
You see, city bus drivers are civil servants in Spain. As civil servants, they are included in the 5% average pay cut that Zapatero recently announced to help reduce Spain’s deficit and thus “save” the country from the financial crisis. Of course, this announced pay cut didn’t exactly go over very well with the civil servants (surprising, right?) and today they all went on a one-day strike to speak out against the change.
Spain seems to have become the “hot topic” in Europe right now with respect to the financial crisis and everyone is wondering if it will become the “next Greece.” Personally, I don’t think that things in Spain will reach the level they did in Greece; but, I’m no economic expert. In any case, if you’d like to read more about Spain and the financial crisis, you can check out this very good New York Times Blog article that explains the situation much better than I can.
I don’t really know how “worried” I should be about the crisis. In fact, I sometimes think that people here are blowing the whole thing a bit out of proportion and hoarding money unnecessarily. I suppose it’s understandable to an extent: nobody wants to be without a job or loose money that they have spent a lifetime saving. Still, I can’t help but feel as if Spaniards are overreacting. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong.
In the end, thanks to the civil servant strike, I had to take a taxi to get to school today. Let’s hope they don’t strike again anytime soon… taxis are much less convenient (and more expensive) than city buses.
Please, leave your thoughts about the crisis in Spain in the comments below. I’d like to know what others think about all this — expats and Spaniards alike. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 6th, 2010.
 The butcher shops here in Spain come complete with hanging "legs of ham" to entice customers to buy (especially look where the red arrow is pointing). Have you ever woken up in the morning and had a hankering for ham? If you answered affirmatively to that question and you live in Spain, you’re in luck: a nice “leg of ham” is waiting for you just around the corner at your neighborhood deli. Yes, you heard right… here in Spain “ham legs” like the ones pictured above are suspended from the air and sold in places like grocery stores and delicatessens.
As an American, I was a little put off the first time I saw one of these ham legs literally “hanging around” in a grocery store. In fact, I remember asking myself how these things don’t go bad after being stuck in the middle of the store with no refrigeration whatsoever for days (or even months) on end. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on January 19th, 2010.
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:
-
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).
-
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.
-
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.”
-
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.
-
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…
Posted by Chris Showers on January 12th, 2010.
 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…
Posted by Chris Showers on January 5th, 2010.
 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…
|
|
Recent Comments