Living in Spain this past week has made me appreciate the standard of living we have in America

[miri]

Man, I never knew how nice we have it in America. I have been living in Madrid and Sevilla for the past week. Things that are not readily available here are

Televisions
Air conditioners
cars
phone
internet

It gets so hot here at night I sleep in my sweat. I sweat so much now I rarely have to pee. Some of the roads I have to walk on are around 8 feet wide with no sidewalks and cars drive right by and you have to be careful or you can get hit. The buildings here are old and falling apart and there is trash everywhere. I never knew that there was also a huge influx of central and south American immigrants that live here. I have gotten to use the computer twice in the last week. I have 15 minutes on the computer because it is almost siesta here at the school and they kick us out at 3pm until 5pm. The walks are about 1 hour each way, so I get about 4 hours of walking each day.

I wont be able to respond if anyone has any questions until tommorow if I get a chance to use the computers again because siesta is soon. I was surprised at how much reconstruction is going on in the city. Like 15% of the buildings are under renovation.

The funniest thing is the way the Spanish men look at women. They are so blatant when they stare and like 90% of the men are starers. They also honk and yell at all the hot women that are around. One of my classmates here got her crotched grabbed in Madrid. When the Sevillan soccer team won their national championship the city went crazy.

I am getting used to life without telephones, radios, air conditioners, hot water sometimes and computers. Hope you all are enjoying it back in America. I only have 4 more weeks here.

On a side note, we went to Portugal and the country is beautiful. I have noticed that many Spanish do not speak English at all. There seems to be a much higher percentage of English speakers in Portugal compared to Spain.


Edit hmm there is no colon key on this keyboard, anyway it doesnt get dark here to almost 11Pm. for some reason Spain is ahead of London on the timezone but I am pretty sure they are located west of London.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: miri
Man, I never knew how nice we have it in America. I have been living in Madrid and Sevilla for the past week. Things that are not readily available here are

Televisions
Air conditioners
cars
phone
internet

It gets so hot here at night I sleep in my sweat. I sweat so much now I rarely have to pee. Some of the roads I have to walk on are around 8 feet wide with no sidewalks and cars drive right by and you have to be careful or you can get hit. The buildings here are old and falling apart and there is trash everywhere. I never knew that there was also a huge influx of central and south American immigrants that live here. I have gotten to use the computer twice in the last week. I have 15 minutes on the computer because it is almost siesta here at the school and they kick us out at 3pm until 5pm. The walks are about 1 hour each way, so I get about 4 hours of walking each day.

I wont be able to respond if anyone has any questions until tommorow if I get a chance to use the computers again because siesta is soon. I was surprised at how much reconstruction is going on in the city. Like 15% of the buildings are under renovation.

The funniest thing is the way the Spanish men look at women. They are so blatant when they stare and like 90% of the men are starers. They also honk and yell at all the hot women that are around. One of my classmates here got her crotched grabbed in Madrid. When the Sevillan soccer team won their national championship the city went crazy.

I am getting used to life without telephones, radios, air conditioners, hot water sometimes and computers. Hope you all are enjoying it back in America. I only have 4 more weeks here.

On a side note, we went to Portugal and the country is beautiful. I have noticed that many Spanish do not speak English at all. There seems to be a much higher percentage of English speakers in Portugal compared to Spain.

I don't know what I would do with Fark and ATOT.

 

[skace]

4 hours of walking . Enjoy it, you can always come home and use the internet for the rest of your life.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Exactly why I can't go on vacation for a long period of time to a foreign company. Yes, you go on vacation to relax, but I'll miss my tv,cellphone, and internet.

 

[Kelemvor]

Ummm. Come Home!

 

[DaFinn]

WTF? I have worked with Spanish companies for many years, and they have a very high std of living (more so than in US). Just got back from Valencia/Alicante/Albacete two weeks ago. There are some of the most modern factories in Europe. Everybody and their mother has a cell phone/internet/cable tv/air conditioner/car... Ofcourse this varies by region, but still??? I don't think you've been around enough.

What comes to reconstruction, most Spanish cities are built in the 1st century or before... its about time to rebuild

 

[gigapet]

spain isnt a 3rd world country. If you want to see a standard of living then goto brazil or some place in africa.

Get yourself a vespa or a scooter they are much better than cars and can easily maneuver those narrow roads which I may add are that way because they are in some cases the original roadways from thousands of years ago. I know for a fact there are internet cafe's all over so suck it up. Cell phones are prevalent everywhere in europe and are very affordable so again suck it up. Television is bullsh1t anyways. A/C is for pansies, it is a luxury item, last night it was 85 degress in my bedroom.

What you need to do is go out and appreciate what they have that the US doesnt..... a rich CULTURE and HISTORY. (read: topless beaches, top notch sangria and hot womens)

 

[Lonyo]

Maybe the OP is just an idiot and doesn't realise that standards of living differ widely even within countries?
I expect there are backwater areas of the US where not many people have TV's etc, or live in run down houses.
I expect there are also areas of Spain with very high standards of lving, where people have all they could need.

 

[Aharami]

[ahnold] stop whining! [/ahnold]

you think spain is bad? go to india

edit: woohoo...3K more to lifer

 

[biostud]

>12% of US citizen have an income below UN poverty limit, guess they don't have too much fancy stuff either.

 

[Argo]

I wonder if you're in a bad part of Spain. My father been to Europe many times, probably more than 100 total, and he always praises their standard of living. Well Western Europe at least, although I heard Eastern is getting up there as well.

 

[mrrman]

Love Spain, I worked in Barcelona and would like to go back one day for a vacation, Sitges is a great seaside resort to.

 

[cvstrat]

I just the Europe for a month and saw as much as I could while I was there. I was able to see a TON of places pretty much spending two or three days in each place and moving on. Nobody has the standard of living like we do home in the US. Switzerland is very nice and expensive but you can find the same such places all over the US. There are SO many poor cities (and almost whole countries i.e. Poland) that it blew my mind also. Like how in France there is no A/C even in movie theatres or airports. Roads are smaller as are the cars, people, buildings, and everything else. I believe the biggest building in all of Europe is in Frankfurt and it is something like 36 stories is all.

Bottom line is everywhere in EU is pretty much still "behind" as we would call it but that is really missing the point. In Poland where the avg income is roughly 300 dollars per month, the people live quite well. Granted the cost of living is lower but they show a level of frugality known to few Americans. They are happy people in EU and they probably don't all want to be Americanized. Enjoy your time there because while it sucks now you'll look back and remember the beauty of the food, people, and the land... not that you didn't have internet.

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: cvstrat
I just the Europe for a month and saw as much as I could while I was there. I was able to see a TON of places pretty much spending two or three days in each place and moving on. Nobody has the standard of living like we do home in the US. Switzerland is very nice and expensive but you can find the same such places all over the US. There are SO many poor cities (and almost whole countries i.e. Poland) that it blew my mind also. Like how in France there is no A/C even in movie theatres or airports. Roads are smaller as are the cars, people, buildings, and everything else. I believe the biggest building in all of Europe is in Frankfurt and it is something like 36 stories is all.

Bottom line is everywhere in EU is pretty much still "behind" as we would call it but that is really missing the point. In Poland where the avg income is roughly 300 dollars per month, the people live quite well. Granted the cost of living is lower but they show a level of frugality known to few Americans. They are happy people in EU and they probably don't all want to be Americanized. Enjoy your time there because while it sucks now you'll look back and remember the beauty of the food, people, and the land... not that you didn't have internet.

thats an interesting perspective. I felt completely opposite when i was in europe. They dont have A/C but they do have a way more laid back lifestyle than the average american and I'd take that any day over stinkin AC. Maybe you ffelt they were way behind because the cities are about 6 times older than the US and therefor the layout and buildings seemed nto up to date? for me that added character and value. You saw it as a flaw.

 

[kami333]

I'll take my 5weeks of paid vacation over A/C

 

[ATLien247]

Originally posted by: gigapet
What you need to do is go out and appreciate what they have that the US doesnt..... a rich CULTURE and HISTORY. (read: topless beaches, top notch sangria and hot womens)

Mmmm... sangria!

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: biostud
>12% of US citizen have an income below UN poverty limit, guess they don't have too much fancy stuff either.

One could place a millionaire below the UN poverty limit using that measure.

 

[nater]

I've been to Madrid and Sevilla and I had the opposite response. People there seemed to me to be much more relaxed, save more time for hanging out instead of being overly stressed at/about work, etc. It seemed to me like their quality of life is much higher; when it comes down to it, who really cares about having a cell phone or tv all the time if your life sucks because you work a job you hate just to buy sh!t you don't need?

Plus when I was there, I never had a problem finding a tv to watch, a/c too cool me down, or an extremely cheap internet cafe to utilize. Do you speak any Spanish? If not, maybe that's why you are missing out on everything. Like others have said, forget about your lifestyle from back home and try to learn something from a different culture. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results

 

[SirBrass]

I was in madrid a few years ago (stayed in a hotel right by the Plaza del Sol), and I was NOT uncomfortable. Temps were great and accomodations were excellent. Now, granted they weren't as up-to-date in terms of what their stores had to offer in terms of electronics, but everything else was as modern as in the U.S.

I'm looking FORWARD to the day I can go back and take MORE time to visit spain.

 

[Regs]

We have toilets and free toilet paper in public bathrooms too.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Spain is the third world of Europe. Karma's a bitch!

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: biostud
>12% of US citizen have an income below UN poverty limit, guess they don't have too much fancy stuff either.

That the study also stated that a lot of the people living below the poverty level in the US still lived better than the middle class in other countries (I specifically remember Mexico mentioned).

 

[CPA]

I think it's a safe bet that many Americans who think Europe is a Utopia quickly change their mind once they're there for a period of time. I think Europe has done one thing well over the years and that's spread propaganda to America how progressive and great of a continent it is, when in fact many parts of the continent are still ass-backwards.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: biostud
>12% of US citizen have an income below UN poverty limit, guess they don't have too much fancy stuff either.

guess again, 97% of american families have at least one color television. There are many "fancy stuff" surveys out there that will pop one question into your head - "if they're so damn poor, how do they afford all of this stuff?"

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Maybe the OP is just an idiot and doesn't realise that standards of living differ widely even within countries?
I expect there are backwater areas of the US where not many people have TV's etc, or live in run down houses.
I expect there are also areas of Spain with very high standards of lving, where people have all they could need.

Well, if you call Barcelona backwater then your right. I spent a week there and was pretty miserable in terms of comfort. The place was beautiful and fun to explore but the markets were scary (mmm, meat that has been sitting in the sun all day, yummy!), AC was non-existent (not normally needed but when the humidity is high and the temp was 90+ it would have been nice) and the drivers were INSANE.

That being said I really enjoyed the trip but coming home was a wonderful relief. I think the best part was being able to drink really cold, non-carbonated water!

-spike