My Love Hate Relationship
Sometimes I feel like I have really good and really bad Spain days. Now that Spain feels more like home, I've come to realize that it's more like good and bad "city" days because it would be like this no matter where I was. Also, when something bad happened I would think "This is only because I'm in Spain- this would never happen in the US!" ... It seems as though the only time one encounters difficulty shaking the US perspective is when one is angry or feels subjected to injustice... any other time I am quick to recognize that differences don't necessarily need to be negative... yet more neutral or something from which to learn.
Today is a day where I would like to "explore" some of these differences - not necessarily between the States and Spain - but between city life and not-so-city life....
- the death stare on the metro... on the bus.... walking down the street.... in class... at the store....
- the inability to encounter turkey, a potato masher, cranberries and pumpkin
- pushing through crowds and crowds of people just to cross the street
- waiting 4 days for your clothes to dry
- being subjected to an entire university building full of second-hand smoke making it harder to see than early morning SF fog
- waking up with you face so cold that it hurts your nose to breathe
- being sick because people insist on sneezing on your hair in the crowded bus
- waiting 30 minutes for a bus in 8 degree weather that was supposed to come every 5 minutes
- getting burned by people who are careless with their cigarettes
- having to pay for grocery bags, coat checks, movie rentals by the hour, to use the internet, to make local phone calls...
- the way stores decide their hours on a daily basis... just because it says they will be open until 9, doesn't mean that they won't feel like going home at 7
- having the gas run out during your shower for the 5th time... (for those who don't know, most flats have gas water heaters that you have to light whenever you want hot water... and if the gas runs out - so does the hot water!)
- people who smoke in the elevator despite the sign that reads "No Fumar"
- the unavoidable comments in the steet ... rubia!...guapa!... I love you!...oye mama
- how everyone asks you why you voted for Bush (even when you didn't) and why everyone in the US is so ignorant (We're not all the same....)
- the complete lack of the idea of customer service... If you ask for a Coca-Cola, or anything for that matter, expect a huge sigh and a grimace... the drink will then be plunked down on the counter and you will be overcharged. The price also might vary with the day.
I could go on for days, yet still, it's rare that I wake up in the morning and find anything negative about it all... It's my city now and I love her. :)
If I were to write a list of all the thing I love about Madrid - I would have included all of the above. :)