Pontevedra Pensées: 22.1.17

Maybe if you live in the UK you're inured to it but every time I visit I'm angered to be asked in bars, in respect of my wine order: "Would you like a large or a medium glass". Always in that order, to make you feel pathetic for going with the latter. I sometimes ask if there's a Small option but usually stop after a while as no one realises it's a piss-take. They just see me as even more pathetic. And poor. Of course, even a medium-sized glass of wine is already phenomenally expensive by Spanish standards.

Here, in Spanish, are the 25 things which an American visitor found odd about Spain. Briefly:-

1. Everyone smokes
2. There are bars everywhere
3. People have social security and can see a doctor without private medical insurance
4. There are red-haired Spaniards
5. No one has a clothes-drier
6. Names are confusing. A Spanish tortilla is not the same as a Mexican tortilla.
7. Everyone still has their friends from childhood
8. There are a lot of car and taxi lanes
9. There are lots of older people. 'It could be these are hidden away in the USA'.
10. There are lots of small shops. And no Walmart.
11. Plane tickets are very cheap. And public transport works well.
12. There are various official languages in daily use.
13. The check-out people in the supermarkets are sitting down!
14. The Spanish pronounce US brand names totally differently from English speakers [Witness the audio]
15. Every city has its own saint and virgin
16. Joder is used here much more than fuck in the USA
17. Spaniards have an awful lot of public holidays and vacation time.
18. In many places in Spain, people turn to look at a black person
19. Clothes are very cheap. Zara is an expensive store in the USA
20. There are no such things as bank (savings) books - libretones - in the USA
21. Football is practically a religion here
22. There are jamones hanging in bars!
23. There is a much greater variety of meat and seafood than in the USA
24. The people are much more liberal and open than in the USA. They easily accept other people. Your origin is not so important here.

Of course, this list says rather more about the USA and its differences with every European country than it does about Spain.

I rather liked this retort, despite the absence of a comma after 'you'. And the comma that should be at least a semi-colon. Plus, in my view, there should be a hyphen between 'whiny' and 'ass'. Which should, of course, be 'arse'.:-

So . . . someone's parents raised a semi-literate.

Finally . . .  A nice comment on President Trump, from my elder daughter:-