choques culturales

Just in case you were beginning to think that it's all fun and games here in Spain, I'd like to offer a few short anecdotes to give you a glimpse into my latest cultural frustration. (While these are true stories, this post is mostly in jest).

Today, I had a few things to mail, so I went to the post office. Simple enough, right? I got into the building circa 2:10. I left around 2:40. Does this seem ridiculous to anybody else? I mailed 3 post cards. Three. Once it was my turn, it took all of 30 seconds to get those suckers on their way, and yet, I definitely waited for 30 minutes while all three of the correos employees went about their other office chores. It had to be bad... even the Spaniards waiting were frustrated with how long things were taking! (Serving 6 people in 30 minutes is not very efficient. McDonald's drive-thru would be so disappointed!)

On Friday, I had to go to the bank to cash my paycheck. Yes! I finally got paid. The only catch was that I had to cash it at the bank that my school uses. And I get the impression that nobody in the history of Spain has ever written or cashed a check before, because the guy who gave it to me didn't know where to sign it, and the guy who cashed it took 40 minutes to give me my money!  If I were by myself, this wouldn't have been so bad. The worst part was that it was Friday afternoon, and we were on our way home from school, and I had to inconvenience the girl who was giving me a ride home! I felt bad. And really, it was so unnecessary! The guy honestly asked me to repeat my address more than 3 times. I had to give him my address in Spain, and my address in the US. And then my phone numbers, and email, etc. Multiples times for each piece of information! Why?? I don't even have an account there (yet)! Finally, I asked, "is there a reason that we have to enter this data so many times?" ... "to keep the information updated" was the answer. I can assure you that in the 30 minutes that I had been standing there, I had not changed pisos or gotten a new telephone number; that the first set of information was indeed as updated as it possibly could have been. Once I finally asked though, things seemed to move along rather quickly as he wrapped things up, and I was good to go, money in hand. The girl I was with said he must have been ligando*, but if you ask me, that's the absolute worst way to go about it.
As a result of this time-costly trip to the bank, the rest of my day was put off-schedule and I missed my train to Salamanca. I had to buy a whole other train ticket. That slowpoke cost me €15,50!

The third story takes place in Salamanca. My friends and I went to lunch at a place with a relatively cheap menú del día . When we got there, there was no seating immediately available, but we agreed to wait. We ended up sitting in the back garden with a few other tables. Things started off decently enough. Until it took us over 20 minutes to get waited on. No water, no bread, nothing. After we finally gave our orders (trust me, we had plenty of time to think about it!), it took another 15 minutes to get our water, wine, and bread. The waitress gave us a bottle of aceite, but when a neighboring table of Spaniards needed one, she simply turned to our table, took ours and gave it away! I think we were being discriminated against! Tables that had come after us were served before us and left before we had even finished eating. We waited forever for our plates, and when we got them they were cold! Our lunch experience took over 2 hours! 2 HOURS! ...But I'm sure it was just because we weren't wearing our hater blockers.

I know that it's so typical for Americans to think that the rest of the world runs too slowly or inefficiently. I mean, I know there's a distinct difference in pace of life, and usually I enjoy it. But this week, all of Spain must be in the same super-slow mode. I would blame it on Daylight Savings Time (which we celebrated last weekend), but it still doesn't even out. My "extra" hour has now been spent, three times over, doing menial tasks that should have only taken minutes each. (Well, lunch could have taken more than a few minutes, but a few hours is pushing it.)
Or, who knows.. maybe I should just chill out a little more.


Really though, Spain is still pretty much just fun and games.


*I realize that if you try to google-translate this word, it will probably tell you a lot of words that it doesn't mean in this case. What it means in this case is flirting -- not binding or tying or whipping or making out or whatever else it might tell you. Just to clear things up.