20150617

#SwedeInMadrid - do they understand it's just water?

"If it rains we will cancel"
This sentence that I never or rarely see in Sweden, is very common here in Spain.

When the school sends out information about  "Dia deportivas" (friluftsdagar, sports days) that sentence is always added to the end of the informative text.

Whenever anyone arranges an activity outdoors, the same disclaimer is added. If it rains we will cancel. 

Not everything can be cancelled. People need to go to work and school also when it rains. That is not easy, with Spanish drivers panicking and causing even more traffic jams than usual.

Not that I understand why. Do they spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to turn on the windshield wipers they so rarely use? Are they scared their cars will suddenly misbehave when they get wet? Do they think the roads will turn into slippery slides?

I do not know, I only know that going to work when it rains means a lot more queues than usual. (I am so happy I go by my motorcycle so I can pass the queues!)

If we are out walking and there is an unexpected shower, the busy streets will become close to deserted in just a few seconds. Because you cannot be out in the rain now, can you?

To me it seems as if Spaniards are just as afraid of rain as they are of silence.

I can't help but wonder if they understand that it is just water coming down from the sky...

Maybe they, like donkey, think the rain will make them melt?










20150604

#SwedeInMadrid: A scary sound

When my parents visited us in Madrid, we were sitting in our small garden. It is surrounded by a high fence and there are houses on both sides so you cannot see very far.

My mother listened to the screaming, laughing and shouting and said:
"When we drove here, I did not see that you had an amusement park close to your house?"
There is no attraction park close to where we live. But there is a school. What my mother heard were  Spanish children on a break.



Children all over the world scream and shout but here in Spain they do it several times louder than Swedish kids. (See Turning a perfect Spaniard into a Swede .)

It's not just the kids of course. Adult Spaniards are also loud, even though they do not scream and shout as much as kids.

I can deal with the loud volume. What bothers me is the inability to be quiet.

The school that our children go to has a music profile and often arranges concerts.
Children of all ages perform in front of their friends and family. Often, far too often, the parents in the audience talk so loud it is hard to hear the children who have prepared much and long. The teachers ask the audience over and over again to be quiet, but the only thing that happens is that the talking becomes slightly less loud for a few seconds but thereafter the volume goes right up again.

It was during one of these concerts that it hit me. The loudness, the continuous talking, the interupting, the lack of ability to just wait and listen... It seems that to Spaniards: