Helen in Spain

Customer service in Spain can be… slow.

I bought I. a electric drum kit for his birthday. He was thrilled yesterday when it arrived, and we immediately set to work to assemble the kit. We were highly disappointed when we opened the plug box to see - a British plug. Thankfully, I have a plug adapter here to use my American laptop, so I. wasn’t without his toy. However, I sent an e-mail to Amazon Spain this night expecting them to answer on Wednesday at the earliest. However, thirty minutes later I had an e-mail in the inbox saying they’re willing to pay for an adapter since it wasn’t announced on the product description that the drum kit didn’t come with an EU plug.

So, if you’re ever in Spain and can’t find a certain product  amazon.es  now exists and their customer service is great. I was absolutely shocked to see such a quick reply, especially since it’s:

1. 9 pm
2. Sunday
3. A long weekend here

Thank you, Amazon!

I can’t even begin to explain how important it is to own an umbrella if you live in the north of Spain. It’s one of those things that, back in North America, I never really thought was necessary. A good raincoat was perfectly acceptable.

Not here. These were the first three lessons I learned when living in Santander:
1. You need to own an umbrella.
2. You must not trust sunny skies, have an umbrella stashed away at all times.
3. It’s a good idea to own two umbrellas: A little, “fold up” one stashed in your bag for emergencies and a traditional, “heavy duty” one for those days that it just doesn’t stop raining.

Why can’t you just make due with a good raincoat? It rains so much here you’d have to leave the house dressed like the Gorton’s Fisherman to keep dry. I don’t feel like looking like this for months:

The other issue is that I find I walk a lot more in Spain. It might be because we have one car for two drivers and our schedules occasionally don’t match up and I have to take the bus. Or, it just seems silly to take the car to go to the bar to have a coffee when it’s only a 15 minute walk. Even if it’s raining, with your trusty umbrella you won’t get (that) wet.

Why am I even writing about this? I got a new umbrella yesterday and it was a surprisingly important purchase. You see, since everyone has an umbrella, you have to find one that sticks out so you don’t have to spend ten minutes sorting through fifty umbrellas in the staff room so you can leave school. Also, they make all sorts of designs here so it’s tough choosing between cute umbrellas. Finally, you must make sure that your umbrella does the job that it’s designed for.

So what happened today after having bought my new, cute, unique, and useful umbrella?

The sun came out and it stopped raining for the first time in two weeks. I figured this would happen.

Whoever said “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” was a liar. It all falls here. It’s worth it, though. We need rain to keep the “green” in “Green Spain.”

”**** **** *****!” I said as I saw the gigantic yellow bus rounding the corner. The boys burst into laughter: “That came from the soul, didn’t it?” I.’s cousin said.

Yes, yes it did. I wasn’t proud of having accidentally just taught them some of the worst English possible. However, it was justified. As I rounded a tight corner, I was faced with the fact that I had to try to squeeze my dear sweet little car into the same road as a gigantic public bus. You see, yesterday was my very first Spanish road trip, and boy was it ever a test of my abilities. Up here in Cantabria and the Basque Country, the vast majority of roads are wide enough for two cars and well paved. Well, yesterday we went down to Burgos. Since it’s a much bigger region and a lot more sparsely populated, the roads tend to be less of a priority. I., in his infinite wisdom, decided that we ought to take a road because the map had it highlighted in green, which is supposedly a scenic route. The moment I made the right hand turn on to the horribly paved road, I realized we had made a huge mistake. After a couple of kilometers of nerve-wracking “this road is going to break the car” and “what do you mean there’s a truck coming in the opposite direction, there’s no way we’re both going to fit!?!” I tried to find a place to turn around. However, given the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere and the road was far too small to make a three point turn, I had to press on.

Driving in Spain can be a little scary if you’re used to American roads. Yesterday I managed to get rid of three fears I had:

1. Navigating terrifying mountain passes (“how many switchbacks?” “Is that a log truck I see coming down, and is he in my lane!?”)

2. Passing through notches where the road is placed precariously between the side of a mountain (“That rock is like six inches from the side of my car”) and the river.

3. Passing through one lane towns where you have to guess whether or not a car is coming since you can’t see to the other side because there’s a curve.

Somehow, I managed to get us home, only stalling the car once and without any nervous breakdowns.

Here’s a shot of the notch we passed through. It looks safe and calm here… too bad there’s no photos of the rocksoverhangingthe road.

The mountain pass, which thankfully wasn’t snowy:

Both photos are courtesy of google image search, I was too focused on driving to think about taking pictures.

What a week!

It’s been gorgeous here this weekend, which is a welcome treat after the last couple of weeks. You see, I’ve been struggling to get my Spanish driver’s license since, oh, November. After a couple of months of lazy studying and one month of “I’m on vacation but I’m going to wake up early to study in the hotel bathroom for my driving exam so I don’t wake up I.” I passed the theory exam. Then came the part I was dreading: actually driving in this country where driving regulations occasionally seem to be only a suggestion.

My first driving lesson consisted of driving through downtown. “WHAT!?” I thought when the teacher handed me the keys and said “Show me what you can do.” I had been thinking he’d take me to the part of town where there’s no traffic or pedestrians. Scared to death, I took the wheel and managed not to hit anyone or anything. After nine classes worth of “KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL OR I’M GOING TO HIT YOU!”s it came time for the driving exam. My driving exam back when I was 16 was terribly easy. In fact, I seem to remember that I turned right on red after a rolling stop and got a verbal warning from the Statie that was in the car with me - but I passed! That doesn’t fly here. In fact, I was certain that I was going to fail my first try since I had been making so many stupid mistakes recently.

The day of the exam arrived and I was petrified. I hadn’t slept all that well because I was constantly reminding myself “Five second stops” and “both hands on the wheel!” At eight a.m., I. brought me to the center of town and it was time to wait. I was the second student in line, and the poor girl in front of me failed miserably. I can completely understand, it’s a lot of pressure and the DMV folks who give the test are mighty serious! They sit in the backseat of the car and, at least the man who was with me, bark out “right!” “left!” I had been hoping for someone a little more…polite.

When it was my turn, my trusty driving teacher climbed in the front passenger’s seat and the DMV employee sat in the back. This is how you have to do your road test here in Spain: your driving teacher sits up front to be able to brake or accelerate if you get into a dangerous situation. No pressure, just the looks of death they occasionally throw your way when you really mess up the exam. The exam lasted 20 minutes, during which I had to get on the interstate at what is quite possibly one of the absolute worst on-ramps in this region. Thankfully, a heavy dump truck was in front of me so that forced me to enter slowly and not take any risks. After twenty minutes of “RIGHT!” “LEFT!” through a crowded small town (and one “major mistake”: slamming on the breaks to not hit a pedestrian and then letting said pedestrian cross even though he had a red crosswalk light) I pulled back into the driving school’s parking lot. Nothing was said. “Oh no.” I thought.

I got out of the car and started to walk to the waiting area. My driving teacher and the DMV employee were still in the car. At that moment, I imagined I had failed. True, I had made a series of silly little mistakes but it really wasn’t that bad. After a very long minute, my teacher got out of the car and discreetly told me I had passed… but that he was very angry with me.

Angry driving teacher or not, I am now the very terrified owner of a Spanish driver’s license. Time to go fight with the traffic!

After two weeks of answering many, many, many questions about motorcycles, trucks, the effects of drugs on driving, obscure road signs and other driving related issues, I passed the theory exam. I have my first three “road” classes lined up for next week, so we’ll see how that goes. It’ll be unreal to get behind the wheel again. Hurray!

So, I failed my darn driving theory exam. Here in Spain, you have to pass a ridiculously difficult driving theory exam before you can even start practicing driving. The exam consists of 30 questions and you’re only permitted to get three wrong. Last Tuesday, after a lot of nervous studying, I got 5 wrong. That was very frustrating news. However, I get the feeling that if I ever wrote an exam like this for my students there would be a number of complaints.

It seems that most North Americans in Spain (because Europeans and citizens of many other countries which have agreements with Spain can just trade in their old licenses for a Spanish one) have the same troubles. Here’s an article which talks about just how ridiculous the exam can be: http://www.expatica.com/es/lifestyle_leisure/blogs_photos/enough-to-drive-you-to-distraction-spanish-driving-test—-32456.html

If you’re bored, and you think you’re a great driver, check out the English version of the test I’m doing in Spanish:
For part 1, click: Inglés
For part 2, don’t enter anything in the box and click “Entrar”

In the test, click “Siguiente” to go the next question and click “Finaliar Test” when you’re all done to see your results. Let me know if you pass.