**There aren't any jobs in Spain; it's worse than the American job market. Kids here my age don't work. Most peoples' first job is the job they go to college for. Since that's the case, parents support their kids' partying habits and pay for them to go to the clubs every night.
**Because kids don't work, they rely on their families for lots longer than American kids do. You are basically considered a kid until around the age 26 or 27 and most people are still living with their parents at that age. You only live in the dorms at school if you go to a college outside of your town (which isn't common).
**A dinky apartment the size of about a classroom costs around 800,000 euros, which is close to a million US dollars. You don't rent apartments here-- you have to buy it. I haven't seen an actual house since I've been in Spain, only apartments. Instead of calling your apartment "my house" you call it "my piso" which translates into "my floor."
**Since people are so much older before starting work and buying a house, families start later too. It's common for "starting a family" to mean buying an apartment with your boyfriend since getting married can cost so much money. Kids don't come until the woman is well into her 30's because maternity leave benefits aren't as good here and women want to have an opportunity to work their way up in their jobs. Since they are so much older when they start having kids (and since the homes are smaller and money is tighter) most families only have one kid-- 2 kids every once in awhile.
**Women's Rights are actually taken seriously here (Mom, can I move?). Besides the whole maternity leave thing, the Spanish government does everything they can to protect women and girls, especially from violence. I'm not sure if you have every heard of being charged with Attempted Rape, but here people can get 6 years in prison for that. And getting charged with actual rape will put you in prison for longer than you could imagine. It's amazing how great a country is when there aren't loonies running around preaching about "Legitimate Rape." A few years ago, the Spanish government noticed that there were many more cases of spousal homicide and decided to take matters into their own hands... this one gets a little extreme. To eliminate this problem, the Spanish government has outlawed any kind of language spoken from a man to a woman that could make the woman feel superior to the man. If a man calls his wife (or any woman for that matter) the B-word and the woman can prove it, the man will be sentenced to jail time. Luckily, the courts have given the men a 2 strike policy. If the first offense gets the man less than two years of jail time, he will get off with community service or some type of anger management. But the second time he is being tried for this crime, he will go to prison.
**Barack Obama is considered a conservative by every European that I've met.
**Everyone loves the universal health care system in Spain. Maybe we need to look into their model.
**Criminals don't carry guns here. The only guns my host family has seen are the ones that the guards have in front of the government building when important visitors are there.
**McDonald's is where you go to work if you need a job while you are getting your education. All the workers have their teeth and are bilingual. They don't smell either. McChicken sandwiches are 6 euros which is probably around $8.
**We don't drink our water with ice...ever!
**Moms here are obsessed with the nutritional content of everything, and know what each type of food is good for. Martin is not allowed to eat oranges after supper because they keep you up or something like that. She is also certain that if the food is shaped like a certain organ, then it is good for that organ. I can't remember which food exactly but she always tells me it's good for my skin. I've been having an allergic reaction on my skin since I got here, so I think she's wrong!
**The death penalty is not allowed an any member states in the European Union (including Spain) because it is a form of denying people of their human rights.
**So far, about half of the dogs I've seen have been neutered. I'm guessing the other half are female?? Gross!
No comments:
Post a Comment