7 Things I’ve Learned from Living in Madrid for 10 Weeks

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been in Europe for almost three months now. After 10 days in Spain, I wrote “7 Things I’ve Learned from Living in Madrid for 10 Days.” Well, now I’m here to tell you about 7 things I’ve learned from living here for 10 weeks. (Technically I moved here 11 weeks ago, but I was in Italy for one of those weeks. 🙂 )

I think it’s interesting how much more subtle some of these things are — they probably aren’t things that I would have ever noticed without living here. So, without further ado…

1. Good luck finding Wi-Fi

I noticed this when I got here, sure – compared to the U.S., Wi-Fi is a lot less readily-available in public places. I chalked it up to being one of those differences between the U.S. and Europe. BUT. When I traveled to Brussels and Amsterdam, I noticed the wide abundance of Wi-Fi in every shop, café, and restaurant I visited in those cities. The next week, it took me more than an hour to find a café with Wi-Fi in Madrid, in the Plaza Castilla district, which is booming with businesses. Then I realized this really is a Spain thing. Normally this wouldn’t bother me too much, but last week T-Mobile found out that I’m living in Europe now, and they’re cutting off my international data in two months. Sigh.

2. Differences in the education system

Since I work in a school — for the first time in my life — I’ve learned a lot about education in Spain. In the public school system, kids start going to school when they are 2 years old. There are three years of Infantil before they start 1st grade when they are 6. In my job, I mostly work with 1st-3rd graders in the bilingual program, but I have two sessions per week with the 5-year-old infantil class. One of the things that surprised me during the first day was that all the kids seemed to be wearing oversized men’s dress shirts on top of their clothes. Each kid has one, and every morning when they come to school, one kid takes them off the rack and throws the pile on the floor, and they sort through the shirts trying to find theirs. Once they find it, they lay it on the floor, stand over it, and flip it over their heads to put it on in the cutest maneuver you can ever imagine a tiny person doing.

These are known as their “school smocks,” which makes sense — kids that age are really messy, and it keeps their clothes from getting ruined. (And I’m not sure if they’re *actually* men’s shirts that they’re wearing.) But this seems to be a standard in all of Spain, not just at my school.

3. Spaniards are obsessed with the lottery

This is not an overstatement in the slightest. The Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, which is the public business administering lotteries in Spain, has nearly 11,000 locations throughout Spain. Oftentimes, I’m looking for a pharmacy or a post office, and I come across several Lotería offices before I find what I’m looking for. Also, there is ALWAYS a line out the door. The Spanish take their lotteries very seriously. With Christmas coming up, so is the biggest national lottery of the year — and it’s one of the richest in the world. It’s called El Gordo, or “the fat one,” and the teachers at my school started talking about it in October. This year’s first prize is €4 million, so you can see why people are excited. I didn’t plan on buying a ticket – €20 for a ticket seems a little high — but I might change my mind, because it really does seem to be an interesting cultural phenomenon.

4. It’s easy to file complaints against businesses

Every day when I go to work, I catch a ride from Madrid with one of the secretaries at the school. Conchi doesn’t speak English, but we have a couple hours to talk in the car each day. One topic that came up when I was complaining about the differences between customer service in the U.S. and Spain: hojas de reclamaciones. In the U.S., we may just write a bad review on Google or Yelp! if a business pisses us off; in Spain you can take a formal legal action very easily. In most establishments, there’s a small sign somewhere that states that these “claims forms” are available. If you’re receiving poor service, most of the time, asking for this form will work like a magic wand and the worker will suddenly decide that the customer is always right and your issue will be resolved quickly. If that doesn’t work, they give you the form, you fill it out, and you take it to the city hall. They will investigate and mediate the issue. If the business “loses” the case, they may face a fine.

5. “Dollar stores” are everything

I fully expected Target to be one of the things I missed most about living in the U.S. I even took one final sentimental visit to my favorite superstore the day before I left. But I had no idea I’d find so many stores in Spain that could fill the Target-sized hole in my heart.

After getting settled into my apartment, I was planning to make the long trek to IKEA in a Madrid suburb to pick up some basic furnishings. On my walk to the metro, however, a storefront caught my eye: Corte Chino Home Decorations. “I’ll just stop in and see what they have, just in case,” I thought. An hour later, I emerged with everything I planned to get at IKEA… and more. Pillows for €2? Hangers, eight for €1? A shower caddy for €0.75? I was in heaven. It’s a 2-minute walk from my apartment. I went back again later that day.

I eventually found out that these types of stores are EVERYWHERE in Spain, and they have the best stuff. I’m lucky that I have four – that I know of – within 10 minutes of my apartment. If I can’t find what I want at one, which is rare, I just go to another. I love them so much.

6. Useful colloquial expressions

I like to think I’m getting better at Spanish. (Conchi told me the other day that I am, which felt nice, because a lot of days I feel like I don’t know Spanish at all.) Anyway, there are a few conversational phrases I’ve come across that I wasn’t very familiar with/had never heard before moving here.

• Vale (pronounced vah-lay) — this one is the Spanish equivalent of “ok.” It comes from the verb valer, which means “to have worth.” So if you say vale, you’re essentially affirming that what the other person said has worth. I think that’s really nice.
• ¡Madre mía! –– expression/interjection literally meaning “my mother!” but actually used the way we might say “Oh my God,” “Holy crap,” etc.
• ¡Hala! (pronounced ah-la) — not to be confused with “hola,” this is a Spanish interjection that basically means, “Wow!” I hear the kids at school say this a lot when they’re impressed or excited by something.

7. The Spanish wrist shake

This is definitely the most obscure thing I’ve picked up on since being here. At first when I noticed it, I thought it may be an isolated incident, but soon I realized that many different Spaniards I know do this. I’m really not sure how to describe it, but I call it the Spanish wrist shake.

Imagine someone burning their hand on a hot stove. After jumping back in alarm, they may wring or shake their hand in front of their body in pain. This is an action that Spaniards do to express their surprise or awe about something someone is telling them. For example: if you’re Spanish, and I tell you that the temperatures in Missouri can be more than 40°C in the summer, but also -25°C in the winter. You would 100% do the Spanish wrist shake, and maybe even shake your head side to side in disbelief. I love it. It really adds a lot of drama to the whole thing.

 

Did you know any of these things about Spain, or did they surprise you? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

Originally Published on November 24, 2018.