Do you, like me get peed off
 

by continual stereo typing of ex pats and not for the better :frown:

I do not drink, smoke, play bingo, watch soaps or any sports on TV in fact mine is barely on. I don't want UK foods and goods. I buy only craft stuff on line, no M & S anything. I don't think here should be like UK. Spain is like all other countries has good and bad things about it and I am enjoying a calmer happier life here right now.

Also the snide comments about living here, in supposed wall to wall sunshine and heat. Or its ok for you plenty money people. If only they took their blinkers off, they would see nothing is as rosy as they think here, there or anywhere.

Rant over ... time for a 80 cent ice lolly :thumbsup:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Totally agree with you, we are so similar it is ridiculous.


Rosemary

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Very well said Captains Wench, couldnt have put it better myself. :thumbsup:

(Rosemary, our son has crossed the border today into Spain)

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Thanks for telling me, he is doing extremely well, you must be so proud.

Rosemary

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I certainly agree with you. I myself put a question on this very site recently asking about the whereabouts of expat and retired persons meeting places and was told by a site member to go find "bars that sold Yorkshire pudding and had football on the telly" :frown:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Nope, not in the slightest. it doesn't bother me at all. I realise that most of it is envy and the rest is ignorance. Since you have to believe an insult - at least in some small part - to be offended by it, I have chosen not to be offended by this sort of thing (or THIS sort of thing :cool: ). I am completely convinced that all these embittered individuals would swap places with me in an instant.

In fact I find it rather amusing (and yes I do buy M&S, watch the BBC and like English food)

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

The assumption is wearing thin on me now and yes it does rankle that people who do not know me lump me with the expats they know or think they know. Ignorance yes lots of it, reading silly reporters made up embellished hype.

The assumption we are all rich or scroungers by our own nationality is proof of their shallow minds.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

For your 1,000 post - are you going to turn over a new leaf and be positive in the face of all adversity?

Davexf

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

My 1000 th post eh

Well the Mr Dxf I could be rude to you but I won't be. I will say I am positive you are a pain in the backside :p

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Totally with you on this Captains Wench, congrats on your 1000th:thumbup:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

1000 posts..were,s the party..

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

No.

What's wrong with Brits doing any of the above that pee you off so much?
What I find pees me off is the "I'm more Spanish than you" attitude of the Brits. You know, the ones that look down their noses at British holiday makers because their lack of Spanish means they struggle to buy simple things in a supermarket. Or the "Residents" that are horrified by the sight of a couple of Brits in a bar loudly cheering their football team.

Just because you move to another country doesn't mean you can't still enjoy all the things you've grown up with. (except soaps)

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Agree:thumbsup:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

If that is how they live then fine but everybody is not the same. I don't like to be pigeon holed and try not to pigeon hole others. The image that always seems to be portrayed is of the drunk, loud, sport watching, pie eating, soap watching Brit :thumbdown:

I am not one of them here nor was I anywhere in the UK when I lived there and would not be anywhere else I choose to live. I don't know anyone like the above nor do I know of any 'I am better integrated then you' types but then I live my life quietly and quite solitary and on the whole like it that way.

I still like a lot of things I grew up with but I don't need them every day week nor month. I like trying the new things I see locally.

I wish the image of foreigners abroad was not so bad we really are NOT ALL like that.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Daily Mail. For some reason, UK's most popular daily.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I was talking with one of my friends the other day about stereotypes and she said that Brits are known as always being punctual, they all eat fatty food and they are heavy drinkers. The stereotypical Spaniard is into bullfighting, they sleep a lot and they do flamenco. We agreed that neither of these stereotypes fit either nationality.

Rosemary

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

But you can always find someone who fits these stereotypes exactly.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

You have a simple choice in your expat life, you can live quietly among Spanish people, or join the majority who live more loudly among more of their own.

You can join in the social life with numerous clubs and activities to choose from, or be content with a good book and Beethoven.

You can wander along a busy beach and inhale the intoxicating smell of coconut oil, factor 15, spread over some bodies that should never be shown in public, or climb up a lonely mountainside.

It's entirely your own choice, if anything pees you off it's because you've made the wrong choice, and it's easily remedied.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Wouldn't know never read and don't here either.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I have not made a wrong choice, I am simply saying the continual portrayal of British expats does annoy me at times. I don't live near any that do fit the above bill and don't mix with any that do so I think my choice is just great for me.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

After re-reading your original post I see you are actually asking if we get peed off with the stereotype, not as I originally read it, peed off with the things you don't do.

In that respect, I have to agree with you. Stereotypes are never favorable.:thumbup:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I'm pleased for you, well done.

I know a group of elderly expat ladies who lunch. On at least three days a week two carloads of them set off into the Spanish countryside to try different restaurants.

I've come across them on a couple of occasions deep into the countryside and the Spanish restaurateurs make them most welcome, especially their wives who are not used to independent ladies out for lunch.

Apart from the two designated drivers, they finish off a few bottles of wine as well. After the final giggly photo session, they head back home, a happier bunch I've yet to come across.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I've heard it said there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad choice of clothing.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

You're in danger of stereotyping DM readers:rofl:

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Why worry about it, everybody knows it's a stereotype and there is diversity in all communities and nationalities. It's not worth getting het up about really. It's just something that people have a laugh about but anyone with half a brain knows isn't true, you seem to be taking it a bit too personally. You know it doesn't apply to you surely that should be enough.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I am not worrying about. I get peed off about now and then when it is churned out all this forum and in the press.

I personally can't see what is funny about it. I am not taking personally I can work out I am not the same as the presumed norm for a British expat.

Anyone with half a brain would not perpetuate the stereo typing of people.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Alas we are all stereotypes of one group or another.

Even different countries share the typical people stereotypes.... we as a human race are not very unique ...

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I think Jennie is right, forget it, move on. You keep telling us how different you are to most expats anyway, don't mix with them, mix only with Spanish, don't watch UK TV etc, so nothing to worry about. Even so I would suggest you're in a minority, living in your little Spanish village, there are hundreds of urbanization all along the Spanish coast full of Brits that lead a very different existence to you. I'm with you, if I lived there I'd be leading a similar existence, I'd be well away from the hordes on the coast, but it wouldn't concern me in the least what the rest were up to or how they were depicted.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Am I that bad at writing that folks misunderstand me ? I am not worrying about, there are more 'real' things in life to worry about if I was the kind. All my life I have been in the minority and that does not worry me either. I don't need to forget it nor do I need to move on from the presumed worrying about. How patronising you are.

Yet more assumptions here...I don't live in a little Spanish village I live in a very multi cultural town. I never said I did not mix with other expats, nor did I state I mixed only with the Spanish. Try reading the text not assuming.

Am I always telling you how different I am to other expats ?

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

perhaps time for a thread "what is a typical expate".

we are all different, but most of us get just a little bit annoyed when included in some sort of Expat grouping. We know we aren't the heavy drinking, fun loving expats down on the coast, living in big villas and not mixing with the locals. But is that "atypical" ??

best way is to just ignore it all, let it drip off you like water off a duck's back. and just get on with the life you have made for yourself at you own pace.
if it gets really bad, have a squeeky rubber duck and get some finger manipulation exercise with it - my alternative to therapy balls.

and you don't want them knowing they are getting through to you
quack quack


hth

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I was in a multi-cultural, multi-national queue early this morning, quite a long one, about 20% of whom were expat Brits. We were all about to have some blood taken from us by a small team of Spaniards in white coats.

The queue consisted of fat people, thin people, some old and some young, and a Swedish philosopher next to me who seemed to know everyone.

'Watch them come out,' he said. 'It doesn't matter where they come from, they all feel the pain of the needle.'

The only stereotypical thing about them was the slight look of pain on their faces, apart from maybe the Muslim woman whose face was covered.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

Bit of stereotyping going on the other way about people who live on the coast too:rolleyes: Lots of second and third generation ex-pat businesses who have inter-married and employing Spanish people. Never noticed that ex-pats in the campo speak spanish and integrate any better than the coast.

There used to be a Brit woman lived close to us years ago. She would hang around the local shop and bar trying to speak in her Michael Thomas Spanish to anyone who was Spanish whilst ignoring anyone who appeared to be British. She thought she was integrated. In actual fact the Spanish thought she was a bit weird and used to joke about her when her back was turned.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I guess we thought it bothered you as you started a thread on it.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

No, not bothered, simply peed off. There's a difference. I think.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

What is worse.

The expat that is convinced he/she is fully integrated or the expat who lives in a urb. avoiding anything Spanish?

For me they are as bad as each other. It's called balance.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

No, it's called prejudice!

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I've come across many examples of both and neither bother me much, but I wouldn't mix closely with either. It comes back to personal choice.

If I walk into an expat bar with loud music and some drunk falling about on the karaoke machine, I walk out again. But I'm mindful that the customers who have gone there are enjoying the 'ambience' and I'm happy for them.

I've also sat in a Spanish restaurant at midnight and got annoyed at dozens of young children running about drowning out the live Sevillano music.

And the balance? I'm still looking for it.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

And the balance? I'm still looking for it.

Best to stay at home and invite like-minded friends round:D

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

I'll never get fed up going out to look for it (the perfect balance), and I've just come back from another such venture. We walked about a mile to one of the five small commercial centres walkable within that distance.

In some respects it looked like a desert oasis because of the midday heat, but it's all there, the necessary cashpoint and a choice of seven bar/restuarants. We went to the pure Spanish one with a terrace full of all sorts of expats and a smattering of Spanish.

Apart from a couple of expat Brits with rotting livers, it was a happy crowd enjoying the crack and the shade. On my return I found that the walk had lost me 100 grams, so I'm a happy bunny.

Re: Do you, like me get peed off
 

There are all kinds of people in this world, from everywhere.

This thread reminds me of an acquaintance I know here - a couple from England who have been here 15 years, don't speak a word of Spanish, buy everything from English import shops, eat only English food, and complain incessantly about all the bloody foreigners. In fact, the male of the den drives like a complete idiot and curses loudly whenever anyone drives like him. He walks into a shop and speaks English. If they don't respond in English, he says it again in English, just louder and slower. "Bloody ignorant Spanish" he often says. Yes, everything he does is perfect, and everything anyone else does is bloody idiotic, even when it's exactly the same behaviour.

In contrast, I know another couple (German, not that it matters, really) who are very nice, have been here 30 years, speak Spanish fluently, have adopted a diet like the locals, developed their primary relationships with the locals, and have integrated well. Yet they exhibit very little knowledge or understanding about anything outside these borders. What they do know is the stereotypes they choose to read on the internet or in the local paper, but absolutely nada when it comes to actual true experiences in any other place. For these people, as far as they know, everything is absolutely perfect in Spain, and absolute crap everywhere else in the world. This kinda reminds me of one of our experts here, but I digress...

No matter where you go, there's people who live in a fantasy bubble, whether it's their own little world they never broke out of, or a new little world they've adopted. It has nothing to do with nationality, and everything to do with closed-mindedness, fear of the unknown, and arguably, arrogance. It's a shame, but that's reality, folks.

IMHO, this explains a lot about our condition...