oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

got to get this off my chest........................

July 19th - gas runs out - switch over to new bottles - can't relight boiler. Contact agent who also can't light boiler. He arranges 'boiler man' to come - but not before July 23rd. So - 5 days no hot water
July 22nd - power cut - when it comes on again kitchen not working - trip keeps 'tripping'.
July 23rd - boiler man comes & lights boiler in about 20 seconds!
July 24th - agent finally gets electrician who comes and sorts kitchen - - says whole fuse box (at least)needs replacing - agent says just make it safe 'for now' as owner is electrician & will fix it when he visits in October..........................
July 26th - mains water off
July 27th - flood in living room- see my 'letting agents' post!
July 28th/29th - storm - knocks out telephone line.
July 31st - as promised within 48hrs Telefonica come to fix phone. Unfortunately we now discover Telefonica's ADSL modem also knackered due to storm.
August 2nd - finally contact the ADSL lot and arrange for repair.
August 4th - still no 'tecnico' so I ring them again. Try to fob me off with another 24/48hrs but my Spanish teacher would be proud of me. There is no way they're getting away with that!
2 hours later - ADSL tecnico arrives and installs new modem. Online again at last!!!!!!!!


so I wonder why oh why do I want to live in Spain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????

dunno - but for some reason
I LOVE IT HERE!!!!

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

Oh that takes me back to the 4 years I spent in Valencia, I'd plug something in and sparks would fly, we showed the landlady and she did the great Spanish shrug as if to say "y qué pasa???" like that's normal! I spent many hours waiting for electricians,plumbers (had one plumber turn up who "didn't do showers"????) oh the fun to be had.
But Spanish life is THE best as far as I'm concerned...I've recently moved to the US, where things work and if they don't, it'll be fixed quickly (in my experience anyway). Customer service is friendly and helpful (although I do miss being grunted at in shops - El Corte in Valencia has 'unique' customer service!) But who needs efficiency when you've got tapas, a laid-back atmosphere and David Bisbal??!!!
Are you in Javea? I have friends there, beautiful place. My parents are moving to Rojales at the end of the year and I've warned them about the lack of urgency that locksmiths, plumbers and the like seem to have and that is exactly why they're going....a laid-back life where people know how to enjoy living. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms now, I'm booking the next flight out of here!

Yes I'm in Javea - it is gorgeous isn't it?

trouble is all this gives my hubby ammunition for moving back to Florida where we were before we came here..............................

might help if he tried to learn the language a bit harder - and it would even help him on his trips to Florida;)

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

i thought all this was normal in spain ;) sucks ass dont it. why the hell did u choose this dump over florida ?

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

Whereabouts in Spain are you? How come you hate it? I miss my Spanish life sooo much, but then that may have something to do with living in Vegas, of all places...this is about as different from Spain as you can get....apart from the roaches :scared:

Yeah, it takes work to learn a language, I was worried that I'd lose my Spanish when I moved to the US, boy was I wrong!

I met my US hubby in Spain and he spoke - and still speaks - minimal Spanish. All the communicating in shops etc was down to me and he got more and more frustrated. Eventually I sent him to an intercambio at a local bar and he made friends with some Spanish guys, who introduced him to football, so now he has great fútbol vocabulary, but ask him his name and he's stumped! :D

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

you could always leave...............................

Xabia... How long have you been living there?

only since last november - think we almost passed each other over the Atlantic

You should have waved!

The reason I mention it... When I first moved to Spain (your area) I found all those little quirks cute and sort of endearing. Fast forward two years and it really really got on my tits! In the end I was sick of the constant power outages and not being able to have the hairdryer on if something was in the oven (it would trip the entire house).

I don't find it cute & endearing - just something we have to put up with. We knew all about these kind of problems before we came here - just didn't expect to get them all in two weeks!

This house used to be a holiday let - can you imagine if it had been someones hard earned holiday??

especially with the *¡!?)**¡'%$ agent we've got!!!

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

i´m on the costa del sol, near malaga. how come i hate it ? all the reasons mentioned at the start of this thread. i´d love to live in the states, i think that would be alot easier for us, workwise,money wise etc.

unfotunatly, not an option. so i have to do the best i can here. and that includes bitching about everything as much as possible ;)

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

....Sorry to intrude on this thread but I coudn't help myself.....my first choice is the USA but apparently it's become extremely difficult to obtain h1-b sponsorship....it sucks!!! I can go pretty much anywhere in Europe without the need for a visa and Spain is the "best of a bucket of $%*t!!" after the US.

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

seems to be alot of people would like to move to the USA or Australia, but cant get the "points" or the visa, so choose somewhere like spain instead.

Re: oh the joys of living in spain.............
 

Hi,

...think I touched a raw nerve above ^^ huh.

Thank you for your reply, and yes I seem to partially fit what you've stated.
I've heard that there are many protests about "American jobs for Americans" and because of that many companies are refusing to sponsor or do it very quietly.

:o