Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Hillybilly

We are really on the wrong site as (generalising here) many of the posters on here would fall into the category of 'inegrators' you described. However, they do make an effort so that is to be welcomed. Yet, unfortunately for that group, it is acceptance only on a certain level, and when push comes to shove, I wonder how many of these delightful locals would step up to the plate with uncoditional help when it mattered.

City life totally different - and far less bitchy. I really do think you must have had some bad experiences (presumably tougher for you because you are, ahem, 'Gender Impaired'!!!)
For me, I can still contact old friends out of the blue from Madrid and still, after more than 6 years of not living there get any help I ask for. Same with Seville and at a push because I've lost contact details for most, Barcelona. By the same token, asking the same of Brits I've met down the years (outside of cities) and I can count them on one hand - with three fingers broken!!!

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

We lived in our last house for 15 years and only knew the names of 2 of the neighbours. Here we know the names of most in our street and many in the town and only lived here 2 years.

Rosemary

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

It's a very different way of life.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

:rofl:
I don't think that my personal experiences have been at all bad really and certainly relatively trivial when compared to what others have experienced but then I'm now more savvy, more fluent and don't take any sh!t any longer.

Being "gender impaired" also has its advantages sometimes ;) (I can flutter my eyelashes along with the best of any Marbella Belles!) Though as a single female (albeit with a steady boyfriend) you still get unwanted attention from the Spanish male of the species and even my Spanish best friend once asked me if it was me having an affair with her husband when she discovered he was playing away :blink: yeuch

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Rosemary (can't quote your post as I'm using phone version of forum)

What u describe there is similar to what someone said earlier. I don't feel any compulsion to meet my neighbours just because they are my neighbours. I know many people in my town but through choice not because they are living in same street to me. I didn't do this in UK so why start now. In fact my two direct neighgours I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire (unless I'd recently had quite a heavy drinking session so that the piss would be more like lighter fluid)

That u didn't know anyone in UK for years now know everyone iin your street suggests maybe a change in you too not just your surroundings

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

I think that the sunshine has a lot to do with it. If the UK had a better climate with more sun we all might smile more here and open up a bit.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

I don't think integration is just about being on first name terms with the neighbours, or comparing with the UK. It is about equal access to services and the jobs market etc. Myself I prefer not to neighbour no matter what nationality they are. A few words of greeting is enough I don't want to be dragged into peoples houses for tapas.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

True and if you didn't do that before, why do it now?

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

As I say, integration means different things to different people.

You are right, in that maybe people do change, and there is no reason why you should force a change on yourself.

Equally, maybe the move away from a greyer world (in more ways than one) enables people to open up and be what they were meant to be.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Oh, please. I don't buy that for a minute. People can change but essentially the character remains the same. I am exactly the same person I was in the UK. That I may have changed opinions or outlooks, I am still the same person, and "what you were meant to be" would be the same for whatever path life takes you on. One can look back and regret, or imagine what might have happened had different choices been made but the path one is on is "what you were meant to be"

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Perhaps I expressed that badly.

I think that if you surround someone in a depressive restricting atmosphere, then that person will be far less outgoing than they would be if they were in sunny pleasant surroundings.

I agree you will be the same person. Me I like to be pleasant and out going, but when the people around me don't respond in a like fashion, there is a limit to how long I can keep that up.

Spain is a completely different atmosphere. I notice a huge difference between the smiles and 'holas' I get from perfect strangers in Spain, and what you get in the UK.

If you have a scrap of pleasant outgoing spirit, then most of the time Spain will encourage that to grow.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Ahhh..... The old behaviour-breeds-behaviuor debate.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

I think it does, although there are people that are really nice or nasty no matter how you are to them.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Brave talk Fortaleza, but very true! A forum is a place to exchange views not a place to live.

Oh yes, tell me about it! I find it’s usually said by people who wouldn’t dare to do anything to improve their life in case it went wrong.

And yes, bil, with your #59 you are spot on as usual! Never compare with perfection, compare with reality.

Mmm… Yes, so totally different from the UK. :blink:

So how come then, within only a few posts of this (#65) that very same concept can’t possibly apply to Rosemary?

I feel that overall (although some posters clearly don’t like it) Sam says it all extremely well in post #44.

There’s no way I could ever agree that ‘Place in the Sun’ is responsible for people’s problems and their eventual return to Blighty.

What is it exactly that viewers would not understand about ‘Place in the Sun’? The clue is in the title. I don’t feel any blame lies with them for not pointing out issues such as if you’re unhappy in your current relationship then a place in the sun is highly unlikely to make it any different.

I must admit I’ve seen it when they’re covering say, Eastern Europe and thought ‘blimey they haven’t even mentioned what language is spoken, and how far it is to a decent airport’ but, the fact that I thought of that when watching in effect proves how the programme works. If people don’t engage their brain when facing a big change in their life, should programme makers be held responsible?

If you’re dumb enough to think that buying a property abroad is the answer to your haemorrhoid problem then go right ahead. You’d only fall for the next scam coming your way anyway.

Re: Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for
 

Totally wrong, I am very comfortable with the person that I am, people have always been able to approach me as I am open and friendly. I have not needed to change in any way to become part of the community, we do not go into each others houses but will help each other when needed and use lifes little pleasantries when we meet.

For me personally I think that the people where I now live have very similar attitudes to the people that lived in the area that I grew up in.

Rosemary