Unfortunately there are a lot of Brits/different nationalities who seem to think that the Spanish people are inferior and this is when bad feeling and more negative experiences can occur.

Who is stereotyping now

What I notice is that one week some on here are mentioning their "Spanish friends" and the following week asking questions such as "Are the shops open next Friday".....why don't they ask their friends

Rosemary's statement is a fact. I have seen and heard that exact several times. It is embarrassing to witness. How can people be so rude and arrogant.

We all know that are some on here that are full of shit for the want of a better term !

Hmmm have I rattled your cage

Some Spanish "culture" here...very typical of small neighbourhood fiestas



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgVby6Tjigk

The small neighbourhood fiestas I found OK to visit once, but I don't tend to go back a second time! I do still quite like Semana Santa though (which is strange because I'm not in the least religious) but it is massive here and a real spectacle.

All of Andalucia is not necessarily a cultural desert. Next week our town's international classical guitar competition begins, with 5 nights of free concerts (featuring orchestras and other instruments as well as the guitar), most of which take place in the patio of the Palacio del Marques de Beniel, a lovely historic building. The town's cultural programme is not as extensive as it was before La Crisis, but we still get to go to several concerts throughout the year, and this year we haven't yet paid more than €8 per ticket. There are plenty of art exhibitions (all free) going on as well. If I want to travel into Malaga there are plenty of other events happening there too.

That's only a problem if you let it be a problem. I have lived in Spain nearly 15 years now and speak reasonable Spanish and have worked with and socialise with Spanish people . I feel like an outsider because I am one and always will be I hope. I like being a foreigner in a foreign land - I don't want to become integrated whatever that means. I go to, and usually enjoy, the fiestas and other events and I find some of them a little strange and slightly bizarre. The day I feel 'at home' or 'integrated' is the day I move on.

I think you make a good point, I have a Portuguese friend who has lived here 40 years kids and grandchildren here and he is about as fully integrated as it suppose it is possible to be. But there are still times when he hasn't got a clue what we're talking about and misses the nuances. He is retiring back to Portugal later this year because as he says 'that's home'. Perhaps as Cricketman wisely advised just 'just come for a few months a year and enjoy the weather.As hard as I try a thick cut slice of honey roast ham beats a sliver of fatty jamon anyday.

Love it

Gracia a la vida, soy andaluuu

I don't pay for any meds here in uk,just been to doc; 200 dihyrocodeine,inhalerX2;xalatan eyedropsx2, no charge,the days of spain being a cheap retirement home for brits etc is all over. my cousin who built their own house in andalucia 25 years ago are trying to come home,but they cant even get half of what its worth,they are really up the creek and no paddle either, its not even a cheap holiday now, they've taxed themselves out of business,u.s.a for us this year.
the days of freebies for the sub continent are ending too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/20...evy-healthcare

first of all, I only pay 10% of the normal retail value of my monthly meds, 2.54euros won't break the bank

most people in Andalucia who are having trouble selling houses actually built them on rustic land and therefore they are illegal builds. Andalucia has over 500,000 of those.
as to the price - well if someone who built a house 25 years ago can't get back the original cost + some profit then they really are in trouble.
its a buyers market, remember that happening in the UK, although 25yrs ago it was a sellers market, I bought a house on the rise. But then it was only 35k gbp, roughly what a house in Spain would have cost at that time.
so what someone thinks it may be worth in another country has no bearing on the matter.

`

This is a great post and makes so much sense. Surely it is perfectly acceptable to live in Country's outside of the one you are born in without losing your essential self (hope that doesn't sound too poncy) It seems to be a view point that is lost on many, especially when questions of integration and non-integration are debated. It reminds me of another forum where people come on and with there first post say they want to come and live in the 'real' Spain and could anyone recommend where that is. It's all the real Spain.

A typical tall Northern European with fair hair and blue eyes will stand out among typical Mediterranean people who tend to be smaller and darker. There is nothing racist about that comment, it's a fact established by climate over millions of years.

It makes integration for wanderers from both places a lot harder. The Nordic wanderers are in Spain in great numbers, at least a million of them, and they do congregate in places where they meet others who look like them.

I'm such a wanderer and have got used to what I see in the mirror. It's what the check-out girl in Mercadona sees too, which is why she tells me the amount I owe in English. It still annoys me, slightly, after all those years of trying to learn Spanish.

My husband was asked to be the official photographer at a First Communion even though we are not Catholic (although we are Christians and worshipped at the village church occasionally), and also our Spanish is basic.

IMHO this is because the people in our village are just very inclusive and friendly, I was told by one of my neighbours when I asked if it was OK for us to go to the services even though we are not Catholic that 'God is for everyone' (which I totally agree with).

- well if someone who built a house 25 years ago can't get back the original cost + some profit then they really are in trouble.
its a buyers market, remember that happening in the UK, although 25yrs ago it was a sellers market, I bought a house on the rise. But then it was only 35k gbp, roughly what a house in Spain would have cost at that time.
so what someone thinks it may be worth in another country has no bearing on the matter.

`[/QUOTE]Fellow next to me sold his apartment for €80,000... one across the pool is going for €120,000. I asked him why so cheap.. He told me it only cost him €10,000 when build.. and no way will they the other people get €120,000.

nice to see 'Hot Gossip' still performing thirty years down the line.