Lots of Little Things...

A few things I have noticed here, about Spain:

1.) EVERYBODY smokes.

2.) There is beautiful graffiti. Everywhere.

3.) People park about two inches away from each other. I wish I had a picture of it because they literally do! Especially in Granada, on the narrow, cobblestone streets, there was no way they were getting their car out unless they could somehow rotate their tires 90 degrees and drive out sideways.

4.) All the cars are smaller here. (Perhaps that is due to the small parking spaces). In fact, everything is more eco-friendly I have found. The metro, for example, is a womderful form of public transportation. Almost everyone hangs their laundry out to dry. The lights in apartment-halls and public bathrooms are on timers, and turn off after so long unless you turn them back on, and the city does all the trash and recycle every night in front of each building. Finally, people generally opt for the closed-windows-during-the-day-open-them-at-night method of keeping households cool, at least during these in-between months before it gets too hot. And even when the AC is resorted too, in our apartment there is one in a few different rooms and they operate individually.

5.) People say "hola" and "hasta luego" like it's their job here. Not so much when passing you in the street, as it is, like all cities, somewhat odd to be so forward with a stranger. But in stores, apartment-buildings, office waiting-rooms and really anywhere where you are more or less "put" into contact or close proximity with them, they greet you upon arrival and before departing.

6.) Bars and cafés are more or less the same thing. Cervecerías serve café con leche in the mornings, and cafeterías offer beer and spirits. NOBODY is on their laptop in a café, and to-go cups are quite rare. There is one size of coffee, and it's a small one. None of our super-sized, venti madness. Which might explain why the anal, uptight attitude that can be found in American Starbucks is absent in coffee shops here. Instead, people sit down to their coffee with their friends. Or they relax with a newspaper and dunk churros (fried batter) into coffee or hot chocolate.

7.) People fight (at least in my neighborhood) fight very loudly at very wee hours of the day. Either, apparently, at 5:oo am in French with the windows to the courtyard we share wide open, or on the street at midnight over what sounded like the span of three blocks.