I found out I could have a 1Gb email Account with 100Mb of Free Webspace and 250Mb of photos. So I decided that it could be a good idea if I just started a new photo Gallery for my Blog. I love to add contents to my websites so I belived it's going to be great. I'll include any photo related to my travel, so as it's still 2 months to my departure I guess I have no photo to put in.
So, if you like my blog and wants to know more about my adventure I tell you to look after 2 months (and some days) to see my new Photo Gallery Stuff. I planed to bring my digital camera with me, so I guess I'll take some photos from the airports (Vigo, Madrid in Spain, and Gattwick in London).
If you're a bit interested in that just look at the links section to see if I had added a "Photo Gallery" section in it (in the future I'll add a link to it in a different part of the Blog, more clear and easy to be seen). However I guess I'll publish some photos from Galicia and myself before I leave. Just look at the links section sometimes and you might see.
The future Londoner.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Cheating 2
As a result of a comment I decided to explain the reason why I had included "cheating" in my own definition of a Spaniard. But I believe he's still not convinced. I'll give you some more examples of Spanish cheating, so I guess it'll be clearer.
My friend Colin (he's the unbeliever) had just reciently posted one good example but it seems he doesn't really believe lying is that serious. It was this "importers of German cars were found to have been turning the clocks back by many thousands of kilometres" you can read it better in his blog. So that's a good one.
But now I have some more for all of you. One of the most common cheats in Spain is when the time to pay taxes comes. A Spaniard will do the best they can to pay less. So they will say they have nothing, or they probably have put the name of their wives for expensive houses, cars, bussiness, so they can pay less. That's only for the richests, but the rest of us would just lie a bit. It's really common for the companies to put less money in the contract than the real salary and pay the rest of it in "black money" so they'll pay less taxes as well as the employee, the bad side of this is that it also means they would pay less money to the social security, this won't be bad if you work there forever, but if finally they fire you you will receive less money from the government.
Talking about subsidies, it's completely normal that some people would receive money from the government and work at the same time without a contract. As a result our desemplyment numbers are a complete fake. And even some of them won't accept a job just because it's more comfortable to receive money for watching TV and sleeping. In fact, in this subject I would say that I guess we are the only country in wich we have a large number of desemployees and a lack of employees for some kind of jobs (the same ones the third world inmigrants accepts).
Talking about jobs, I heard recently on TV that 80% of the youngs were lying in their CVs. They said they can speak a language (most of the cases English) when thay can't say more than "jelo" (that's how Spaniards spell it), or just write a really large list of software they can use when they never had touched a computer, they invented courses they've never been, and so on. The interviewed interviewer said "that's just normal, we all now that, so we wait for the interview to check it".
I can't speak about governemnt lies because I would never stop, and I guess that's inherited to all governments.
Repeating the same sentence with a different object "I can't speak about women lies,...".
And to finish this time. Something my friend Colin knows. Recently the number of parcially disableds had been increased noticeably. That's just because the Spaniards had just realized they'll pay much less taxes if they have more than a 35% of it. I had two examples at home. I won't say they don't really deserve to pay less taxes, but, on the other side, I believe this is just unfair. That money could be used to change the streets so they would be less dangerous to disableds.
Anyway, I hope I would find more examples about it.
My friend Colin (he's the unbeliever) had just reciently posted one good example but it seems he doesn't really believe lying is that serious. It was this "importers of German cars were found to have been turning the clocks back by many thousands of kilometres" you can read it better in his blog. So that's a good one.
But now I have some more for all of you. One of the most common cheats in Spain is when the time to pay taxes comes. A Spaniard will do the best they can to pay less. So they will say they have nothing, or they probably have put the name of their wives for expensive houses, cars, bussiness, so they can pay less. That's only for the richests, but the rest of us would just lie a bit. It's really common for the companies to put less money in the contract than the real salary and pay the rest of it in "black money" so they'll pay less taxes as well as the employee, the bad side of this is that it also means they would pay less money to the social security, this won't be bad if you work there forever, but if finally they fire you you will receive less money from the government.
Talking about subsidies, it's completely normal that some people would receive money from the government and work at the same time without a contract. As a result our desemplyment numbers are a complete fake. And even some of them won't accept a job just because it's more comfortable to receive money for watching TV and sleeping. In fact, in this subject I would say that I guess we are the only country in wich we have a large number of desemployees and a lack of employees for some kind of jobs (the same ones the third world inmigrants accepts).
Talking about jobs, I heard recently on TV that 80% of the youngs were lying in their CVs. They said they can speak a language (most of the cases English) when thay can't say more than "jelo" (that's how Spaniards spell it), or just write a really large list of software they can use when they never had touched a computer, they invented courses they've never been, and so on. The interviewed interviewer said "that's just normal, we all now that, so we wait for the interview to check it".
I can't speak about governemnt lies because I would never stop, and I guess that's inherited to all governments.
Repeating the same sentence with a different object "I can't speak about women lies,...".
And to finish this time. Something my friend Colin knows. Recently the number of parcially disableds had been increased noticeably. That's just because the Spaniards had just realized they'll pay much less taxes if they have more than a 35% of it. I had two examples at home. I won't say they don't really deserve to pay less taxes, but, on the other side, I believe this is just unfair. That money could be used to change the streets so they would be less dangerous to disableds.
Anyway, I hope I would find more examples about it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
The Meaning of Cheating, or Spaniards 1.2
It's such a wonderful day that's sure somebody will come to make it horrible.
Anonymous. A normal day in Spain.
Preparing for lying
I had a question about my own definition of a Spaniard. I should tell you that I thought I was well explained, but I was wrong. I really meant cheating, but I wasn't speaking about love. So, I think the best is to explain it with some examples as well with words.
I realized that for non Spaniards lying is such an unpolite way of doing things. But that's not true for Spaniards. If you want to complain about anything they always have an excuse, even if it's true or not (it could be a half truth). In Spain how the people think we are is even more important than how we really are. I mean, if somebody fails, they'll try to show that it wasn't their fault, so their image won't be damaged. The most common is, when you are complaining about something, to say that "it's not my fault, my ... told me to do it like this" (you can say "boss", "company" or whatever you want) so they'll still be nice to the complainer. I saw that and even practise it when I worked in CARREFOUR hypermarket, but in my defence I would say it was true.
Guilties could be bosses, companies, wheather, another company, traffic, or in case of being late somebody's fault.
That's another subject in Spaniards, punctuality. Never trust a Spaniard. As you should know by now, Spaniards love chatting and, as I said, cheating, so, if a Spaniard is late (99% of the times) be sure they will say "I received a call from ... and I couldn't stop him talking", that could be true, but it's hardly to believe they couldn't stop him for more than half an hour. But chatting is really important to Spaniards. We'll speak more about that subject in the future, especially when I can compare Spain with other cultures.
Returning to our main Subject I would say that we are lyiers, more than that, experts in lying. I have to add another common prhase "mañana, mañana..." that means something like "tomorrow, tomorrow, ...". Literally it really means "tomorrow" but really it doesn't. The real meaning of that sentence is "I might do it some day", or "it migth happen some day" or "I'll finish some day". That's a really important thing to now if you want to be here for in a long term. Foreigners would tend to believe the real meaning of the sentence so, the next day, they would quietly come there to ask again, in the believe it would be finished, just to receive the same answer "mañana, mañana". This has to do both with cheating and punctuallity. They would really want to finish it before tomorrow, but I'm sure they will receive a calling from somebody or just find something more fun to do.
So we really cheat, but only to foreigners, because we know the rules. For us that's not lying, we know the code, we know the rules. If somebody tells me "sorry for being late, my mom called me..." I know they're lying but I don't really care, because I would do the same thing. And if somebody tells me "Mañana, mañana" I know they mean in a far future. And so on.
At this point I hope you got the core of Spanish cheating. We really don't want you to think we are as horrible as we appear to be.
I hope I made it clear for you. I'm living here since I was born, and that means 27 years and a half, so I guess I know ourselves enough to tell you how we are. And I'm not a real Spaniard so I can really say that being a bit objective. Perhaps I'm being too negative. But in our defence I would say again that "there's no better place in the whole world than Spain".
Friday, July 23, 2004
Spaniards
spaniard: resident of Spain (country in southwestern Europe)
That's the definition from a dictionary. But, of course, that's uncomplete. If we follow the literal words my friend Colin could be a Spaniard, but of course he isn't (and I'm pretty sure he would never want to be one). A Spaniard it's a person who lives in Spain and like a Spaniard. So, before, I'll post my own definition:
spaniard: Human being who has a lot of important friends, who loves chatting, cheating, partying and Spain. And lives in Spain.
One of the most common sentences you will hear from a Spaniard it's "No se vive mejor en ningún sitio como en España" that I translate into "There's no place as comfortable as Spain". You can change the verb "vive" that literally means "live" and change it into "come" (eat) or any other expression like "lo pasa uno tan bien" (funny, to have fun) and it would be the second and third and so on favourite Spanish sentences. For a Spaniard there's no place better than home and they'll say horrible things about any other countries, specially when they speak about food and fun. But the problem is that 90% of the Spaniards had never gone out Spain. So, you will hear something like "The food in England is disgusting" and if you dare in asking if they had been there they will say "Of course not, but a friend of mine...". As Spaniards love chatting, and chatting, and chatting and so on to the infinite, they tend to speak about almost everthing even when they don't know a word on the subject. Well, sometimes I don't think I'm really a Spaniard, and about food I don't think our food is the best, I like it, but I love other non Spanish food. But I still like chatting.
The real wish of any Spaniard it's to be a "funcionario" (clerk). That gives them a chance to spend their lives chatting and having fun. Spanish burocracy is one of the worst in the whole world, and not because our government is really bad (well, actually it is, but not the worst), but because if you want something, all the clerks will be doing something better than working. It's not really difficult to find a clerk having coffe while you need a paper to be signed, or whatever. And, of course, the chance of coming close to a clerk's desk and finding him reading the news, or chatting with anybody on the phone, or just at home, it's something like perfectly possible. They get high salaries, and some discounts in education, and a good health insurance. So it's perfecly understanding that wish.
About government, well this year I had a perfect example on what a government shouldn't be. I'm sure you know we had our own 11S in the shape of 11M. If the terrorist had an idea of how to damage a country I'm sure they did, but not on purpose. Do I believe in Democracy? not in this country. You know we had it since 1976 (more or less) and that should give an idea of how trained are we in this. Well, the point I want to speak about is that we are having a kind of an investigation like in the US about what happen. What a lie. If you read Spanish newspapers you'll realise that the newspapers, radio, TV knows more than even the investigators about it. You'll realise that SECRET documents are being shown, confidents and almost everything. That's a shame, in my own opinion. What's the point on having a secret agency if you can know all just reading the news. What's the value of a confindent when the terrorist know their names?
Something else about government, specially about the new government. Today, as a special report in the news, they said that our last governemt had a contract with a "lobby" in the US. That contract was about promoting Spain in the US, something like developing relations in business, diplomatics, ... And also it had a mention about a medal the US parliament was giving to our old president Aznar. So, the new socialist Spanish governemt was really fast to speak about it, and not with nice words. They said that it's a peculation of public funds. But I'm thinking about something, if they are the new government, shoudln't they have access to all the bills? And if they have why they didn't found out about that contract and that monthly bill? It's something like If I'm the president of Spain I can make any contract, even in my own benefit, because the new government will never know. It's just an excuse to say again, and again, how bad was our last governemt.
Well, as I'm not already in England I think I can only speak about Spaniards. And I think that even When I'll be there I'll still speak about Spaniards. We are so wierd...
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Visions from the Future
Now it's just a 2 & 1/2 months for my leaving.
I wonder what I'll find, but there's something I'm sure of it, I'll met people, interesting people, not the same old spanish rubbish (I don't mean they are rubbish really). Am I excited? Yes, of course. Am I anxious? how can I tell you. Dreams came to me, really nice dreams, but reality is always better than fantasy.
Anyway. I got my Mobile Phone Card today (it's a "Pay as you Go" card), so I can be called from England now. Why did I ask for it? I thought it would be good if I can make some calls from there without looking for a Telephone cabinet and be called by my mom when I reach there (I love my mom, and my other relatives too). Apart from that I thought I could include my English Mobile Number on my CV so, as I'm going to send my CV before I leave, I can be called even from my first day in England from Job Agencies or whatever they're called. At first I was amazed that it's juice was only 1 pound and I even thought it was mean. But, after comparing to spanish standards, I realized that although in Spain they offer 6€(+/- 4 pounds) we have to pay more for the card, and it's not that easy to get one.I mean I paid 15 pounds for the card while in Spain I would have paid +/- 22. So finally I realized it's not that expensive, in fact, it's more expensive here although you get more juice.
Anyway. I'm really happy to have my card, but I have to put some money on it, I guess 1 pound it's not enough (even when my spanish mobile card has just 15p, but I don't normally call anybody with the mobile).
I want to add, just to finish this post, that I made it for my friends and actually for anybody that want's to read some nonsense in a strange language (even for the English Speakers), so my hope is that this stupid blog could be interesting to somebody and I wish I could put a smile on somebodies face).
P.S: Mr. Colin Davies told me that the title was incorrect and, of course it is, But that's just another joke so, as "an" Spaniard, my knowledge of the English language should be limited. I hope anybody else can get the joke ;-)
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
CV Writing
Well. I'm writing my CV. If I'm honest I started to write it more than a month before. It wasn't the first time that I wrote one, but I was never that interested in selling myself. I mean that I never was such a perfectionist.
I've done more than one CV, but then I didn't have any advice, not of any kind, even the smallest advice. But now I got that advice. So, I couldn't imaginate how difficult it was to be sold. Everything is important, even the most stupid verb you use. It's not the same to say that you've done something than to say that you "Improved the ..." whatever. So the searching of the right words, the perfect way to say things that I normally would explain with just a few words like "I've done a Weblog" has to be said in the most pompous way possible.
I'll add a line to my CV. I'll never want to be a CV reader. They're so boring, such a mess of lies. But anyway, I have to do it.
And what about the first statement. What can I say about myself that could make a difference. If look through my own personality I could say such a lot of things. But you have to fix them into a sentence without saying too many. How can I condense a sort of feelings, wishes in just a paragraph, and worst, How can I say them without being arrogant. It's not right to say "I want to be a programmer" because we are more than 12 year old.
I guess if we're not going to far. We're not products, we're not things, we're human beings. But the world is not perfect, I already knew that. So, I guess I have to sell myself.
I've done more than one CV, but then I didn't have any advice, not of any kind, even the smallest advice. But now I got that advice. So, I couldn't imaginate how difficult it was to be sold. Everything is important, even the most stupid verb you use. It's not the same to say that you've done something than to say that you "Improved the ..." whatever. So the searching of the right words, the perfect way to say things that I normally would explain with just a few words like "I've done a Weblog" has to be said in the most pompous way possible.
I'll add a line to my CV. I'll never want to be a CV reader. They're so boring, such a mess of lies. But anyway, I have to do it.
And what about the first statement. What can I say about myself that could make a difference. If look through my own personality I could say such a lot of things. But you have to fix them into a sentence without saying too many. How can I condense a sort of feelings, wishes in just a paragraph, and worst, How can I say them without being arrogant. It's not right to say "I want to be a programmer" because we are more than 12 year old.
I guess if we're not going to far. We're not products, we're not things, we're human beings. But the world is not perfect, I already knew that. So, I guess I have to sell myself.
PSS: Who wants to buy me (I should say rent me, that's better)
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Some thoughts
Everyday is one step closer to my departure. Now I'm less than 3 months to leave, and, perhaps 'cause I'm bored, I start to think about English. Are we so different?
A year and a half before I met an English, and after that his daughter and then his dog. I enjoyed these people, I had really good times with them, and now I believe they're my friends. In fact I have a really special relation with them (and I love that Dog). So I started to met english people through them. So now I can say that I know at least a little of British personality.
Figthing with British Behaviours
The first thing I noticed is their different atitude towards spanish behaviours. They enjoy really to notice those small things that make us different (at least the English I met). They like to speak about our behaviours in almost everything. For instance, they noticed our time behaviours. We're always late, and they say it's because we love to speak, so if we have a date at 8 and we met somebody in the street we'll inevitable stop to speak to them although we'll be late. I could say that's wrong, but really it's true. But I'm not going to speak about us, that's the matter of another weblog, particuraly the blog of that friend of mine, called Colin
So, let's speak about them. I'll speak more about this question when I had lived some time in London, but let's say a bit now. Something I found particuraly interesting was anything related to food. First of all eating timetable. We do a breakfast (exactly when we wake up), lunch (between 1pm and 4pm) and dinner (after 8,9om), but meanwhile we normally eat in between. But all those meals are sacred. But English as well as on driving are different, where's the lunch???, How can you have a dinner before 8pm and not be just a starting before it??? I love eating, and I'm not sure if I'll survive without food in my stomach at midday.
Working, we don't really like it. For us a job it's the time when we're not at a party, or speaking, and, if you work as a clerk, it's the time for coffee and reading newspaper. But it seems that English really love to work, or at least, they take it seriously. I´m also afraid of that.
Going out. 2am in the morning it´s not a nice time to go home, the sky is still dark. It migth be a myth, but, as far as I know, it´s not. But meanwhile we begin the party after 10pm (sometimes later, even at 2am) they do it at 7pm. Then we finish at (who knows) and it seems that as I said before they normally end it at 2am, toooooo early for a spaniard. My friends are still having siesta at 7pm. Well, I´m not afraid of that, because as I´ll be working all day and I´ll have to wake up really early, I believe I´ll be really tired to go out as if I was in Spain. But there´s something I like, I love beer, and somebody told me that drinks are expensive in England except beer, so that´s something I´ll love.
I´m finishing now. This is just an introduction ´cause I think I´ll write more about British. Siya folks.
Theremon
Saturday, July 03, 2004
The Start.
I decided to leave my country last November.
Why?
Well. I was tired of my own country. I felt a bit bored and, as I said before, tired of the same things, people, behaviours, etc... Apart from those reasons and some personal ones, the opportunities for an ambitious guy as I am aren't really good, and, as I've finished my degree, I want a good job (is not only a question of money, I mean).
When?
I said I decided it on November 2003, but I had to wait 'til I finish my degree, so I couldn't leave at that time, and also I needed money. So the travel was postponed 'til I have everything fixed and finished. Now I have a date for my departure. It's on the second of October. That day I'll leave my house, my family, friends, and some very important people, my city, and over all country. I'll start that amazing day when I'll wake up early in the morning to pick a bus (it migth be possible that somebody will bring me to Madrid, but that's just possible by now), and will be continued when I enter, for the first time in my live, a plane.
Who?
I'm from Pontevedra, a small town in Galicia (Spain) close to 90 thousand humans. I was born in 1977 and, as an stupid information, I'm Aquarius. I was nearly born with a computer in my hands, I said nearly 'cause I had to wait 'til I was 10 to have one, but I practiced in a shop before with a Spectrum (9Kb of RAM) some BASIC. So, basicaly, I'm a programmer, IT, Informático, or whatever you use to name us. I love music, singing, dancing, cinema, sports, and a lot of other things, specially reading and all those special girls that I've met in my live. I could speak a lot about my own, but I wish you'll know me better later, as I'll be on a new environment I'll be changed.
Where?
After thinking on different places in my own country and outside it, I made a decision. London, UK. I know people there, it´s one of the places I always wished to visit, and I know the language. It's a large, huge city, with a lot of job opportunities (I hope that's true). I considered some other places, but after all London had all the things I wanted. Maybe later I'll move to a different side of the world (in fact I'm thinking on Tokyo in a not really far future), who knows.
What?
I expect to find a new world there. Different language, different people, different places, ... And above all, I believe that just the fact of everything being new to me is enough. There's a lot of places that I always desired to visit, I was a Beatlemaniac, so it's easy to imagine wich places I wan to visit, but also I love J.R.R. Tolkien, and computers, and art, and history, so London it's a wonderful place for me. I also love beer. And, as I said before, I expect to find a interesting job, something I found really hard to find here.
Well, that's my first Post for the log, and I wish I won't leave it unfinished. It's just a question of finding time to renew it with new posts, and to see that somebody is interested on it. Of course I'll put anything I find interesting, but not only as a personal log, but with info about London and the chances to make a live there, so I hope somebody will find it useful for their own movements.
Manoel, a future Londoner.
Well. I was tired of my own country. I felt a bit bored and, as I said before, tired of the same things, people, behaviours, etc... Apart from those reasons and some personal ones, the opportunities for an ambitious guy as I am aren't really good, and, as I've finished my degree, I want a good job (is not only a question of money, I mean).
I said I decided it on November 2003, but I had to wait 'til I finish my degree, so I couldn't leave at that time, and also I needed money. So the travel was postponed 'til I have everything fixed and finished. Now I have a date for my departure. It's on the second of October. That day I'll leave my house, my family, friends, and some very important people, my city, and over all country. I'll start that amazing day when I'll wake up early in the morning to pick a bus (it migth be possible that somebody will bring me to Madrid, but that's just possible by now), and will be continued when I enter, for the first time in my live, a plane.
I'm from Pontevedra, a small town in Galicia (Spain) close to 90 thousand humans. I was born in 1977 and, as an stupid information, I'm Aquarius. I was nearly born with a computer in my hands, I said nearly 'cause I had to wait 'til I was 10 to have one, but I practiced in a shop before with a Spectrum (9Kb of RAM) some BASIC. So, basicaly, I'm a programmer, IT, Informático, or whatever you use to name us. I love music, singing, dancing, cinema, sports, and a lot of other things, specially reading and all those special girls that I've met in my live. I could speak a lot about my own, but I wish you'll know me better later, as I'll be on a new environment I'll be changed.
After thinking on different places in my own country and outside it, I made a decision. London, UK. I know people there, it´s one of the places I always wished to visit, and I know the language. It's a large, huge city, with a lot of job opportunities (I hope that's true). I considered some other places, but after all London had all the things I wanted. Maybe later I'll move to a different side of the world (in fact I'm thinking on Tokyo in a not really far future), who knows.
I expect to find a new world there. Different language, different people, different places, ... And above all, I believe that just the fact of everything being new to me is enough. There's a lot of places that I always desired to visit, I was a Beatlemaniac, so it's easy to imagine wich places I wan to visit, but also I love J.R.R. Tolkien, and computers, and art, and history, so London it's a wonderful place for me. I also love beer. And, as I said before, I expect to find a interesting job, something I found really hard to find here.
Well, that's my first Post for the log, and I wish I won't leave it unfinished. It's just a question of finding time to renew it with new posts, and to see that somebody is interested on it. Of course I'll put anything I find interesting, but not only as a personal log, but with info about London and the chances to make a live there, so I hope somebody will find it useful for their own movements.
Manoel, a future Londoner.
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