From pissedoffexpat:

The most insulting acts are against the children in the education system eg my little girl of 8 if late to school is made to wait outside the class however any spanish child is allowed in if late, if the spanish children attack a non spanard the monitors ignore this and if challenged by the parent told that it only looked like a game but if the roles are reversed the non spanish child is punished

I understand why she is pissed off. Racism between children is, while totally unacceptable, not wholly unexpected - they often don’t know any better. But by the school monitors? Incredible. Is this sort of behaviour widespread? Has anyone else had experiences of this type?

Despite being declared illegal a couple of years ago, the Botellón (youngsters gathering in the street to get drunk and have a good time), refuses to go away. Nueveochotres, a group of kids from Valladolid, have made a great video about the phenomenon:

A very sad day for Spain. The ETA ceasefire has come to an end as they plant a bomb in Madrid’s Barajas Airport Terminal 4. The bomb was placed in a van in a car park next to the airport, and was detonated in a controlled explosion by police, bringing down five stories of the building. Five people, including two police officers, were injured, though not seriously. Two phone warnings alerted police to the bomb, the second caller speaking in the name of ETA.

It seems incredible that this should have happened again, that another ceasefire should fall apart after less than a year. But perhaps I have always been too much of an optimist. What solution is there for the Basque problem now?

Links:
BBC News
El Mundo
Escolar.net

The Spanish Islamic Council has written to the Pope to request permission to pray in Cordoba’s maginificent Mosque, which is causing quite a stir in the Spanish press. Matthew at the Big Chorizo has outlined everything exceptionally well and I suggest you read his summary of events, but this is obviously a very tricky debate.

The place was built by Muslims to serve as a mosque. The Christians kicked them out and built a hideous carbuncle of a cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. There is plenty of room for everyone and dedicating an area for Muslim prayer would not be difficult. There are certain paranoid parties that are bound to see this as a step towards the reconquest of Al Andalus by Islam.

Personally I think there is room for everyone and it would be a noble gesture to let the faith that originally built the Mezquita share this astounding space. What do you think?

A very Happy Christmas to everyone, we are off to the UK for a few days so things will be a bit quiet around here until New Year. We will still be popping into the forum regularly over the Christmas holidays though, so hope to see you in there.

¡Felices Fiestas! Happy Christmas!

Ben and Marina

Now I feel Christmassy at last! On the TV behind me the children from the Colegio de San Ildefonso Naomí Sánchez y Bryan Lafebreare are singing the winning numbers and prize amounts for this year’s Christmas ‘El Gordo’ lottery. Forget all the other celebrations in Spain this Christmas, this is the big one. There are hundreds of prizes to be picked throughout the morning, but the biggest prize of all, the ‘Gordo’ (3,000,000 Euros), has already been picked, at 9.50 a.m. - see my youtube video below:

(Direct youtube video link)

Each ticket is divided into participations which may be sold in different parts of Spain, and it seems that this year there are ‘Gordo’ ticket winners in Vitoria, Alicante, Benidorm, Onil (Alicante), Fuenlabrada (Madrid), Santiponce (Sevilla), Almazán (Soria) and Valencia - with the lion’s share going to Soria.

Discuss the lottery in this forum post
Our Notes in Spanish podcast on the lottery can be found here.

Several years ago I wrote an article about San Sebastian (posted in the forum), contrasting the beauty of this outstandingly beautiful coastal city with the urban violence known as Kale Borroka, where young ETA sympathisers with extremist beliefs (or impressionable personalities), smash and burn in the name of a free Basque Country.

People have been saying for some time that the ETA peace process is falling apart, and today’s events in San Sebastian - molotov coctails hurled at a Naval headquaters, a bank, and inside a bus - won’t do much to convince people otherwise.

Chapuza - A Spanish word for those little DIY jobs around the house (that rarely get done in this one!), and for DIY or building type work that tends to have been done rather badly.

Take the situation in the communal hallway outside our front door, as seen in the photo above. The wires on the right are feeding electricity out of a neighbours house (who has not lived there for years), into the communal passageway lights (err, isn’t that techinically theft?) They have been like this for some time, and as you can see, the haphazard way they are hanging from the ceiling indicates a chapuza total - a hack job done quickly to save time. Still, seeing as the electricians in charge come back looking completely drunk after lunch every day, this is probably a fairly impressive piece of work - it’s a wonder they haven’t electrocuted themselves by now!

Anyway, learning to live with chapuzas on a national level is one of the joys of living in Spain, and it’s my duty as a long term resident to try to fit in. At least that’s what I tell Marina when she comes home from work and declares my latest plumbing/carpentry/painting job not quite up to industry standard. Oh but is, I tell her, just take a look outside our front door

(Got a photo of a great Spanish chapuza? Send it in!)

This photo, which I found in the NFS Flickr Group, completely sums up the joys of a Spanish summer fiesta. I thought it was just what’s needed on a cold winter’s day (in Madrid it’s pretty cold anyway!) The photo was taken by pikaluk, whose partner David explains here what is going on:

“We were in Spain in 2002 and just happened across the festival in Bilbao. It centred around the town hall and I think there was some tradition of using the large mannequins (are they called ‘geants’?) to rush the first-floor, the winning team being the first to get their giant inside, up the stairs and out onto the balcony overlooking the square. Everyone was spraying fizzy wine of some sort (doubt it was champagne) over each other and hurling flour. It was exceedingly good-natured - bit of a surprise for me, never having been to Spain before, expecting any large near-riot to turn nasty and instead just finding it fun. It was just before Batasuna was proscribed - or just after -and the Batasuna HQ was on the square, and there was a vaguely political tinge to the affair.”

From www.savetheduero.com:

“Save the Duero is a group of concerned citizens and wineries who have gathered together in the fight against a potentially disastrous decision recently made by the Spanish government. Internationally renowned wineries in the Appellation of Ribera del Duero in the region of Castilla y Leon, Spain, are facing a critical situation that threatens to destroy the unique territory that lays claim to some of the world’s greatest wines.”

Basically they want to build a 6 lane motorway through some of the finest wine land in the Duero region. More info and a petition to sign over at www.savetheduero.com