Yes! We won the Lonely Planet ‘Best Expat blog’ award, and I say ‘We‘, because all the comments over the years from ‘You‘ have kept this blog more than alive… the video below, made as the ‘acceptance speech’ for the ceremony in San Francisco last night (how posh is that!?) explains better:

Many thanks to you all again. If you are new here, do stop for a look around, and if you like learning Spanish, please do look at our famous Learning Spanish podcasts too!

Saludos from Madrid!

Ben (el contento)

P.S. Don’t forget our great Spanish podcasts site!

Photo: Me trying to ‘blend in’ and not to look like an expat (Fail?!)
OK, so technically if you live in Spain and aren’t from here, then you are either an immigrant, or an ex-pat – probably both. Nothing wrong with either of course, but there are certain aspects of ‘ex-pat-ness’ that it is certainly wise to avoid, if only for the benefit of your own long-term self esteem!

So, here is my quick guide to ‘How to avoid being “too expatty” in Spain’ – and, more to the point, really fitting in with the locals! Please add to the list in the comments!

1. Never drink in Irish bars, no matter what sporting event you just can’t miss and isn’t on anywhere else.

2. … and don’t say things like ‘I counldn’t half do with a decent pint instead of these tiny bloody caña beers they serve over here’.

Photo: Try to drink in bars that look like this
3. In fact… only drink in bars with crap all over the floor, a few old Spanish men permanently stuck to the bar, and at least one well dressed barmen, over 50, who’s worked there since just after birth.

Photo: Clearly NOT expats – expats wouldn’t bother with the matress
4. Don’t ever get obsessed about eating “at least one good meal from home” a week. Spanish food is much better for you. You’ll live longer. (4.b. Don’t do all your food shopping in the ‘gourmet’ section of El Corte Ingles).

Photo: Avoid El Corte Ingles – try food shopping in places like this!
5. Don’t spend more time on Facebook than you do soaking in your new surroundings.

6. Don’t wear white socks, shorts and tennis shoes in public.

Photo: To blend in, dress like this
7. Learn some more Spanish! Come on, you live here! Join in!

8. Swear more (and only in Spanish, joder).

9. What would you add for number 9?

Comments below please! (Later note on some comments below: I’m amazed that some people used this as an excuse to reinforce idiotic stereotypes about the Spanish – says a lot about a certain class of expat I’m afraid…)

Tireeeeeedddddd…. very very tiiiirreeeeeeeddd…. I’m told the sensation will pass in about 7 years time, when our son starts sleeping a little better, but right now, wow. Why did they do so many drugs in the 60′s? They should have just had more kids and experienced the joys of halucinagenic sleep deprivation for FREE!

So you may have noticed that this blog has been, well, a little quiet recently, and now you can guess why. Reserve energies left after parenting duties are being used mainly to keep everything running smoothly at notesinspanish.com, the website that really pays for the nappies. That doesn’t mean things over here at Notes from Spain are being abandoned, far from it – we’ve done more in the last 2 months to boost the wonderful forum than we’ve done in it’s entire history – do join in!

As I get increasingly used to life after few hours sleep, expect more blogging here soon, especially now the weather is so wonderfully inspiring – sitting at a cafe terrace table in Madrid’s Retiro park on Sunday, sipping Estrella Damn number 2 (rather it was Mahou), a sense of great happiness came over me – could have been the beer, could have been the sleep dep., but I think it was that wonderful sensation of ‘soaking up early spring sun in Spain’… and knowing there are 7 months of hot blue skies ahead…

Expect more Spain here this week and beyond, when I hope to be reporting on this wonderful country as well as my friend Richard does, with his excellent Spanish-Granny-Warrior post here: Chariots of Ire

Nothing like watching those horse chestnut leaves appear at this time of year. Here’s a slide show:

Larger version here (Worth it!) Plus:

Help: Notes from Spain flagging in ‘best expat blog’ category of the Lonely Planet awards, please vote today!

We’ve used great ideas from our Spanish podcast listeners to come up with an amazing free report that is going to help any Spanish learner leap ahead.

Get it here while it’s hot! Here’s the link:

Free Spanish learning report available here

Have a great weekend! Ben

For once, when surveyed on a nationwide scale, the Spanish population’s biggest worry is no longer local, separatist terrorism. The biggest worry for the average Spaniard is now the country’s financial situation. As one newspaper puts it, “El paro ‘quita el sueño’ al 75,2% de los españoles” – The fear of unemployment keeps 75% of Spaniards awake at night.

And well they might worry. As the unemployment figures creep towards 4 million, some say things will get as bad as 5 million unemployed by the end of the year, accounting for an unprecedented 20% of the working population.

Madrid keeps it’s head held high, it’s economics based largely on wealthy service industries, but the situation on the Mediterranean coasts must be going downhill quickly. Where once there were always new houses to be built, equipped and furnished, now there are no more eager buyers, and nothing to be built.

The question is, for a country that has experienced and enjoyed exceptional growth and prosperity over the last 10 years, what might a Spain with 5 million unemployed workers soon look like? And can anything be done?

How as a ‘healthy’ 17-year-old I longed to be allowed to stay up late enough to watch those Spanish films on channel Four with the red triangle displayed prominently in the top right-hand corner of the screen, when anything that came out of Spain or France, had subtitles, and ended up on British TV late at night, was bound to have a decent bit of flesh in it.

At last, my dreams are to be fulfilled! El Pais, Spain’s most respected of newspapers, is giving away soft porn every weekend for the foreseeable future, starting next Sunday with ‘El Portero de la Noche’ – “The Night Watchman” ( … the “naughty” night watchman, I imagine…)

Under the banner “Vuelve el Erotismo” (Erotic is Back), this latest get-something-free-with-your-paper campaign is likely to send sales through the roof. As I said to the wife, better get down to the kiosko early next Sunday for a chance of getting the first instalment, especially at 1 Euro a pop!

But hang on a minute (says the old British person still hiding inside me), free ‘dirty videos’ with El Pais? Can you imagine The Times of London, or the venerable Sunday Observer giving away this sort of ‘filth’? It’s a disgrace!

For more details, be very careful about checking out the special promotional webstie, www.quevuelvaelerotismo.com – just don’t look behind the third door for the good stuff… a blooming disgrace, that’s what this is…

Rainy crappy weather in Madrid so I didn’t make it out of the house until past 6 p.m. and then only to a bar up the road for a quick caña.

There were a couple of policemen in there, one drinking non-alcohol beer, the other a clara con limon: shandy. Not sure British cops would drink shandy, even on duty.

I kept my ears peeled for some fine Spanish vulgarities from the local constabulary, but was disappointed. They just ate their bocadillos and stared blankly at the chat show on TV.

Never mind, the portero made up for them as I walked through our lobby on my way home.

How are you I asked?

“As they say on that Police program on TV,” he said, “hasta los santos cojones” – Pissed off to my holy balls.