If you read my blog regularly, and other expats in Spain's blogs, you'll notice that we tend to point out the things that frustrate us, discourage us, and just seem plain backwards about Spain.
Well, I'm turning the tables and am going to point out the things that Spain does right, thus making the United States seem backwards.
1. Public transportation
If I want to go from the center of Bilbao to Santurtzi, a small town about 25 minutes away, I have several options to get there:
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| The lovely (award-winning) Bilbao metro |
- Find someone with a car to drive me
- Take the metro
- Take the Cercanías (commuter) train
- Take an inter-city bus
All of these options take around the same amount of time, and don't vary too much in cost.
Now, let's say I'm in Menomonie, WI (my hometown) and want to get to Eau Claire, WI (where I went to university), 25 minutes away. My options:
- Find someone to drive me (or drive myself)
That's it. No buses, no trains, no metros. Even in Minneapolis, MN, the light-rail will only take you to a few places, and the buses are complicated to figure out. Even some big cities in the US, like Los Angeles, don't have a metro system. Spain, you win this one hands down.
2. The metric system
There are exactly three countries in the entire world that don't use the metric system. One is the United States. The other two: Liberia and Myanmar.
Coming to Spain from the United States, I struggled with the metric system at first. I'm still getting the hang of it, but it just makes so much more sense, especially when it comes to converting units. According to my mother, when she was in elementary school the US tried (and obviously failed) to convert to the metric system. I say, let's join the rest of the world and give it another try.
3. Drinking age
In most of Europe, the drinking age is anywhere from 16-18. In Spain, it's "18", which basically means you might get id'd buying booze, but we're not going to do much to try and stop you. Same for getting into bars and discos.
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Here's the thing. You rarely see kids (or anyone, for that matter) totally wasted, puking their guts out. It's because it's just not a big deal here. I know it's a tired stereotype, but many kids actually do grow up drinking wine with dinner. I see people having a beer at 1 in the afternoon and it's just not a big deal. There's no taboo on it, and since the driving age is also 18 (and the wonderful public transportation I spoke of), there's a lot less alcohol-related deaths. Also, in Spain, there's no pressure to drink as much as you can as fast as you can. Spaniards tend to nurse their drinks, still able to have fun, and stay out much later than any American bar is open.
We all know the story in the US. You're usually 18 when you go to university for the first time, so whenever you and your friends can get your hands on a handle of Flieshmann's vodka, you gotta down that as fast as you can so you don't get caught by the RA. Binge drinking is out of control in the US, and this leads to a bevy of bad behavior and choices people tend to regret.
I'm not saying the US needs to change the drinking age, which could have disastrous consequences in and of itself. Spain just has a little better view on alcohol in general, and doesn't put it on a pedestal as much as we do in the US.
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| Yes, it's that easy |
4. Military time
Using military time makes so much sense. Yes, I know there are limited situations where you could mix up 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the morning, but it's the fact that with military time, there is absolutely no question about it. 14'00h is 2 in the afternoon. 2'00h is 2 in the morning.
It's not like it's that complicated to figure out. All you do is subtract 12 from the number. For example, 21'00h is 9 p.m. Easy as pie.
And it always makes my night when I see my clock switch from 23'59h to 0'00h. It's better than 11:11.
These are just a few of my observations, if you have any more good ones, leave me a comment!
Originally published 5.9.11
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