Bullet Point Thoughts
People do not put bumper stickers on their cars here. In comparison to other cities I have lived in, Tucson vehicle owners loved to plaster excessive amounts of stickers all over their cars, while Phoenix was not as excessive but it was common to see a handful of stickers on vehicles. What was becoming more prevalent since 2016 was wraps that covered entire hoods, back windshields, or pickup truck tailgates (and were nearly exclusively pro-Trump, pro-gun, anti-anyone-not-like-that). Flags (nearly exclusively pro-Trump) were also very common post 2016. In Barcelona, I have seen practically no bumper stickers. It is an interesting thing to think about: why do people in Barcelona not feel the need to do this? What is different about their mindset? Barcelona is definitely not politically apathetic, in fact quite the opposite (just today we wandered by a calçotada put on by a neighborhood youth group with signs in Catalan that translated to something like “When the youth organize, the far right seethes/burns"). So why do people not feel the need to put stickers all over their vehicles? Instead, the stickers are all over buildings, mailboxes, and any other available surface. But not vehicles, very strange.
A common sight in Phoenix (and Tucson) is people carrying around massive metal water jugs to “stay hydrated”. That tradition appears to be non-existent here. No more sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying a tasty hot beverage, only to have someone BLANGGGGG their 128oz metal water bottle on the table two feet from your ear. Glorious silence.
We went on an errand to a local shopping mall, Westfield Glòries, for purely errand-y reasons - find a dog bed, buy some socks, buy a usb drive. But as we were there, I realized… I’m ENJOYING being at a shopping mall. It is filled with designs by the Spanish designer Javier Mariscal, famous for creating Cobi, the mascot of the 1992 Olympic Games. The food options are actual food, made from fresh, real ingredients. You can get a great cafe con leche. And people behave… nobody was being loud and obnoxious, nobody was leaving their litter all over the place, nobody was being just generally disrespectful. Again, what is the difference in mindset here?
Allergies here are just as awful as in Phoenix. My hopes that it would be different have been dashed.
Getting stuff we are used to finding in drug stores is different. “Drug stores”, in the American sense, are not common here. In the USA we are used to having them on nearly every corner, like Starbucks. But here, they are not so common. Grocery stores do not carry drugs at all (well, coffee, sugar, alcohol, yes, but drug-drugs, no). For that you need to go to a farmacia. They will not have everything out on shelves like a drug store back in the USA, instead you tell the pharmacist what you need and they go and get it. You can ask for a specific drug, or just tell them “I have a cough that is dry and nasal congestion” and they will bring a few options for you to choose from. Also, when you have an actual prescription (I am LOVING this change), you just walk in any farmacia you like, hand them the prescription, and they hand you the drug. None of this “what is your pharmacy” and “we need pre-approval” and “we can’t give you this till Thursday because your insurance company says [insert bullshit reason]”. They just hand it to you. And while prescriptions are not covered, they are ridiculously cheap. It was always so unbelievably difficult to just pick up a simple prescription in the USA so we are absolutely in love with this system.
We never go to the beach, which I suppose is really odd considering this city is right on the Mediterranean Sea and has kilometers of well-maintained public beaches with plenty of amenities. We can go out the front door, turn left, and walk ten minutes, and we are at the beach. But I dunno, I just find beaches boring. Crowded, no shade, and you have sand in everything for the next six months. Meh.
We have used our health insurance a number of times, and so far, have received ZERO mailings afterwards. Yes, we have private insurance, as required by our visa, but still… what a breath of fresh air. Though I continue to have this low-level background anxiety, just wondering when the hammer will drop and we will start getting the flood of EOBs, bills, and so on. Apparently, we never will? Is this real? And that private insurance, for the two of us, for the entire year, cost less than what we had been paying out of pocket to have “good” insurance through my former employer, for just one of us. I still find myself wondering “what’s the catch?” but everyone keeps telling me, Les, stop, there IS no catch, this is just how it works here. I can handle that.
There are things I have started to miss from back in the USA (friends and family go without saying): Bagels. How I miss good bagels. They exist here, but I am sorry to say, the Spanish do not know how to do bagels (nor would I expect them to). Spicy food - spicy is just not done here, unless you seek out specific cuisines, but you are not going to just find something spicy on the average menu like you will in the USA.
The Sagrada Familia seen from the tram on our ride home from the shopping mall.