Friends, Get Ready

As I'm moving back to the United States in a few months, I would like my friends to get ready for social interaction with me. I will not support people who are glued to their electronic devices while spending personal time with me.

I've been away a long time and the nature of social interaction and gadgetry interaction has changed drastically in the interim. The first cell phone I owned was when I moved to Spain in 2006 and that was only out of sheer necessity because it was not possible for me to get a hard line at home.

I used to swear up and down that I'd never get a cell phone and of course I will get one when I'm back in New York, but I'm unlikely to get one that gives me round-the-clock access to the Internet. I want the cheapest phone, the cheapest plan. That's not only to save money, but because I don't want to give myself the temptation to be online while I'm out of the house. I'm addicted enough in the house and sometimes feel a bit twitchy when I'm away from a computer for too long. I don't need something in my life that can satisfy that itch 24 hours a day.

When I'm with you in a social situation, I want you to know you've got as much attention as I can give you. I expect the same in return.

When Will I Learn?

Something I'll never get used to living in Spain is the fact that shops are closed on holidays, even when those holidays fall on weekends.

Many times in my 4 years here I've been thwarted by a failure to remember/realize that it was a holiday. In the beginning Sundays used to catch me out. I would think, "Tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy those things I've needed for the last month," only to discover it was Sunday and nothing was open.

Then the holidays started to catch me. The same thing - I would go a few weeks in need of something or thinking about buying something and then finally I had a day with nothing to do (Of course I had nothing to do! It was a holiday!) to find everything closed.

Occasionally I've even been caught thinking I was going to get something taken care of to find that that shop is closed today because of reason X or the person who does that isn't here today. This is typical.

More than four years in and it's happened to me again. I bought my wedding suit a couple of weeks ago and it was scheduled to be ready on 28 April. All week I figured I would go pick it up on Saturday. Saturday (today) arrived and as I went out to buy bread I thought it curious that the corner shop was not open. It's a small family place and I thought they just decided not open today. So I went out for breakfast and on my way saw that the fruit and vegetable market was closed. "How stange," I thought. Until I realized today is 1 May. It's Labor Day.

In the US it's simply understood that shops are open on basic holidays. After all, those are the days when people are free to, you know, shop. Capitalism is the driving force in America, which certainly has its downside. But here in Spain there just isn't that same desire to earn money or improve your business and increase your profits.

Granted, as far as I know there are laws forbidding certain businesses from opening on Sundays and holiday. These laws existed once upon a time in the US and the UK. In the early days of the law the reason was tied to religion. I suppose later those laws remained on the books to foster fair business practices where smaller family-owned shops are concerned. Big chains can open much easier on a Sunday because they have a bigger employee pool to choose from, they are backed by a corporation to help offset the extra holiday or Sunday pay they might have to provide their staff. Family owned shops would be less likely to take advantage of opening those days, although eventually they'd be forced to in order to compete with the mega-stores. So there is some efficacy to having those laws on the books.

Still, I find it really difficult to get used to.