天美麻豆

Christine wrote:

Hi,

Living in a foreign country implies to discover its culture, to learn and master the cultural codes.

How did you deal with that? Share with us your culture shock stories where you experienced a funny or awkward moment in Spain.

What is your advice regarding the don鈥檛s and what would you recommend to avoid any mistake?

Thank you in advance for sharing your stories,

Christine

Regards
Kenjee

terrylee wrote:

Hi,
We live between Hondon de las Nieves, Alicante and Canterbury, Kent.听 听 I come to Spain for the glorious weather during April to July and September- November (I find August too hot and crowded) for the beautiful mountains we live amongst, for the great food and wine.听 I also love travelling around and seeing the gorgeous scenery and castles, which I write about in my blog (canterburytalesandspanishsiestas.wordpress.com, registered on 天美麻豆).听
For me,听 the biggest听 downside of living in Spain, which is becoming a huge issue in our area,听 is the amount of dogs and their barking and the poos that are left all over the place, which make walking and bike-riding in our area at least, a 'game' of dodge the dog poos -- one I would prefer not to play.听 听Although there are signs up advising dog-owners that it is illegal not to clean up after their dogs, those who do so are in the minority and the English, Spanish and Dutch who live here are all equally culpable.听 听To make matters worse, most dog owners own several dogs, 2-5 being the norm.听 听 The dog situation is a problem in the campo as well as on an urbanisation, and any newbees to Spain should be aware of this problem.听 听My advice would be to not add to it by owning a dog, and if you do so,听 at least train it so that it doesn't bark all the time and be responsible and clean up after if when you take it for walks.

Yes, it was also a shock for me. I come from Vancouver, Canada and there the laws regarding the noise are very strict. When I arrived in Valencia in May听 2012 first I rented an apartment in La Alboraya close to the beach and I just couldn't take the noise, It was really bad, people drinking having听 loud music almost every night. After I moved to a townhouse in a residential neighbourhood, the same problem, i remember once one of my neighbours had a party until 6 am. he decided to put the speakers close the community pool, probably I should have joined the party 听
Now I am living in a chalet , it is an isolated neighbourhood, the house doesn't have AC so in summer I need to leave the windows open at night. Surprise, you can hear dogs barking all night long. I have 4 dogs nows ( 3 rescues in Spain) but they sleep indoors, I do it especially for me because I want to sleep well. One of my neighbours has 11 dogs ( also rescues), I guess it would be difficult for him to let them sleep inside.
When I talk to people around here,听 they say the dogs should be outside as their job is to take care of the properties, this is part of their mentality.听 I don't agree with that.
My sister lives in a nice place with her 1 year old baby, it is a complex with 9 houses sharing a pool, at the beginning everything seemed ok but when summer came, oh la la. The neighbours had gatherings every night, with BBQs, music, kids playing in the pool, etc. It sounds great but if you have a baby trying to sleep it is not so much.
And yes you are right about the poo, it is everywhere, it is absolutely gross, very rarely you see someone cleaning after the dog.
All these problems are correlated, the lack of laws, regulations, education, lack of respect and consideration for others, humans, animals.
No sterilization= animal overpopulation.