Well, my humble input on this issue is: I lived in Madrid for three whole years, mingled with the real Españoles, as we are all originally from Spain, and I had a wonderful friendly relationship with the bosses, never had to carry/prepare coffee or clean kitchens for them, I never felt the difference between my other job here in Miami and the one in Madrid, and another thing, spaniards usually don't mind blacks at all i can assure you this from what I heard from my large Peña de amigos españoles when they were referring to Negros, and on Sundays you can go to the large malls or places like Alcampo and you can find all you need there, I broke an ankle while being there, was taken to the hospital and was given much better care than one time I had to be rushed to the Hospital here in Miami with a horrible case of amigdalitis, so, I guess it's a matter of individual problems, i for sure, was happier there than here, in this crazy boring town that Miami is.

AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

When I was in Spain from 2000 - 2001, I never experienced any racism. People were always curious as to where I was from. Many Spaniards don't know much about African-American culture as a whole. Since I speak Spanish well many thought that I was from Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico.

I have studied abroad in Spain, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico and know what it is like living in another country.

I would recommend that all who wish to live in Madrid remember that it is a different country and you have to take the bitter with the sweet. Whenever something would piss me off I would always go to Retiro Park and walk or go to the gym and lift weights and do aerobics. People must learn to shake the stress off.

I am planning on moving back next year and know what I am in for. I will just make sure to buy an extra pair of walking shoes.

Shawn

Hey everyone,

Sorry to have waited so long to reply... I couldn’t access the thread for a week or so and then I got sidetracked. I really wanted to thank everyone for their time in responding to my monstrous rant. It really helped me get that all out and it helped that everyone who replied was really cool too. I also followed some of the other spin-off threads that came up too, like medical care in Spain and got some great advice that my wife and I were able to use (like checking out the Clinica Belen.)

I think everyone realized that my main point was not that one country is better than another, but it’s about what you’re used to and it takes a lot longer to get used to another culture than you think. Obviously I’m slanted towards the U.S. because that’s where I’m from, but it goes without saying that neither country is perfect. And I definitely should have thought a bit more about bringing up racism since the U.S. has such major problems with it (more of them and more extreme actually). I'm glad to see remarks like those from Shawn above that tell me I'm generally wrong about racism in Spain. I'll try to ignore some of the more egregious expressions (and the Three Kings parade) and keep an open mind.

I really appreciated the comments from people like Diana who have done the same thing as me and survived. It’s nice to know since I'm not going back to the U.S. any time soon because I need to continue adapting to Spanish culture and working on my language skills, etc. And also, generally, if I just said “this place sucks I wanna go home.” I would just be tossing all the weight of adapting to a new culture on my wife’s shoulders and that wouldn't be fair at all. Reading JJP’s comment about his friends from Spain living in the U.S. was a nice insight into the future for me… I can just imagine what my wife is going to be like. It was enlightening to read Fernando’s comments as well since obviously, I don’t bring these topics up very much here in Spain.

Thanks everyone for letting me vent,

-Russ

P.S. Actually - I don’t have a job yet MadridMan. I’m looking into the wild-wooly world of freelancing right now since I did have an offer for a job working independently. It seems like lots and lots of paperwork, but we’ll see. It might be worth it finance wise... I’ll post an article once I know more.

Hey LIM....glad to see/read that you are feeling a little better now that you have vented! What better place to do so than here where you will have lots of people to offer their advice and support...

If the turkeys really get you down, let me know and we will all get together for a cup of coffee (or what ever bebida the tension calls for ) It would be an interesting experience...my husband with his low level English and you with your Spanish!!

Heads up! Spring is coming and it´s beautiful time of year to be in Spain!!

I have read this whole interesting thread, and would say, that after almost 2 years here in Barcelona, my experiences haven't been quite as annoying as Russ', however I do see some common themes.

The smoking of course is true, however this is the same the whole world over and in the States there is an almost Nazi anti-smoking mentality, to where smokers are ridiculed and ostracized. It's a little bit of overkill. Regardless, I don't smoke, but I used to, and I feel that if an area is well ventilated then I have no problem with it. However, the metro is right out folks.

The "Que?" thing is the same the world over, that is the burden of being foreign. My accent is not American but I still get that "Ein? Ej?" sometimes. Mainly on the phone. And work environments, well, work sucks. I came to Spain to get a masters degree and do a complete career change for that reason, that office work is always crap (my jaded opinion). And yeah the pay is lousy but it works out for me, I live better than in NY.

The healthcare system has struck me as good, I have seen some other countries' hospitals and they were kind of sketchy. I had to take a family member to the emergency room here once and the place was fine. But then again I don't have a baby on the way and haven't a clue about how US hospitals deliver them - I was surprised to read that it is so 'natural and confortable' - I thought it was just in a hospital room and that's that. If you want the best then get a Sanitas policy and go to a private hospital.

The racism is important to put into context, such as if Moroccans started moving into Ottuma Iowa en masse. People take a while to get accustomed to the 'different.' In NYC we could give a hoot about where someone is from. It's a destination. Here, Spain has always been a place from which people have emigrated. Now, it's also a destination and the people are dealing with immigration. Not to mention that the society in has advanced 50 years in 25, as in 1975 the country was still in the 50s, which explains the sexism, however from what I have seen Spanish women are quite adamant about their rights and do not take much @#&!

If someone has lived their whole life in a place then living somewhere else is always a trial. My sister tried to move to Seattle and couldn't stand it. I lived in Florida for 5 years and it was dreadful. We have a 'base' from which we build our expectations and when we live somewhere else it is a disruption.

In conclusion, one must weigh heavily a move to another country. It starts out enchanting, and then moves to annoyance, and finally to acceptance. But it's an experience which will change your life fundamentally for the better.

Here are my thoughts on a few of the complaints that people have talked about.

Smoking
Lost - coming from Cali, you are very spoiled in having smoke free environments. In one county they just passed an ordinance that you can´t smoke within 20(?) ft. of a door to a public building or resturant. This is for OUTSIDE the building. How about this for rediculous.

Racism
In California a relatively liberal state, look at who are the cooks, who work in the fields, look who is doing the manuel labor. Virtually all are mexicans. And so with the spanish unemployment like it is, I can´t imagine that the african immigrants would get any better type of job. You will see africans climbing up in society after they have been here a few generations, just like what is happening in the US with Latinos. About the blackface, they haven´t had blacks around for the parades, so what should they have done? In the US it was done as sort of a parady of blacks, but in spain it is done more as a costume.

One problem I have with Lost´s coment was about ADSL. I can´t say that it is better there. Maybe worse. A family friend ordered DSL for his business. Two months later he got a phone call from the phone company asking how he liked his service, the problem was that it still wasn´t installed! A month later they finally put it in. Or what about all the @home customers that had their service interupted, had their e-mail addresses changed and had their terms of service changed. My parents had a problem with their phone line so the phone company had to dig up the backyard putting in a new one. They left a big hole for two weeks until they called and had to remind them that they didn´t finish. Not to mention the phone service going on and off a few days at a time for a month. There are problems with every phone company, not just Telefonica or those in spain.