Culture Shock! Part 1...Stepping off the Plane

Well for starters, I am late writing this. I touched down in Madrid Spain September 7th 2008 and it is December 17th! On the verge of my Christmas break, I decided I need to get this whole blog thing jumping.

After waiting almost an hour to get my bags, I found my coach outside waiting for me. I took a look around and saw all of the tiny cars! If you remember the show Family Matters, the car that Steve Urkel had well that's what alot of the cars look like (I am not exaggerating either). ----------->


It was a short drive from Madrid to Alcobendas but I noticed on the highways there was no kind of big SUV's or Trucks. I also realized that they drive on the correct side of the road. I don't know why I was under the impression that they drove the wrong way. Anyways, I asked why are the cars so small. He said, "The roads are extremely narrow, parking is scarce, and most importantly gas is like 2.00 a liter" I'm saying to myself a liter? Damn! That's like 6 bucks a gallon. (I don't know the actual conversion that was my guesstimate) Glad I don't have a car here!

Once we got to the apartment first off, there was nowhere to park so we just parked in the middle of the street and turned the hazard lights on. I'm saying to myself "what the hell we just gon leave the car here?" Indeed we did. The street is narrow but you can stop your car in the middle of the street. As a matter of a fact, you can even block cars that are parked in well you can't but everyone does it. For example, your at a store and there are no available parking spaces no problem just block people in. I'd be mad as hell if i came out the store and saw somebody parked behind me blocking me in. Oh quick story: My roomate wasn't paying attention aka she wasn't looking out of her rearview mirror as she was backing out of a parking spot. Now mind you we walked from the gym to her car why she didn't see this bright red car blocking her in I still have no idea. But anyways, she turns the car on, radio on goes in reverse...BOOM hit the damn car. She cursing in spanish about to cry and I just started laughing because how the hell did you not see that car LOL.



Next observation is the Circles. They tell me the reason for the circles is because it makes traffic run smoother without having a lot of traffic lights. Okay whatever. They say that but yet there are huge circles like 3 lane circles as soon as you go around it theres a damn traffic light. So what's the point? I don't get it. But the only problem I really have with the circles is not the circle itself but the damn drivers not understanding the rules of driving in the circle! The person already in the circle is suppose to have the right away...so you think. Nope, you get in where you fit in, who cares if another car is already in the circle. Then in the huge circles (The ones that's 3 lanes or more) its chaos. The car in the left lane randomly crosses to the far lane to turn off the circle, the car in the middle goes straight, and the far lane wants to continue to go around the circle. A damn mess. Then while you switching all these damn lanes once you turn off the circle to drive on a straight away you have to immediately switch lanes because of cars parked in the middle of the damn street! I fear for my life everytime I get into a vehicle.



Most people don't have cars they walk, take the metro, cercanías, or bus. I will go into detail about my adventures on the metro (lord help me) in part 2 but the point I'm making is that its pretty pedestrian here. So when people are in the crosswalk they have the right away. Wrong. I don't know what the mortality rate is with vehicles and pedestrians it has to be high. My coach says it isn't but I don't see how. People are in a huge rush all the time. I blame the people who made the streets because they have random crosswalks at these crazy circles i talked about earlier. So you have people zooming around the circle coming to a complete stop because of the old couple trying to cross the street. Crazy my roomate rarely stops I say to myself "did she not see that man!" "We are going to jail, I'm too pretty to go to jail" lol. But the crosswalks be so random and people don't look either that don't help the case so I can't put all the blame on the drivers.

That was driving in the suburbs, just wait untill I explore Madrid.