Hi all,
Today I want to tell you about a phrase that I heard a lot when I lived in Spain: “We are very lucky because we have sun all year round.”
Think that I lived all my life in Caracas and moving to Spain meant getting worse in terms of climate. Even though I complained about all the deficiencies that Spain had and its third worldism disguised as the European Union, I did not at any time compare one climate with the other. And I think that Caracas has the best climate in the world, but I never said it while I lived in Spain.
I already told you in another post that I came to Valencia very deceived because an ex-boyfriend “sold” me Spain as something totally different from what it really was.
The reality is that Spain is a country with many shortcomings and that I would not consider either a first world or European Union. But it seems that for certain Spaniards the fact of “having sun all year round” is more than enough for them to live. It does not matter having a negligent health care, a very high unemployment rate, jobs that resemble slavery, salaries that are not enough to live, a corrupt government, a royal family that steals as it wants, laws that make you laugh, etc.
As long as you have sunny days, the rest does not matter.
I asked Diego if that was for all Spaniards or only for Valencians and he told me that it was probably only for the part of the mediterranean coast. Because in the rest of Spain the climate is worse. Someone from Bilbao, for example, is not going to tell you that they have sun all year round. The reality is that there is no sun all year round on the mediterranean coast either.
If you measure how lucky you are for the sunny days you have per year, imagine how lucky you should feel in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc. However, in other countries people feel lucky if they have money, a stable job, health insurance, and a home of their own. To mention a few things.
For me it is incredible that a Spaniard, after living and working in countries like Germany, England and New Zealand, prefers to return to Spain to be exploited and earn a mediocre salary (in case he gets a job) because “they missed the warm”.
I have spoken with people who complain about the conditions in Spain and tell them to emigrate to countries with a good quality of life. With a Spanish passport you could easily go to any country in the European Union. The answer was always “Oh no, it’s very cold there.”
With a decent job and a good salary, you can pay for heating and good jackets, right?
Not everyone is like that, but the vast majority unfortunately are. Even many of Diego’s friends (if not all) you tell them to go to Luxembourg earning 7 thousand euros a month and they sure prefer to stay in Valencia earning a thousand euros.
Tell a Mexican, for example, to leave the Yucatan climate to go to Luxembourg for that salary and he does not think twice.
This post came about because I spent a week seeing how a Valencian woman who has lived in Switzerland for years, used to say that she was always depressed because she could not be in Spain and that Spaniards were very lucky to have sun all year.
This person worked in Switzerland with a wonderful schedule and surely a good salary because on her vacations she always traveled the world. Still, she complained about not being able to enjoy the Spanish sun.
With that privileged situation that many would only dream to have, I will never be able to understand how she complained so much.
This is not the type of post that I do almost always in which in the end I draw some conclusion or give tips from my learning. This time it was simply to tell you about this way of being of the Spanish. I never understood how they can sacrifice so many things just to have a climate that they consider good, many from ignorance. Because I met many people who said “In that place it is very hot and in that other place very cold” when they had not even visited for tourism. In addition, people who had been able to travel and be in wonderful climates such as those of the Caribbean, kept saying that “In Spain all are very lucky to have sun all year round.”