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FWIW, anecdotes from my trip to Spain

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July Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 09:22 AM
Original message
FWIW, anecdotes from my trip to Spain
Spent the holidays in Spain, visiting people from ages 4 to 75. A few observations from that short visit:

Spain is much more "international" than it was during my last visit (5 yrs. ago) and tons more than it was when I lived there (12 years ago). My first shock was driving on a highway outside Madrid and seeing an AMC theater next to a Burger King near a Carrefours (French hypermarket). American-style Christmas lights on main thoroughfares were everywhere (don't remember those in the early '90s). Supermarket had all our favorite brands of everything, something else that I don't remember.

I encountered zero anti-Americanism (of course, I spent my time with friends). Friends say there is strong anti-Americanism in the universities and claim it is knee-jerk. Only one person I knew is not interested in coming to the U.S. because of politics/the war. Most of the people I saw have been here; most enjoy American popular culture; most were anti-war (a few thought Saddam was worth it). One teenaged girl who spent a year here is very anti-war but strongly disputes anti-Americanism with her schoolmates.

Bush is universally viewed as an idiot (among the people I saw). People are somewhat perplexed about how he could have reached the heights he's reached. They say he doesn't really "speak" Spanish, usually mentioning his pitiful pronunciation of Aznar, properly pronounced as oth-NAR, as AN-zar, and that he could not understand conversational Spanish without an interpreter. (Jeb is seen as better with Spanish, but was ridiculed for calling Spain a republic, a glaring error to a Spaniard -- one comment was "and they tell us he's the 'smart' Bush.") Although it is taken as a given that the 2000 election was fraudulent, many did not know that Gore won the popular vote. They view Aznar as their Bush in arrogance, vengefulness, religiosity, etc., except that he's (Aznar is) seen as crafty.

The sinking of the Prestige is seen (again, in my circle of friends) as a huge issue among Spaniards, on a par with the Iraq war. Despite their perception that Aznar has failed in these areas, they believe his party will win at least a plurality in March elections. The death of the Spanish reporter at the Baghdad hotel -- sorry, can't remember names of either -- is a big deal, too.

In the papers, American deaths in Iraq are reported in a peculiar way: they give the numbers saying something like since Bush declared an end to combat (IIRC, described in that way without qualifications), but give a number just over 200 that is apparently the "hostile combat" deaths. A New Year's Eve television show of Spitting Image-type puppets focused mainly on Spanish politics but did have one vignette of Aznar singing a love song to Bush.

One person had heard of PNAC. Same person thought Bush's kissing off European allies was a large mistake.

Flights were pretty uneventful. We were told not to congregate near bathrooms for security reasons, but everyone on the plane ignored that directive. On return, people were flying through customs checks. The person in front of me was questioned about a document she was carrying for all of about a minute, and that was the only "slowing" I saw.

Finally, THE FOOD WAS FANTASTIC!!!! EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE!!!

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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 09:38 AM
Response to Original message
1. The Newspaper was ElMundo
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July Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 09:39 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Actually, it wasn't
I didn't read El Mundo while in Spain, it was El Pais (can't do the accent mark).
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 10:22 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. oh, maybe I have the wrong one
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July Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 10:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Please explain
Why you felt the need to announce what paper I was referring to, since you don't know me or anything about what I read?
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 09:28 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. I just read your post
Edited on Wed Jan-07-04 09:31 PM by La_Serpiente
I just read your post and you didn't know the paper in which the journalist was killed, so I wrote El Mundo. That is all.

I may not know anything about you, but I do remember a journalist being killed that worked for El Mundo.

I also read your post and thought the information was helpful. I didn't really have any questions because I wasn't left with any.

Any problems? I hope not.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-08-04 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. I was confused by this exchange myself.
Now I understand. I didn't know why you'd brought up El Mundo either. Now the whole thing makes sense.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
5. I was in Andalucia last April as a tourist
and had the impression that Andalucians, anyway, were far and away anti-war, anti-Bush, but not anti-American.

I could have stayed there forever if I knew how. The people were to a person wonderful. Not a single negative interaction with any person at all anywhere. Except for one person in a car who honked and glared at me for getting a traffic pattern wrong in La Linea.
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