Korigjime

Surprise!

Sometimes we think that certain kinds of things are evident because they are almost natural for us.

We often dare think that, in certain areas, habits can hardly differ from one country to another, that logic is the same for everyone.

But then we travel a little (not even really far), we open our eyes, ask some questions and realize that it’s actually not the case at all… So, here are some differences I have noticed between the customs of my country (Switzerland) and the ones people have here in Spain (about 1600 km south) The Spaniards are lucky and allowed to smile on their ID photos, which means they logically don’t look totally depressed or threatening as it’s often the case in my country, since we must absolutely stay serious (I personally look like something of a terrorist on my last passport photo…) I’ve always thought that it was a moral sin to clink glasses with someone without looking at them into the eyes (I surely learnt that after getting told off a couple of times during my early attempts at socializing…).

But here, after many times trying to catch the look of the person hiding behind the glass mine was clinking with, I came to the conclusion that, apparently, that customs didn’t make its way to the Peninsula (or maybe it got lost on the way of time…) May the Spanish cows be happy, because here we let them use their horns, and with no apparent consequence.

Now, can someone explain me why the Swiss farmers seem to have forbidden the use of horns among those poor ruminants?

I thought that energy conservation, recycling and environmental protection were a prime concern, at least in Occident, and that the governments made an effort to promote it.

But the fact that I have now plastic bags full of carton, glass and aluminium, and absolutely don’t know how to get rid of them determines that Spain is probably resisting the current prevailing “ecolomania”.

I had never actually really thought about that fact, but since Spain is located much more in the West of the map than Switzerland, the sun logically goes down much later in the evenings, which means no more dark nights at 5 p.m in winter!

That’s all what have come in my mind so far, but I’ll surely write another chapter of this article soon since Spain is still surprising me.

And, obviously, if you have suggestions, ideas or correction to give to what I’ve written, don’t hesitate to tell me ;) I hope you enjoyed it