Tuesday, September 29th - Salou, Spain

I really must get out of here on some day trips soon because there isn't much to right about otherwise.  Today was a cool (60's) but sunny day with the usual late start.  I'm beginning to think I have to stop thinking of them as late starts because I'm as early as any one else seems to be.  And their day doesn't end until well after midnight so I think I should just start adjusting my clock similarly.  

Their regular hours of sunshine are indeed later as well but I think I've already told you that story.  Most of Spain is actually directly below the UK so should be in the same time zone but when the Germans (or the Hapsburgs or someone) controlled Spain they decided that they should all be on the same time so Spain is the same time zone as most of Europe even though they are so far west.  That means that at 8 a.m. when most people would be starting their work day and the sun would already be high in the sky, the sun in Spain is barely up.  The later start and finish to their day just sort of reflects that later sun hour too.  Their siesta isn't from noon to 2.  It's from 2 to 4 which is the hotter part of their day.  And then everything opens up again at 4:30 or 5 and stays open until 9 or 10 and that's just the regular schedule for them.

Of course this split in the day is not really good for everyone.  Some people can make use of the break by having their lunch, taking a break or going home and doing some work.  Others who live farther from their workplace are stuck for several hours with nothing to do.  They can't even go buy their groceries or run errands because everything is closed.  This also means that kids come home from school in the afternoon and no one is there until late at night.  Grandparents or neighbours or others look after them until their parents get home from work but once the parents get home, they then have to make dinner and feed the family and that makes for a very late night.  Then they get up and do it all over again the next day with big breaks in the afternoon. Maybe they need their siestas then since they are up so late the night before.  

For a while I thought that perhaps the schools worked the same schedule with the break in the day but no, they go through until about 3 and then they finish for the day.  I think there are some after school programs available for them because the school yards and community centres seem to be busy at that time of the day in both Salou and Pineda de Mar.  Later on the activity moves to the general town squares and playgrounds where everyone seems to gather.

And their work week is 45 hours long (not 30 like some of ours) so add the 3 hours off each day between shifts and you end up with a 60 hour work week.  Then people have to commute up to an hour to get home each day so that's 70 hours and often 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. away from home during the week.  According to our tour guide on the Spain / Portugal bus tour, this really needs to change.  People are tired and they are not productive.  The country needs to change it to increase productivity.  But they also need to change it to improve family life and to increase the birth rate, which is apparently very low.  She'd of course also like them to change the time zone to make that easier for everyone.

Wow, that was slightly off the topic of what I did today, so let's get back to that.  After breakfast I went for a walk and went by the tourist info place again to get the schedule of activities for this week.  I noticed there was an art exhibit over at the Nautical Club so I went over there.  The exhibit was called "Dia I Noche" or Day and Night and all the art was the work of one person, M. T. Molner, and it portrayed scenes from around the area during the night or the day.  Most of the work was small, perhaps 12 x 18 " but it was all really good.  It was also very interesting to walk around the room and see how many of the places I recognized.  There were certainly some that I did not recognize as I had not been to them.  There were also some I didn't recognize even though I had been there, but most of them I did recognize so I felt pretty good about it.  Her night time painting of Sagrada Familia was stunning.  The church in all its glory towered in golden light in the painting.  Then there were a few trees in front of it - very dark at night - and then the church was reflected in the water at the front or lower part of the painting.  I recognized the church immediately and she really had done a great job of capturing it and its reflection.  

One of the parks I didn't recognize I had to laugh at later because I had been to it many times and it was just across the street at the corner.  I guess I kept walking through it but just never looked at it as a park.  The Old Tower that I visited the other day was in one painting.  Others showed the marina and beach and sail boats or old buildings or street scenes.  I actually really enjoyed the exhibit and I talked to her for a while after.  When I went in I didn't realize the person sitting there was the artist.  Normally it's just a volunteer.  She made some comment about the works not being framed and I said it didn't bother me a bit and if I had one at home I probably wouldn't frame it anyway.  I think she liked that because she was obviously tired of people telling her they should be framed.  She was also tired of people not buying her work or of bargaining but not buying.  She seemed rather negative on everything but I still liked her artwork - not enough to buy any of it but I liked it.

I left there and my destination was the bookstore and then the grocery store but it was now clouded over and the wind had picked up so I decided to head back to the apartment instead.  There are thunderstorms in the forecast of the day and it looked like one was about to occur.  As it turns out I would have had a couple of hours to run my errands before it hit but I was fine being inside anyway.  When it hit, it really hit.  There was very little thunder but it was loud and I didn't see any lightning but that was only at the beginning of the storm.  After that it just poured rain.  At first it was just light but then it was almost deafening and coming straight down.  Within a few minutes the streets were flooded and the leaves were flowing down the street.  The drains in the park were full to the top of both sides.  My balcony is six feet across and has a roof over it but the rain was hitting the edge so hard that it was bouncing all the way in the door.  I could barely see across the street let alone down to the beach.  I tried to take some pictures and some video but I'm not sure it worked.  The heavy downpour probably only lasted for half an hour but it continued to rain for most of the afternoon.  Cars driving down the street after the rain, seem to be driving in water half up their tires, and pedestrians stay well away from the curb because there is a lot of splash.

I made myself a tuna salad for lunch (and a few more meals).  I remember Mom making tuna salads with pasta and celery and mayonnaise and of course tuna.  I was thinking about her while I made it because I distinctly remember one picnic where she was so disappointed with her tuna salad because it just didn't taste right.  Then part way through the picnic she gave one of her laughs and shouted, "I know what's wrong.  I forgot the tuna!"   It was hilarious and we all laughed but she laughed the hardest and I bet she told that story a dozen times to various people.  Most of us would hope no one else found out but not Mom.  She could laugh at herself better than anyone else I know.  I wish I had inherited more of that from her.  Anyway, my tuna salad was not as good as hers but it was passable.  I didn't have celery so I used carrots instead, which made it much more colourful.  I had it for lunch and have enough left for at least another meal.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing the activities for this coming week in Salou, doing e-mails and blogging.  There area a lot of Ethiopia/Malawi e-mails going back and forth right now and with some of us in Europe, some in Alberta and some in Africa it's interesting with all the different time zones.   The trip to Malawi isn't totally dead yet but I'm not sure it can be revived.  I put my two cents in once in a while but it's really not my decision so I'll just wait and see.

I should also mention that the Catalan elections were held last Sunday and the party that wants to separate was only about six seats away from a majority the last I heard.  Think of them as the Parti Quebecois in Quebec.  They are working with one of the smaller parties to get them on side for separation but the talks are ongoing.  The Spanish government is not saying much and the EU folks are simply saying it's an issue for Spain to sort out.  Separation is all the talk in the papers and on the news.  I assume it's probably the talk on the street too but I really can't understand that.  At least in print I can follow a bit of it - especially in the English versions!  It will be interesting to see what happens but I think this debate has been going on for years if not centuries so I don't really expect anything to happen too quickly.

Well, the rest of the day passed without anything too exciting happening.  Because of the rain I was inside most of the time.  I got bored at one point and even turned on the little TV I have in my unit.  Everything was in Spanish and/or Catalan but I did watch a bit of a tennis match which was pretty good.  I didn't really need to understand the language to follow that.  It's now past my bedtime and the end of another day so I might as well finish this and get it on its way.