Book review: Spanish Lessons

[beige_alert]

Spanish Lessons: Beginning A New Life In Spain, by Derek Lambert. He moved with his family to a small town in Spain to write, rest, and encounter the sort of colorful local characters you meet in a small town in rural Spain. He ended up in a lengthy house renovation project, performed by a bunch of semi-competent workers who didn’t necessarily speak any language he could speak and who didn’t necessarily show up at any particular time. In that respect, it was just like the United States. It’s a fun book to read.

I always wonder, though, what it would be like to read a book by someone who moved to some famously organized, tidy, punctual place, perhaps Switzerland. “The carpenters showed up at exactly 09:00, with all three-hundred pages of building permits filled out and approved exactly according to law.” Or are Swiss roofers just like the American version, all recently released from prison? And what is a Swiss ex-prisoner like? See, questions abound.

The best quote of the book is about conversations with a policeman, which I must share with my German friends:

In his view, laws were merely guidelines and foreigners’ respect for them never ceased to amaze him. The obedience of Germans exasperated him. Over a coffee and a brandy he told me one day that two of them had actually gone to the town hall in Denia and informed startled officials that their papers were out of order.

Comments

[lisande.livejournal.com]

Over a coffee and a brandy he told me one day that two of them had actually gone to the town hall in Denia and informed startled officials that their papers were out of order.

That doesn't sound like german tourists to me... a german tourist runs around in shorts, with sandals (and socks!), has a camera hanging in front of his huge belly and expects everyone to speak german...
And if somethings wrong with their papers they would search someone to complain to - or about... as long as they can complain...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Hey, that sounds like a description of American tourists, except for the part about speaking German, of course. We expect English, American style English.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Seems like tourists are just terrible because they are tourists - no matter where they come from! *g*