Notes

A View From Spain

I've been blessed to have spent much of the winter of 2019-2020 residing along the southern coast of Spain. Occupying a rented casa near the middle of an old city for a protracted time, which necessarily involved participating with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and the like, gave me a fantastic chance to observe how daily financial life is lived in a location far from my New Hampshire home.

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To be clear, I truly do have a life beyond financial observation, but for purposes of this piece that I 'll concentrate on a small anecdotal contrast between the way folks run commercial trade in a corner of Spain and at NH. To further set this up, note that I deliberately lived without a car and had no data plan for 3 months, relying rather on public transport and WiFi (or even wee-fee as they cutely state there).


These near-monastic practices aside, allow me to tell you a bit about my provisional Spanish hometown. read this post here , a small city of approximately 75K residents, lies across the Mediterranean coast about 25 miles west of Malaga, the big city in those parts. [source] 's in the autonomous region of Andalusia (such as a US state), which is the biggest of these self-governing areas in Spain. Given that it had been controlled by the Islamic Moors for about seven centuries the architecture and culture is a unique blend of Christian and Muslim influences not seen everywhere in Europe. Andalusians have a reputation for being psychological and fun-loving. I concur.


What is most evident is the way conservative things seem, at least to a man in his late sixties. In NH needless to say we get in our cars and drive to big supermarkets and big box stores to purchase our things, as well as is increasingly the casewe purchase things online and have them sent to our homes. But here, the little &quot;Mom &amp; Pop&quot; shops are alive and apparently well. The sidewalks each day, except Sunday, are teeming with people doing their daily promotion of vegetables, fruits, medicines, clothing, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really big here).


I must admit that despite an apparent inefficiency with going to one store for the bread, to a different for your veggies, and to another for meat I liked the quaintness and personal touch of having to know the people who worked these establishments. Levels of private service always seemed large and that I never felt rushed. Sure pop over to this website and big box stores such as El Corte Ingles exist, but little brick &amp; mortar retail is hanging on here quite well.


Folks sit with friends and family for what seems like hours chatting on coffee and beer throughout workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and bars are everywhere spilling onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and unkind and leaves a Yank with the impression that life really needs to be fun and lived with gusto. I must acknowledge I've wondered more than once, &quot;How does any work get done around here? &quot; But it does. Police attendance is minimal.


The Euro is the currency. And now find out here is just about 10% higher than the US dollar. But, prices for most commodities appear lower here. I'm frequently struck by just how much value I'm getting for this little money. Granted, networking is more than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the costs of energy and big-ticket items, but overall costs seem cheaper in Spain. Additionally, this a more cash-based society. My pocket regularly is weighed down with these heavy coins (a First World issue, I know). Sure people use credit cards and phone pay programs, but cash is still quite prevalent.


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