Categorized | Daily Life, Open Letters

An open letter to Spain about winter

Posted on 18 March 2010 by American expat!

Dear Spain,

Would you stop with the winter already?  There is a reason I did not move to Austria or say, Finland. And you know what that is? I HATE BEING COLD. I hate it so much, that after skiing my entire life and 20 years of snowboarding, I’m now OK if I never touch snow again. Seriously.

Spain, you are not equipped for cold weather. There just isn’t the space or ventilation for it. The bars are too small and there are no smoking restrictions so when 300 people are jammed into a place with a capacity of 40, and 299 of them are smoking, it makes breathing a little difficult.

What I find especially spiteful is how you tease us with a day of sun or two, that has us sweating in the park while playing ping pong  (and ping pong isn’t exactly anaerobic), only to lure us down to la playa along with the 700 thousand other people who have been absolutely pining for Spring, and then commence in blowing arctic wind across the sand and boardwalks and blast it in our hopeful faces. I can hear you laughing, Spain. It’s not cool, not cool at all.

But what I really want to kill you for, the absolute icing on the cake, was what you did two days later after one said day of sun! Friggin snow. For the first time in what, 40 years there was snow on the ground? Seriously.

See this photo here. This here is my sun terrace. For sun. Not for collecting snow.

And this here? Is the park. The one we were sweating in two days earlier. Oh, and in the distance is the SEA. But you cannot SEE it in this photo because of all the SNOW falling.

So here’s the deal, Spain. Get your act together or I swear to god I am moving back to Hawaii where I will never have to wear pants again. And the day I get there I will strip naked and frolic in the 88 degree weather in FEBRUARY (hopefully without getting arrested) and then I will eat a mango and pass out on the beach.

I’m leaving for Italy until you warm up a little, then we can discuss your decision.

Me

7 Comments For This Post

  1. NomadRip Says:

    You’re getting 4 MotoGP races this year. I don’t wanna hear another word outta you 😛

  2. pinkyracer Says:

    you could do that in LA too, you know. I mean, I was sweating my ass off the past few days. and riding in Hawaii sucks, anyway.

  3. Oxi Says:

    In Southern California feels like you live the same day over and over again. The weather barely changes. After 4 years here, I miss having seasons and freezing my ass off! there is nothing like “a relaxing cup of cafe con leche” on a winter day at home.

  4. American expat! Says:

    But Oxi…at least it’s predictable! I never have to be afraid that I will be caught in a sudden hurricane (almost) while out on a bike ride and come home not only soaked to the bone but to a flooded house because when I left it was clear and sunny so I didn’t shut the windows!

  5. Oxi Says:

    That really sucks…although the point I am trying to make is the: “surprise, unpredictable and improvisation” factor that most Americans and Californian weather lack…haha!

  6. skydiver Says:

    Oh!!! what a surprise, Spain is not a tropical paradise!!!!

    You guys should use more the internet before travel to an unknown country instead of believe in stupid stereotypes.

    Yeah snow and rain is pretty common in Spain cause is a fucking big and diverse country. Not all the territory is like Ibiza or Andalusia.

  7. American expat! Says:

    Is your comment supposed to be informative or helpful? Or just snarky? I’ve lived here 6.5 years, I am pretty aware what the weather is like all over Spain, which, by the way, is the size of the STATE of California where I am from–one of fifty–so therefore from my perspective Spain is not so “fucking big and diverse”. This is a humorous post that actually refers tongue-in-cheek to the widely held belief that the weather is always perfect here. Nevertheless, it is still a very rare thing to see snow on the beach in Barcelona like we had in March of 2010.

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