Okay, so Catalans (or at least the Sant Cugat pijo-variety) don’t talk to their neighbors. I can get that. It does go both ways though… if you don’t even say hello to your neighbor, they are probably less likely to be helpful.
So yesterday evening, the doorbell rings and it’s the nanny from next door. (They even make her wear the nanny outfit, which I always thought was a bit demeaning). She was looking really uncomfortable and started stammering:
“Mister Pablo from next door told me to come and ask you to please try to keep the noise of the kids down in the morning until 10am so that they can sleep.”
“Why didn’t he come and ask us himself?”
“He was too embarrassed”
So when the kids got at 6:30am today and were running around screaming at their usual volume and dropping heavy objects on the floor, somehow I didn’t feel the urge to tell them to pipe down.
Instead, we decided to take the dishes out the dishwasher with the maximum amount of clinking and clashing.
7 comments:
If I were you I would spend the weekend tapdancing, and cooking curry.
Hello !!!
I lived in SCGT for one year, everything in your post its 100 % true !!! Not only they are new rich and unsophisticated they are very rude. I dont missed it!
I am a spaniard living inthe USA for two decades. And not afraid to say that my fellow country people can be this way and worse.
But don't give up ..the rest of Spain is not like SCGAT
ha having the same issues with our neighbors. Just moved to Valldoreix and your blog has been a great help. Keep up the great posts and keep kids screaming.
well... I used to live a couple of blocks from the Sant Cugat FGC station, and among my neighbors I had: a Rooster (waking me up around 4am every morning), a group of evangelical christians, getting together to sing/scream hallelujah quite often, a little girl who played her 'drums' (pans and pots) in front of my bedroom window and a couple who hated each other and let the entire building know... so yes, people push boundaries of neighborliness in Sant Cugat!!!
Ich wohnte in Sant Cugat und ich hab meine Nachbarn nicht vergessen.
I just wonder why you all seem to think this is a phenomenon particular to Sant Cugat. Every European country I´ve lived in, I´ve experienced the same problem, and that includes other parts of Spain. I´m not trying to defend Sant Cugat, but neither should anyone be trying to villify it.
The whole point is getting a maid to explain this rather than personally!
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