American In Spain - Latest Comments

Re: Exploring The Countryside

Erik R. — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:11:27 -0000

Gah! How embarrassing! Thank you.

Re: Exploring The Countryside

Lee — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:05:27 -0000

Dangling participle alert in the first sentence (unless you really did spend the month raining).Hey I'm an English teacher. I can't help it.

Re: Paper or Plastic: Cash Is Dead

A Basque in the Americas — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:05:50 -0000

I agree with Bawa that this is not a technological state, but a cultural one. I found too many toll roads and bridges in the US that got no cards, only cash or in-car wireless device payment,
while all of them in Spain get cards.
So is not about technology, but about what people is used to, or expects.In large cities in Spain I never used cash at all (I have an iPhone case that holds ID and couple cards and that is all I take!), but in villages true you need some cash. Last year came to work in Canada and US, and I manage fine with my iPhone case… except in Manhattan, there I found so many places that reject cards unless you are over certain amount.
I also find interesting how easy is getting a credit card in the US, while in Spain is far more complex.
On the other side, bank-to-bank money transfers are so easy in Spain (with the consistent bank account numbering) while so messy in the US. Canada is better but a bank-to-bank transfer takes 7 days!!

And checks!!! I was really surprised when I got a check book with my bank account in Canada, in Europe only France goes on using these paper things so much as in Canada!

Re: Javascript Flickr Badge

Erik R. — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:15:49 -0000

No, but all of the magic is pure javascript. The only PHP code in this plugin is to display the admin config, save the config to the database, and then spit the config back out into the widget as configuration parameters for the javascript.

It would be relatively trivial to add this to any webpage. If you view the source of this very page and look for "jsFlickrBadgeConfig", it's just a matter of including the script tags adjacent to it (from javascript-flickr-badge.js to the one on api.flickr.com) and tweaking the parameters.

Re: Javascript Flickr Badge

Mlino — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:46:18 -0000

This is great Erik. Do you plan this for Joomla?

Re: Colors and Schools

Mother Theresa — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:16:38 -0000

Wow, she talks so well! I love the "is very lejos, very lejos" part. It's so much fun when they mix the languages like that at first. And yeah, you really do have to be careful now, and not only about what you say. Kids love to go around telling people what you do too. I remember a neighbor boy coming over to play with our kids when we lived in Malaga. While he was over, we heard this banging noise coming from one of the other flats, and he told us, "That's my parents having a nap." We had a really hard time to keep from laughing.

Re: YT-Audio: Audio Hosting From YouTube in WordPress

Erik R. — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:46:32 -0000

How strange! Wordpress.org has delisted this plugin, even though it can be found with the direct link.

I have moved the zip to dropbox and fixed the link in the post. Enjoy!

Re: YT-Audio: Audio Hosting From YouTube in WordPress

Erik R. — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:26:25 -0000

Hmmm. I'll have to investigate. Thank you for your interest. I'll get back to you if/when I fix it.

Re: Rivals of Jesus

Chhese Women — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:13:19 -0000

yes, that is very true. Jesus was the only Messiah born on the 25th december ect.
lots of different people claimed to be the messiah and no one believed them. people started to doubt why jesus was so special. ok he could perform so called 'miricles' but so could some other people.

Re: YT-Audio: Audio Hosting From YouTube in WordPress

Mrselfexpression — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:35:59 -0000

Is this plugin still available? Tried from both here and the Wordpress location but 404'd on both. Would be AWESOME to have this, thanks

Re: Colors and Schools

Mr. Basquetard — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:06:54 -0000

Little children are extremely clever, it's true you cannot gossip about your neighbors (I think that's one of the most global sports, it's done in every country and in every social class) or about how bad looks now the haircut of the groceries'.

Video is really cute haha

Cheers!

Re: Colors and Schools

Erin — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:20:57 -0000

Too cute!!

Re: A Just World: The link between conservative politics and religion

Mr. Basquetard — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:54:51 -0000

So all the workers that vote Republican, or PP, or other shitty parties are not assholes they are just truly believers of their God? It's a good point of view, I will ask the next 23-year-old under-educated construction worker that I see driving a BMW :)

Re: A Just World: The link between conservative politics and religion

Lee — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:44:16 -0000

Calvinism. I'm doing ok so I must be better than the unfortunate. And if I AM one of the unfortunate, it can't be God because God doesn't make mistakes so it must be the damn gummint.

Re: Aitziber’s Wedding

Mother Theresa — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:27:29 -0000

Looking smart, Mr. Rasmussen! And Marga looks fabulous, as usual. It's always fun to get together with people you haven't seen in a while.

Re: A Just World: The link between conservative politics and religion

Mother Theresa — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:22:59 -0000

Fascinating hypothesis. I'd never really looked at it that way before. I guess now I'll have to change the way I see conservatives. Now, if only this post would change the way they think and vote as well...

Re: Aitziber’s Wedding

Wedding band Ireland — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:39:16 -0000

Wedding is the most important moment and it is important to celebrate it with full excitement. Hire a professional wedding music bands and have a good quality and tasty food.

Re: Dual Nationality

Bawa — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:46:48 -0000

Sorry!!!! At least A-level and other scores are no longer a worry in the EU for now, because all University/HE institutions in Europe now accept all European school-leaving certificates - they even have the entrance scores they require for all countries as routine.
Good things about the Bologna Agreement that somehow never make it to the press.

The main problem is knowing what your child is going to want to study/be good at in the future. Because then I would have had them learn German or Swedish rather than English!

Re: Why Are Expats More Liberal?

Neil Rasmussen — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:06:22 -0000

Do you think you are living abroad because of conscious decision making on your part?

Re: Aitziber’s Wedding

Kaley — Sun, 06 May 2012 09:32:12 -0000

Felicidades! I feel like a lot of Spanish people are better at at least doing the yearly contact thing. On Mario's birthday he gets a lot of phone calls, Likewise, he calls a lot of people on their birthdays rather than simply, you know, going on Facebook to do so. +1 for Spaniards.

Spanish weddings are the best! You know this, though.

Re: Dual Nationality

Erik R. — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:35:51 -0000

I have no idea, but thanks for another thing to worry about. :-)

My wife and I had complications when applying for jobs in the UK because a lot of application forms wanted A-level scores, which neither of us had, being educated in other countries. I imagine that requesting financial aid from a university would be similarly awkward, but ultimately doable.
And thank you for your lovely, insightful comment.

Re: Dual Nationality

Bawa — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:14:53 -0000

I never tried the dual nationality trick, because if the child was born in Spain and had automatic Spanish nationality, you were allowed to hold dual nationality with only certain countries (mostly ex-colonies).
However, I do know people who have both, for themselves and their children, but I do not know if it has been any help.
For instance, the biggest use for me would be not to need a Visa to visit my home country. But how would I manage that? It would require me to show my Spanish passport when I leave and enter Spain and my hypothetical other passport when I arrive and leave my destination.

But that is impossible, because they will require to see the emigration/immigration stamp and I would not be able to show that on two different nationality passports!

Some other friends thought that having dual nationality would allow their children to qualify as home/EU students for University purposes - less fees in the UK, for instance, even though they live away. But of course the authorities looked at the school-leaving certificate, and demanded a certain amount of residence in order to qualify: and you can hardly claim to be resident in Europe and go daily to school 12000 kms away!

Older people had dual nationality for their kids to avoid military service.

I am sure their are many advantages, just that from a practical point of view I have not been able to find any as yet.

Correct me if I am wrong Eric, but a friend's son who has US nationality has had to move back to the US with his mom to attend high school, as he wants to go to a US university in the future. And apparently you need to have done your last 3 years in a US school in order to have good chances of being considered for a good college/scholarship etc.??

Re: The Wine Industry Is Mostly Bullshit

humpity — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:22:38 -0000

The rich need something to do.

Re: Dual Nationality

Julian — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:33:02 -0000

Congratulations to Nora! I am in a similar situation but reverse. I was born American and want Spanish citizenship. I have to go to Embassy to swear to the King and "la bandera" but am anxious about being required to give my passport. Can they take it away from me!? I think my Social Security number and drivers license will still be okay and I will be an American in every other regard, but the passport situation really irks me.

Re: Cantabrian Clubs Without Courses Championship 2012

Mr. Basquetard — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:28:24 -0000

Yep, in Spain is very expensive, I think this will change, and as far as I know it is already changing. I was lucky that my parents got the membership when it was almost for free.

Cheers.