2 ms·
As it happes, I have spent quite a bit of time in Spanish villages over the years. They have their own problems. First, you better get good enough internet to
by hibikir 10y ago
As it happes, I have spent quite a bit of time in Spanish villages over the years. They have their own problems.
First, you better get good enough internet to work, and that's extremely dependent on the village. In my favorite one, for instance, high up on a mountain in eastern Asturias, the best connections are ancient DSL. Megabytes a second? Gigabit? Nope.
Then, there's work and personal networking. Getting a new job in my American suburb is easy. There's meetups, local conferences... all of that is gone in the village, where I'd probably be the only programmer. Being limited to just remote jobs adds quite a bit of insecurity.
The large houses with land take a whole lot of work. For instance, in that village, my mother keeps a large village, what in Asturias would call a 'Casa de Indianos'. It requires year around help for cleaning and groundskeeping.
You also need to be in the villagers' good graces: The smaller the place, the more isolated you'll be if you are not exactly like everyone else. This is already a problem in small Spainish cities, which feel a lot like villages. The larger the city, the more likely it is to find people that are a lot like you, for almost any definition of you. If you don't like your social circle, you can find another! Also, hope that you found a spouse while you were in a city, because village dating pools are pretty shallow in comparison.
In my experience, that toxic environment you mention has little to do with cities in general, and a lot to do with people well off, especially in Spain. I was born and raised there, and I sure couldn't stomach it. I disliked it enough I put an entire ocean in between.
Here in the US, I have seen similar things from high society circles: When looking for a good school for my son, I found that most of the top private schools are full of those social games I remember from my childhood. But the city is more than big enough that I could just choose a different school, full of kids of engineers and scientists as opposed to lawyers and doctors, and just not participate in those social games, or have to expose my son to them.
- tluyben2 10y ago> Being limited to just remote jobs adds quite a bit of insecurity. Not finding a job in a city is far worse imho. But ofcourse, it is far easier to find one if there are ones you are qualified for. Our goal however was to never need a job, never have to sit in an office and to never have to commute to work. No matter what happens. I will never stop working nor will my wife (until our minds or we are dead) but we don't have to do what we do; we have the freedom here to just to almost stop working for N years and read books in the sun, working a few hours a week to have money for food etc; our brewery (bootstrapped completely with 2nd hand materials and our own work) makes enough for that by now. Most people in cities cannot do that unless they are quite rich (and/or own their house which is paid off/inherited). It is not for all and we're not married to Spain; we'll probably move on. Not having kids was a decision of us that makes that easier as well. > the best connections are ancient DSL. Megabytes a second? Gigabit? Nope. That's with being happy with what you have, right? :) If you are a programmer, like me, what do you need a fast connection for? I never needed one. > The large houses with land take a whole lot of work. Well you can get something smaller ofcourse if you like that (we have something small; still is bigger than our apartment in Amsterdam). Doesn't require too much tbh. For the rest; I am foreign here which might be a difference from your experience. We will always be foreign so we don't get into that good graces stuff. They find us weird anyway. We have some local friends (Spanish, born and raised) and they don't have that either. But yes, the elderly all hate eachother and we just are friendly but as we are not from Spain we don't really get treated in the same way I guess?