My Spoiled-ness is Ruining My Overseas Experience...
I'm 31 years old, and up until about three months ago, I had lived my entire life in the United States of America. Sure, I've gone on a cruise outside of the country before, and I made a crazy trip to Tijuana back in 2004, but beyond those experiences, I'm American born and raised. When I left America in August, I was excited to be getting away because things in America seemed to be getting bad. Race tensions were rising, the presidential elections was dividing everyone, and I just wasn't really feeling the vibes as I left. However, as the time has passed, I realize that maybe leaving wasn't going to be as awesome as I expected.
Now, let's not get me wrong here. There's a lot to enjoy about Spain. I have really enjoyed the culture here and how friendly most people here are. It's been fun to travel to the different cities we've gone to here, and we've seen a lot of great stuff, even some castles! Hell, we live 10 minutes from the beach, have a bigger house than we honestly need, and a view of the a body of water from our front door. Life is good! I can't really complain at all. However, I miss the convenience of things that I LIKE being away from home.
The biggest example of this is food. Say I want to go and grab some Qdoba for lunch over here. I can't go and do that because there isn't a Qdoba here! And I've been really craving Qdoba lately! (Quick side note, Qdoba > Chipotle. This isn't up for debate for me.) Beyond the Qdoba, things such as Milk, yogurt, common grocery items, are all a bit harder to come by here. Sure, these aren't end of the world problems, but they are inconveniences and things that take some getting used to.
Also, we all know I'm a Skittle addict. They only have the regular, original bag of Skittles here! And, if you go out into town, that bag of Skittles actually tastes different than American Skittles! They also have the sour Skittles out in town, but I'm not sure whether or not I actually like those. So, the lack of my drug of choice has led to me having to take desperate measures.... I've been buying my Skittles from Walmart.com and having them shipped to me. Yes, I know what you're thinking. "Is it that serious Raf?" Yes! I needs my Skittles! Needs em! Desperate times, calls for desperate measures!
In addition to that, I must be the largest man walking the streets around here because no store out in town has any sizes even close to anything I wear. I'd have to either A, lose a tremendous amount of weight (I'm working on that by the way. Watch my Raf Fit videos on BigRafTV on Youtube), drop a couple shoe sizes (I wear what would be a size 48.5 here, which is the equivalent to a size 14 US. Doesn't exist in any store that I've been to thus far.), or drop a couple of inches off my height.
I know what you're thinking again. Well Raf, you can just order those things, easy solution! In some cases, yeah, it is that easy. Shop online, see what I want, buy and have it shipped here. Simple. In other cases, not so much because those locations do not ship to my location, regardless of if my P.O Box is considered to be an American address. And, I can't just go try on these items and see if I actually like them. I have to make a firm decision that hey, I like this item, I'm gonna buy it right now. AND, on top of that, it takes a bit longer for items to ship here than it would for say, Nike or Foot Locker to ship something to your house in the states. Again, not end of the world problems, but just spoiled kid problems.
Most recently, I had to go back to my T-Mobile sim card from the states because the cell phone plans here are not the same as they were in the states. I constantly had to monitor my data usage and check my balance for minutes and texts, and in my case, I couldn't even use my texts! Which then leads you to using more data because you have to use Whatsapp or FB Messenger to contact your friends and family. And the internet? Forget about it! The home internet here hasn't even been a portion of what I'm used to in the states. And I am heavy on the internet, I'm a YouTuber, gamer, movie watcher, music listener, etc. 10 MBPS internet isn't cutting it! However, over the past month, the internet has been getting upgraded, and the beginning of the year should see it improve even closer to the standard that I'm accustomed to. Maybe I should practice patience.
Overall, I have three years, and about nine months left here. I want to really enjoy my time here and not feel like I'm missing home. I mean, the closest Dominoes Pizza is an hour and a half away! There's definitely a lot to like here, but I'm just so used to getting what I want, right when I want it, and not having to wait for the things I want, or not being able to get them at all. Maybe this is just the initial phase, because a month after I got here, I felt the complete opposite of how I feel now. We'll see how it goes from here. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I'll holler at you all in the next blog. Peace.
Now, let's not get me wrong here. There's a lot to enjoy about Spain. I have really enjoyed the culture here and how friendly most people here are. It's been fun to travel to the different cities we've gone to here, and we've seen a lot of great stuff, even some castles! Hell, we live 10 minutes from the beach, have a bigger house than we honestly need, and a view of the a body of water from our front door. Life is good! I can't really complain at all. However, I miss the convenience of things that I LIKE being away from home.
The biggest example of this is food. Say I want to go and grab some Qdoba for lunch over here. I can't go and do that because there isn't a Qdoba here! And I've been really craving Qdoba lately! (Quick side note, Qdoba > Chipotle. This isn't up for debate for me.) Beyond the Qdoba, things such as Milk, yogurt, common grocery items, are all a bit harder to come by here. Sure, these aren't end of the world problems, but they are inconveniences and things that take some getting used to.
Also, we all know I'm a Skittle addict. They only have the regular, original bag of Skittles here! And, if you go out into town, that bag of Skittles actually tastes different than American Skittles! They also have the sour Skittles out in town, but I'm not sure whether or not I actually like those. So, the lack of my drug of choice has led to me having to take desperate measures.... I've been buying my Skittles from Walmart.com and having them shipped to me. Yes, I know what you're thinking. "Is it that serious Raf?" Yes! I needs my Skittles! Needs em! Desperate times, calls for desperate measures!
In addition to that, I must be the largest man walking the streets around here because no store out in town has any sizes even close to anything I wear. I'd have to either A, lose a tremendous amount of weight (I'm working on that by the way. Watch my Raf Fit videos on BigRafTV on Youtube), drop a couple shoe sizes (I wear what would be a size 48.5 here, which is the equivalent to a size 14 US. Doesn't exist in any store that I've been to thus far.), or drop a couple of inches off my height.
I know what you're thinking again. Well Raf, you can just order those things, easy solution! In some cases, yeah, it is that easy. Shop online, see what I want, buy and have it shipped here. Simple. In other cases, not so much because those locations do not ship to my location, regardless of if my P.O Box is considered to be an American address. And, I can't just go try on these items and see if I actually like them. I have to make a firm decision that hey, I like this item, I'm gonna buy it right now. AND, on top of that, it takes a bit longer for items to ship here than it would for say, Nike or Foot Locker to ship something to your house in the states. Again, not end of the world problems, but just spoiled kid problems.
Most recently, I had to go back to my T-Mobile sim card from the states because the cell phone plans here are not the same as they were in the states. I constantly had to monitor my data usage and check my balance for minutes and texts, and in my case, I couldn't even use my texts! Which then leads you to using more data because you have to use Whatsapp or FB Messenger to contact your friends and family. And the internet? Forget about it! The home internet here hasn't even been a portion of what I'm used to in the states. And I am heavy on the internet, I'm a YouTuber, gamer, movie watcher, music listener, etc. 10 MBPS internet isn't cutting it! However, over the past month, the internet has been getting upgraded, and the beginning of the year should see it improve even closer to the standard that I'm accustomed to. Maybe I should practice patience.
Overall, I have three years, and about nine months left here. I want to really enjoy my time here and not feel like I'm missing home. I mean, the closest Dominoes Pizza is an hour and a half away! There's definitely a lot to like here, but I'm just so used to getting what I want, right when I want it, and not having to wait for the things I want, or not being able to get them at all. Maybe this is just the initial phase, because a month after I got here, I felt the complete opposite of how I feel now. We'll see how it goes from here. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I'll holler at you all in the next blog. Peace.
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