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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
2. Your son surely speaks better Spanish than I do but I donīt talk English too good neither. His experience in Spain, good or bad as it was, canīt really have been anything but a spanish speaking Americans brief impression. No matter where youīre from, 1 year in a foreign country is far too little time to be any sort of authority.
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He LOVED Spain, in spite of getting his pocket picked in Barcelona, which I believe you're near. Sent back gorgeous pictures from there.
I don't want to beat the Moroccan topic to death, but my exchange student shared his opinion. I'll just leave it by saying that when my son was coming back from a party or club on the Metro after 2 a.m., he avoided groups of Moroccans, due to what he'd witnessed. Maybe your area is better--he wasn't in the best part of Madrid, by any means.
Also, he experienced no anti-Americanism. I had told him to avoid talking politics. Most of the people he met were more interested in hearing him talk about life in southern California than in talking about Bush.
I take that back--he had an English class, and the teacher didn't like him, because the teacher's English wasn't very good. So score one for anti-Americanism.
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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
Generally the Morroquis that enter Europe through Espaņa do the shit work that the Spanish donīt want. Picking fruit. Washing dishes. Lots and lots of illegal plentiful construction work. Dangerous scaffolding 6 floors up. 600 bucks a month. 12 hours a day. The Arabs and Pakistanis flipped when they learned I was an American lugging buckets of cement all day. But. I didnīt have work papers either and I had to eat.
Basically they do what the latin Americans are doing in your neighborhood. Working 2 shit jobs you donīt want, living with 8 people in a 2 bdrm. apt. and sending money home to support family.
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He agrees with you on this. BTW, if you've seen some of my earlier posts, you might remember that I once mentioned living on the second floor of a house that had illegals living on the first floor. That's where he learned Spanish. Which was kind of funny, because due to his accent at the time he arrived, all of the Spanish kids thought he was a Mexican.
When I worked construction, I got tired of lugging buckets of cement, and managed to move up to cement finisher. Much easier.
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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
They sell drugs. I know. I buy them. Best hashish in the world round here. Iīd only be upset if they sold garbage. Vodka tonic for you and a joint for me. Cannibis is not a real heavy concern of most informed folk.
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I was told by a person in the know that penalties for drug use over there are stiff. Don't get caught.
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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
Itīs also worthy of noting that almost all the 9/11 bombers were Saudis. Yet Bush went after Iraq.
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Another thread, another time.
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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
Iīd be interested to see what you can show me about the general dislike of Morrocans here. Apart from your well spoken spanish son and his friends.
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A friend who was advising us prior to my son's trip stressed several points, among them:
1. Get a secure holder for your money and passport, because there are a lot of pickpockets (as I said, my son forgot that once too often).
2. Stay away from the Moroccans, because if you get caught with hashish, the penalties are severe. That was all it took to make
me dislike Moroccans--While I have no problem with your lifestyle in regard to hash, I did not want to fly over to try to get my son out of jail.
3. Stay away from the gypsies.
4. Don't make the "okay" sign with your thumb and forefinger. :-)
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Originally Posted by pedro padilla
Te deseo mucho suerte.
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Muchas gracias, igualmente.