Los coches

Okay, I'm no car person, but I have a hankerin' to write a blog post about cars.

Cars are one of the first things that make you realize that you're not in Kansas anymore, I mean, America. It was one of the first things I noticed as I landed in Europe in January and that still strikes me every once and a while.

Why are they so different? Firstly, the style is just different. They are smaller and somehow look distinctly European. Moreover, you don't see as many new cars as you do in America. Europeans, in many areas, buy things to last. Many Americans buy cars, and other things, to have for a few years and then buy the next big thing. Furthermore, there aren't very many SUVs and minivans. The roads are so narrow that it's impractical to have one, so they don't.

I may have said in an earlier blog post that Carmen doesn't have a car. Until this week, I thought she didn't. Well, surprise! She has one. She rarely uses it because she prefers to take the bus. It was also broken until this week. It's been broken for over a year and she finally got it fixed this week. I went with her to pick it up, which was fun because the place where she got it repaired was in a barrio I hadn't been to before.

After she picked up her car, she had to get it officially checked out. In Spain, you have to annually get your car checked out by certified mechanics to be able to legally drive. If your car checks out, you get a sticker to stick on your windshield saying that you're cleared to drive. We don't do this in America, so I thought the process was really fun.

Once we got through the really long line, the mechanic started the process. He was kind of grumpy. I could tell Carmen didn't like him much. Anyway, he started telling her all these things she needed to do. Like, "headlights," so she turned on her front lights. Then "break lights," "signals," "windshield wipers," etc. He went through the list. When he got to the emergency lights (the red triangle on the dashboard), Carmen didn't know what he was talking about so I pressed it for her. She had forgotten where a lot of things were in her car because she hadn't driven in a year.

After that, there was a wheel test. Then they lifted the car up and looked under. I guess they do all these things in America, but it's not mandatory and you're not usually with the car watching.

When that was finished, we went to the giant supermarket. Except "supermercado" isn't the same as our version of "superstore," they call it "hípermercado" which would translate as a hypermarket. Kind of call, huh? Anyway, one of the interior lights wouldn't turn off and Carmen couldn't remember how to turn it off so she just popped it out and pulled the plug to turn it off. I would have sat there looking for the switch, possibly for a good fifteen minutes, and never think to do that. I thought it was really funny.

We also went to get gas, which was a different experience for me as well. For one thing, there is a gas attendant. Unless you live in New Jersey or Oregon, you have to pump you're own gas in the United States. So that was different. Then, I tried to compare gas prices to ours, but I failed. Not because it was in euros, but because they fill up their tanks based on liters, not gallons. We really need to switch to the metric system. No one else uses the one we use and it's a pain to have to convert everything. I have to convert temperature, my weight, my height, serving sizes, and the list goes on. So annoying. But, I digress.

I've also noticed that they have "Stop" signs. That say "Stop" on them, in English. Not "Parada" or another form of the Spanish verb for stop. Very interesting.  

Pamplona has a lot of traffic circles. I don't know if that's a city thing in general or maybe it's more common in Europe than in America. Not sure. Just an observation.

You also definitely have to be a much more vigilant driver here. People cross the streets without looking. Drivers only signal sometimes (Carmen included). Overall, it's a more assertive way of driving.

It's also really rare to have an automatic car. Most people still drive stick shift. I asked Carmen how to call that in Spanish and she just said "car." If there is a word, she doesn't know it. If you have an automatic car, then you classify it, but the norm is the manual/stick shift. Which is the opposite in the United States.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write something about cars, even though I know virtually nothing about cars.