Monthly Archives: August 2014

A Glass of Water

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Three times I asked the same waiter for a glass of water. Three times I got the same response: “un momento.” It wasn’t only the fact that he completely neglected my order, but it was how he did it that was so perturbing. His face said it all: eyes rolling with a sigh loud enough that I could hear.

Had this been an isolated event I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But such lento behavior was typical in Spain. The waiter had no reason to care. Establishing good service would neither help nor hurt him. His compensation, job and life would be exactly the same.

In ordering a glass of water one sees the problem with the entirety of such a system when one has no incentive to work. It breeds laziness. There are, of course exceptions to the rule, and I’ve had plenty good service in many parts of Europe. Please don’t write to me with your trivial counter example.

I’m aware that there are examples of exemplary service in places where no incentive (in this case, tips) are required. Southeast Asia is a perfect example. Something about the way the hierarchical system (they effectively still have a class system culture) affects the mindset of the working class produces the best, most authentic service in the world. Such is simply not true in a socialistic culture like Europe.
Drawbacks include people being generally slow, not highly trained and difficulty in thinking outside the box. One can get frustrated trying to place a complicated order. They may have the best intentions, but they often get it wrong… after you wait 20 minutes.

Then there’s the U.S. Undoubtedly the service is much better there, arguably the best, but the incentive based system has its drawbacks. Common complaints are people learning to expect tips, which renders them complacent. Another is that the people are largely fake, only providing efficient service to extract tips from customers, which of course, isn’t a pleasurable experience.
Comparing the three systems, my favorite is the U.S. or Asia.

I’m liable to annoyed ordering water in the U.S. – the fact I have to tip for such a trivial service is absurd to me. But at least they’ll get my order correct, and fast.

Asia is nice when you’re on vacation, but after a while it gets old. I’ll get my water, I’ll just have to wait 20 minutes for it. And it may come with an unexpected side of some feces, which will lead to diarrhea and food poisoning for a week.

But both options still beats Europe. At least the former two countries bring me the fucking glass. In Europe, I’ll just be thirsty.

Helping People to Move Well. Eat Well. Feel Well.

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This is the motto of the nicest gym in Barcelona, the Equinox of Spain. With hundreds of classes to chose from, state of the art equipment and well informed instructors, one feels at right at home. Since everything was “closed on Sunday”and I couldn’t shop for groceries, I would enjoy my Monday morning breakfast at the gym.

I was a little dismayed when I saw the selection posted outside. The picture offered a special, a croissant and coffee (with sugar, free of charge) is €2.50.
If they didn’t feel like indulging, they could opt for the panini, with white bread, cheese and cured meat. Breakfast of champions.

Holmes Place

While I think it’s absurd that a gym, a mecca helping others to “eat well”,  offers such selection, I believe in choice and free market. So I neglected the offer for the “daily special” and asked for a smoothie. They don’t make them. Salad? No. Protein Shake? The waitress referred me to the industrial, highly processed, chemical composition. The truth is that this and a few pieces of fruit was all they offered.

It’s deeply saddens me that confused societies exist with this at their foundation. Health is so dramatically undervalued in our lives that it’s a disgrace that the places that should be on the cutting edge of change are the perputrators of the problem. Isn’t a world where it’s not uncommon for 50% of the population is obese enough for people to wake up? Where new diseases like Type 2 Diabetes are flourishing and cancer is rampant?

It’s only half of the problem that the “healthy” places offer such a terrible selection of food, but the bigger, more absurd half if that I’m likely the only one complaining about it!
Market reflects demand.

Or does it? The inclination from the clueless individual is to think that it’s somehow a sacrifice to drink green juice instead of eat a croissant, when in reality it’s their body that has habituated to the wrong substance. They don’t even know what it’s like to feel energetic, lean, alert. They exist in their mediocre state of lethargy, thinking that it’s normal to need stimulating like caffeine to stay alert and alcohol to relax.
With great power comes great responsibility. The owners of institutions like gyms who are beacons of health have a duty to inform the public. They should suggestively educate the public on healthy alternatives to dated practices of breakfast.
Part of Europe’s charm lies in tradition. But some things are better with change. We don’t live in a world where wheat needs to be a staple because of troubled economic times. People can afford organic green juice. If they think they can’t, it’s time for people to re prioritize how they spend their money and augment the importance of health to a core value in their lives.

Let’s encourage those institutions near us to uphold their responsibility to serve the public interest and encourage a healthy lifestyle for the future.

Closed on Sundays

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Not only is the biggest phone provider in the biggest metropolitan city of Barcelona closed on Sunday, but the process to which I discovered that was enough to cause a premature death. I navigated through the prehistoric Vodafone site (all in Spanish of course), and found the attached page. The ONLY way to contact a phone provider was scroll on an abysmal map through the thousands of providers to find the one closest to me.

How can one survive in a country where major companies, who’s efficiency affects the entire county, are closed on Sunday? That’s 1/7th of the fucking time!
I know I’m supposed to, as a frequent travel, be open minded, even appreciative of the differences in culture. And I’m supposed to realize the charm in things being closed, that people here aren’t overworked like they are in America, that there is a bigger picture lesson here and I’m supposed to make a lifestyle change and realize that I don’t actually need anything on Sunday, and that it can wait until tomorrow. And in that waiting I appreciate the little things, like the loud noise and pollution of the scooters going by, or the pretty prison looking outside of other boarded up stores that aren’t open, but the truth is that I’m just annoyed.

And all that philosophical bullshit is really just masking the one word reality in which this entire fucking country seems to be existing: inefficiency.

I also realize that one may label this as an extremely American point of view. To whom I would say, try living in a place where things close 2 days a week and four hours during the working day and tell me which system you prefer. And in the very nature of labeling it American one seeks to write off the ideology as if it’s narrow minded. But there are some things about America that are actually virtues. One of them is that it’s extremely fucking efficient.

What the traveler must do is evaluate things critically. And this siesta shit is just behind the times. If someone want to take time off to enjoy the flowers on Sunday, on every Sunday, I think that’s great. Work like balance is important. Extremely important. But the individual should have that choice.

But sometimes I want to get shit done on Sunday. And in a modern society I think that should be the option of the individual, not the will of the corporations.
End rant.