What do I really think about Adrian and his family

Hello! Since I started dating Adrian, who is from Spain, I have been asked this question so many times.

To set the record straight (and hopefully I will also be heralded as Spain's national hero so I can meet Juan Mata and King Felipe VI and his gorgeous daughter, Leonor, Princess of Asturias), I will be answering this question once and for all. On a separate note, this blog post is long overdue since I feel it is extremely unfair for Spaniards to be labelled as something that they are not which damages their reputation.


ARE SPANIARDS LAZY???

A lot of people associate Spain with never-ending siestas, late dinners and night outs. But is it true that they love to snooze, love to dillydally, and love to have a good time because they are lazy? Well, Investigator Bel is on the case.

First, although it is true that Spaniards do love their afternoon snooze, it is not everyday that they can indulge in one. For example, people who are working from 9 to 6  (haha, not 5) jobs obviously cannot take naps as and when they want to.

Having said that, I wish to point out that there are companies which allow their employees to do so and even provide rooms and beds for them to take proper naps (cause you know, sleeping on the table is really bad for one's back and neck... students, you know what I mean).
Please click on this link: http://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/google-uber-and-other-companies-where-you-can-nap-at-the-office.html

Some of the companies which are highlighted by the said website are:
1) Uber (headquarted in San Francisco, USA)
2) Google (headquarted in Menlo Park, USA)
3) Zappos (headquarted in Nevada, USA)
4) Capital One Labs (headquartered in Virginia, USA)
5) Ben & Jerry´s (headquarted in Vermont, USA)
6) PwC (headquarted in New York, USA)

So as you can see, it is increasingly common for American (not Spanish) companies to encourage power naps to beat the after lunch epidemic.

In addition, here's a bonus fun fact. Legions of companies across the globe in Japan also advocate for afternoon naps because of inemuri. They believe it helps to shake away lethargy that insidiously catch people off guard and ultimately, helps promotes efficiency. Come on, all of you people who have done internships or have worked before, you should know what I am talking about... It hits the hardest in the morning around 9am and after lunch, personally speaking.

Enough about other countries and stupid trivia about other countries... What about Spain? Contrary to popular belief, employees cannot and do not take naps. It is forbidden and frowned upon just as much as in Singapore. That means they plough through the day for eight hours and do work hard. So if anything, if their siesta is the reason why Spain is known as a 'lazy' country, other countries should technically be 'lazier' than Spain, right? How come they don't get flagged?

Next question. Who takes siestas in Spain then?? Erm, I hate to break it to you but... me. Well well, in my defense, retirees and students too. Basically, people who can afford siestas.

In other words, Spaniards are diligent, and if the definition of 'lazy' is the unwillingness to work, then they shouldn't be pigeonholed unfairly. And if they are stereotyped as being lazy because of their siestas, it is a complete fallacy. It is laughable actually.

In fact, according to Office for National Statistics of the UK, hmmm, I am too lazy to explain so please look at the table below.

Self-explanatory. The data shows that Spanish workers actually spend longer hours at work than average employees in the EU.
(Although a much better indicator would be real average wage growth against productivity growth which is why I hope Singapore and countries like Spain and the Greece will learn from Germany.)


Next, what about late dinners and fiestas? Is it because they  slack and start their days late?

Aha! This would surprise you but there is a actually a scientific reason for that. Spain is apparently situated in the 'wrong' time zone. I am not going to delve into it because I am not an expert but I will briefly state that this means Spain experiences longer days. So having dinners at 8pm in Singapore is normal but here, with the sun still shining until 9.30pm, it is like having dinner at 5pm in Singapore which well, is weird. So that is why they take their dinner around 10pm (about 5-6 hours after their tea break) and after dinner, that is when their evening activity starts (you know, like most people's).

Also, one more thing to add about fiestas. Just because people enjoy life and make time to achieve that goal does not mean that they are lazy and do not work. What if I told you they work just as hard as they play? I think people judge them unfairly. Whatever it is, judge based on facts and not myths (which hopefully I have debunked).


______________________________


So there you go! Spaniards are not lazy. You know what they actually are? They are freaking laid-back and chill. I wish I had such a mentality. I mean, wouldn't it be nice to take things slowly and genuinely enjoy every second of your life even though the world seems to be one gigantic 'filthy horror show' (sorry if I am being overly dramatic but it is a phrase from American Horror Story and I cannot resist).

To illustrate... I'm going to tell you a story. Lol, bear with me, especially if you like juicy gossips...


The other day, I followed Adrian to his band practice. Band as in symphonic band and not a rock band cause he is not that cool (just kidding, a symphonic band is way cooler since I am in love with Hans Zimmer and Immediate Music and Two Steps from Hell and Hi-Finesse and yeah, I think you get it now; if not, Youtube them). Anyway, I was sitting behind and the music transports me back into time - when I was 13 to 18.

I remember I used to really enjoy being in the guzheng ensemble when I started at 7/8 years old. I just like the idea that tension exerted by the end of each string produces a note. And notes create music. I still find that incredulously insane. But when I joined the guzheng ensemble in secondary school and JC, everything changed. It was not the novelty of this coffin-like instrument that made me want to go to practice two to three times a week. It was the competitions (SYF) and the pressure that people would judge you if you slack off. It became... well, simply not fun. In actuality, it was even extremely stressful because we could not even speak to each other during practice or heck, even write notes on the score sheets without permission. Yeah, I know... it is weird...

Then there I was, witnessing Adrian and his band mates laugh it off when they made mistakes. My god, the audacity!!!! I was so used to my ensemble's regimen that I swear I felt like going up to the 'troublemakers' for disrupting the practice. I mean, for every second you waste laughing at yourself, it is one second wasted on something that: -
1) isn't funny to begin with
2) is unproductive
3) is rude to the other people in the band

Then it hit me... they were actually having fun which is what these sorta activities should be, shouldn't it? When was the last time I had fun at guzheng practice... Damn it, I can only recall the one time I cried (it was one time and it might have been my PMS but still...)

So what if I had the Gold with Honours? When I look back at my CCA life, I shudder and I will never want to join another school guzheng ensemble again... all because it was not only not fun but just plain unnecessarily taxing for a then 13 year old child.

Anyhow, thank you for reading. I shall end this lengthy blog post with this: different cultures have different ways of getting work done and there are pros and cons to each way. We should try our best to not judge people before getting our facts straight and... ok, who am I kidding? I shall stop preaching already. This is turning into a protracted and artificially didactic dissertation...


Now, please watch this video. It may cause heart attack if you are into really good-looking men but it is worth it... PLEASE...