Spanish inefficiency at its best

Behold! The gas tank.

Quite frequently, this becomes the bane of my existence here in Spain. At the beginning of Spring Break, it was pretty much empty. Now, normally our routine is that we have a total of three tanks at a time, and once two of them are empty, we order more. As usual, we had asked for the gas delivery man to come with new tanks...at the end of March! Like anything else in Spain, there seems to be no efficient way to get this done. The butanero only comes on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Between my flatmate and I, we can only be here on Fridays to pay for the delivery and exchange the empty tanks for full ones.

The first Friday: my flatmate sat around all day, waiting for the deliveryman to come. They said between 10 and 2. What happens? No show.

The second Friday: I wait around between 10 and 2 for the freak to come. No show again.

Then, Monday of Spring Break: I wait around for the most inefficient business in the world to actually do what they're supposed to. At 1:30, when they still hadn't come, I called the number to try and complain only to discover that I'm the worst Spanish speaker on the face of the Earth (especially on the phone). I asked when they would be around to deliver the tanks only to have him give the typical Spanish sigh regarding their job, basically translating to "Why in the world do I have to work?/I hate working/I'm so lazy that I need another 3-hour lunch break and siesta in order to recover from doing nothing at my job."* Of course, I didn't understand one word of what the idiot was saying, and I stuttered my way through trying to complain, only to be laughed at by the gilipollas! What did I do? Hung up. Gave up. Broke down because my best friend was coming to visit the next day and we wouldn't have hot water. What a great hostess I would be! First, my flat is so small, crappy, and cheap that she would have to hose herself off in my less-than-desirable shower...and then she would have to succumb to doing that in ice-cold water. I don't know about you, but the only ice-cold water I like is that of Donner Lake's West End Beach in the middle of summer!

Finally, the Wednesday of Spring Break: My landlord called and got a more specific time: Between 12 and 2. Of course, knowing how Spanish businesses seem to work, I was sure that if they did come, it would be at 3:00. Fortunately, I was wrong and they actually came right at 12! I was never before so happy to have gas!


Good things about this experience:
1. Ice-cold showers build character. Especially when you have no clue how many of them you will have to take in a row. Not to mention, it makes me very thankful to be spoiled with hot, running water in my flat...
2. I'm determined to learn how to speak on the phone in Spanish. Even though I'm mainly an auditory learner, I obviously rely on a lot more visual cues that I thought. It's time to not sound like a derka derka on the phone...
3. I know that watching The Music Man is an effective way to take my mind off being extremely upset.
4. This is probably the last time we'll have to order gas while I'm here!


*Note that I don't think all Spaniards are like this. Just this gilipollas that I had the unfortunate chance to encounter.