When in Spain

Household chores:

• To take out the garbage, you leave your apartment building and walk to the nearest garbage dumpster or recycling bin conveniently located right on the sidewalk.  
• There is no dryer.  You have to hang your clothes out to dry.  On humid, rainy days, your clothes will not dry.  On sunny days (even in winter), they will dry the instant you release the second clothespin. 
• Primetime TV starts at 10 PM
• There are commercials in both Spanish and English
• The commercials go at the end of the show, not in the middle of it.
• TV shows start at 15 past the hour and end at quarter to the hour.

At the grocery store:

• When you enter a grocery store with a bag full of items purchased at another store, please proceed to the lockers at the front of the store.  You'll need to put your bags there before shopping here.  It will cost .50 or 1€ to 'rent' the lockerm but you'll get the money back when you leave the store.
• With some larger stores (like Eroski or Hipercor, which are Wal-Mart type stores) you may have to put your bags from other stores in a large, clear plastic garbage bag which are provided at the front of the store.  You put your items in the garbage bag and then sealed it with heat (much like sealing the bags at the food shelf, if you have ever done that).
• Most grocery stores will charge you for any plastic bags you need at the check out (usually between .01 and .03 €).  The ironic part is that they don't charge you for those plastic bags at the front of the store.  (*That's a hint)
• If you are buying fruit at the grocery store, you will probably have to weigh it yourself.  Choose your fruit, and then proceed to the scale/sticker maker.  Press the numbered button that corresponds with the fruit you are buying and a label will print out.  Place the label on the bag. ( I would imagine that some people add another step here: add more fruit to bag.) Proceed to checkout.
•  There are ALWAYS lines at the grocery store.  But SEVERAL times people have let me go in front of them when they have a whole cart full of groceries and I have only 3 or 4 things.  

On the Bus:

• It seems that Spanish people favor the aisle seats.  I have done extensive research (I ride the bus route from start to finish - because I have to, not because I wanted to do this study).  The strange thing is that as the bus fills up and people need to sit in the window seats, people don't give up the aisle seats.  Instead, a new arrival to the bus will indicate that they want to sit in the empty seat (by the window), the aisle-seat sitter stands up and allows the person to pass through to the window seat.  I don't think I have ever seen someone move over to the window seat.  I did it myself once, just to try it out.  I sat in the aisle seat near the back of the bus. I watched the bus fill with people.  A lady noticed that the seat next to me was empty, came back to my row and indicated that she wanted to sit down.  I stood up and allowed her to pass to the seat.  It didn't feel as rude as I thought it would.  It felt like I was just keeping the seat I chose and giving her the one she chose.  There was nothing rude about it.  In fact, I had already warmed up my (cold, plastic) seat, she wouldn't have been comfortable there.  There's nothing worse than sitting in a seat warmed by someone else.
• There is usually a single seat to the right of the driver that is convenient for a rider to sit and converse with the driver.  I think it is a rule that if you sit there you MUST talk to the driver.  If there is no seat on the bus, you will have to stand up (in front of the yellow line!) and talk to the driver.  But it seems that on every ride someone must keep the driver company.
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* the newspapers blur the faces of the police rather than those of the accused.
* titles are on the spines of books facing the other way. Turn your head left to read the title (most of the time).
*Take a number, say 'Buenos Dias' at the post office.
*Cats only have 7 lives
* Pencils without erasers.
* 5 continents
* Bathrooms- no tp/soap
*Double parking/horn
* Red peppers are cheaper than green peppers