Cars

Well, last night over supper Vicente, Ana, Chloe, and I had a good lil conversation over cars. We started out talking about how Laura was wanting her mom to send her a swimsuit, and her mom was saying how it would be so much cheaper for her just to buy one over there. So they were asking me where she could get one. I said probably not in Ulysses, but in Garden City. I told them it was about an hour away, but a lot of people go there to shop.
Vicente asked how she could get there: ¨Are there regular buses that run there? Is there a train?¨ He absolutely could not believe that you had to have your own car to get there. I told him that pretty much everyone has a car. He didn´t believe me. He was like ¨Not everyone has a car! For one, Laura doesn´t have a car.¨ I told him that your parents take you then, but most kids my age drive. I guess here they have buses that run regularly from Pamplona to the little towns that surround it, Peralta, Caparroso, and places like that.
Then Chloe told him that her family has 6 cars, and I told him that we have quite a few too. He was flabbergasted. He said... ¨That is not possible. There´s not enough space to park them all. If everybody has that many cars.¨He refused to believe this because here it is not possible. There are not gi-normous parking lots here like we have in America, and most families only have one car. There´s honestly just not parking space. And... get this... It costs 2,000 Euros to get a driver´s license. UNBELIEVABLE for me, AND, you can´t drive until you´re 18, but most 18 year olds don´t have that kind of money, so they have to work for a couple years just to be able to afford a driver´s license!
Anyway... so he continued with asking me how older people got around. I said.. .well they drive a car. Both he and Ana couldn´t believe that older people drove, because none of the older people here drive. They didn´t grow up with cars even, probably. They said that all of the older people are fearful of driving. Both of their moms are scared of driving, and it´s really just not necessary.They were surprised that my grandma drove. Then I thought about that, and maybe they do have a point. No... I´m just joking with you grandma! Because everything is crunched together here, and there is so much public transportation, it´s alright to be without a car. I went on to tell him that only in the cities is there more public transportation.
Then I asked him about Taxis here. They are not used near as much as in the cities in the US. I Then I said that it´s customary to tip them too, as well as in restaurants. I guess here tipping is not customary.
Here sooo many people live in the city. About every building is a tall apartment building. And they all live in fairly small apartments, so the norm is to only have one car, because there are simply too many people living in the city, there is not enough space for everyone to own a car. It was an interesting conversation, quite fun actually. It was funny, Vicente thinks it´s so stupid that we don´t have buses. I told him he should move over there and start up a business.