Sometimes, when living here on the beautiful island of Mallorca, you can’t help but make comparisons to things back home. In my personal experience, these comparisons are never usually in favour of life back in Old Blighty! After all, didn’t we relocate to Mallorca because everything is so much better here? The weather. The culture. The people. However, let’s not tumble into the delusion that everything on the island is flawless! American novelist Gertrude Stein once told a young Robert Graves: ‘Majorca is a paradise - if you can stand it!’ At first, I didn’t quite understand that somewhat cynical declaration, but understand that although Mallorca might not be perfect, if you allow yourself the privilege of the ride, then the journey is very rewarding!
When I first moved to the island, I spouted praise everywhere saying how wonderful everything was, and how the locals were amazing with their quaint customs and traditions. A very successful business woman who had lived in Mallorca for decades, raised a knowing eyebrow and exclaimed; “Wait until you’ve lived here for a while and tried working alongside them!” I was taken aback! Her comment wasn’t intentionally disparaging, she was simply passing on a personal opinion based on the frustration of her own experiences. However, over the years I have grown to completely understand what she meant, with most of her exasperations centered on a percentage of Mallorcans’ unwillingness to embrace commitment, deadlines, and punctuality!
The problem however, is not the Mallorcans themselves, but our own inability to grasp and accept that things are done differently here! WE are the foreigners living on ‘their’ island, and although at times it might seem impossible to adjust, we simply have to go with the flow, and take ‘their way’ in our stride.
One of the biggest hurdles when living and working here, seems to be the total disregard of time. It’s not a deliberate decision designed to wind up the ‘foreigners’, it’s just that the majority of Mallorcans (along with most of Spain), simply don’t like to be constrained to a precise commitment of time as we know it in the UK! This concept can be hard to get your head around, and unless you are born Mallorcan, can often be impossible to comprehend. The trick is to adjust your entire way of thinking, especially when the element of time is involved!
Back in the UK, if someone says, “I’ll phone you back in twenty minutes,” the chances are they will return your call. Here, they are just as likely to completely forget, and leave you dangling on a promise for the rest of the day, or week! But what you must understand, is that when they told you they would phone you back, they actually 100% believed that they would make the call. It’s not a deliberate act to intentionally ignore you, it’s just that in Mallorca, people seem to get easily distracted along the way. Something else will grab their attention and become the new priority. In a nutshell, they only seem to be able to deal with one thing at a time. They don’t multi task, therefore if you fall off their radar, then that’s it I’m afraid!
Mallorcans have always operated this way, so you need faith, and must understand that everything really does get resolved in the end, usually at the very last minute possible. Mallorcans simply prefer to do things that way, often unintentionally leaving you feeling forgotten and frustrated. If you don’t continually push, and flag up your presence, then you get lost amongst all the paperwork. Yet in reality, you don’t get lost at all! You just need to chill out, and trust in the ‘Mallorcan way’. That’s how it works! There is absolutely no point in giving yourself an ulcer. Trust that eventually, everything will be resolved. And that’s what the Mallorcans are best at, running around at the last minute, solving a problem which could have been addressed weeks ago! I know it’s hard to accept, and unless you are born Mallorcan you will probably never fully be able to swallow the concept. But nothing in Mallorca is so important that it needs such urgency to cause you distress!
As an expat resident, it can be hard to follow this extreme, laid-back attitude. However, the up-side of the culture really swings into its own when there’s a ‘real’ emergency, and their focus becomes undivided and exemplary as they rally round to solve your disaster!
The secret of survival here in Mallorca is not to worry so much about everything, and to locate your ‘switch-off’ button. We Brits tend to challenge ourselves with super-strict timings, and put ourselves under tremendous pressure with punishing schedules, because we have been raised to respect and honour the commitment to deadlines.
The Mallorcans somehow manage to filter out all unnecessary worry from life, and simply take things as they come, one day at a time, trusting that in the big scheme of things, everything will get done, eventually ‘the Majorcan way’. So don’t fight it. Simply smile, enjoy the Island vibe, and embrace the difference!
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I must take issue with a couple of things in this rose tinted puff piece . " didn’t we relocate to Mallorca because everything is so much better here? The weather. The culture. The people." Well no actually . I am willing to bet the vast majority relocated for the weather certainly , and those who came in the 70's 80's for the low cost of living vis a vis northern Europe. Nowadays the internet and easy travel to most of Europe will doubtless play a part. The people - doubtful as it takes time and language to know them, other than the fact they are not aggressive and appear fairly happy to accommodate foreigners. Culture - anyone relocating to the island for culture is either a bespectacled professor studying middle ages peasant culture or someone sadly deluded. Siurells and frito mallorquin are not going to set the culture vultures on fire. You could add church organs and map making but these are highly specialised topics. I don't think slingshot ability qualifies as culture .