learning the laws...

One thing about moving to a new country, find someone local with some sense to explain or catch you doing something illegal. I am not talking about like buying drugs or prostitution, common sense takes over in those categories. I am talking about little things that we take for granted or abuse in America.
Last Sunday I was driving thru the town on the way to have lunch with a school buddy of Carme´s and her family. Now the town is but so big but for some reason, Carme wanted me to call her brother in law, Johnnie, to ask him about satellite service...you see here in Spain, television is not the favorite past time. The programming is boring, even for me who can´t understand a word, but I can tell that they spend a lot of time talking about celebrities and athletes.


So I am driving down main street, about to enter one of the rondas (circular ways used to change direction or U-turn back down the street you came...this is opposed to installing traffic lights where there is little traffic) when I had the right of way and this other car decided to jet out in front of me. Playing the defensive driver I halted. The car stopped in front of me (envision me coming into the circle from the 6 o´clock position and the other car coming in from the 3 o´clock position...here, there is no right of way but left of way...ha ha). when i decided to edge forward, so did he and both of us stopped again and he and I just made eye contact. Then I told Johnnie to hold on, as I could not concentrate on her unselfish attempts to speak with me in English (I mean he is Dutch, they all speak English from the womb) and i dropped the phone into my lap and stared this knucklehead down in front of my car. By some chance my chance glance into the car alarmed me that he was in fact a local police officer. As to what seemed to be a lifetime, he finally signalled to me that I should not be talking on the phone and driving at the same time.


OK here is my issue, why not give me a freaking ticket rather than risk life and limb at 10 miles per hour while playing chicken in a rondas? I mean if I break the law, give me a ticket and I am sure to learn my lesson. I am all for paying debt to society (sans death penalty). I am sure I will get the message quick. Still this moron accelerates to cut me off rather than burning a calorie to flick on his flashing blue light. I guess he was too bothered to do the paperwork. But at the rate they do paper work in this country (for example my residency) I will forget I even got a ticket months later.