Call me superficial. Call me pathetic. Call me whatever you want, but one thing which became readily apparent to me in the first five minutes of arriving in Spain is that almost everyone here seems to be incredibly attractive.

Both men and women look like they’ve come from some sort of fashion show, despite the fact that it’s 7am in the morning, and most ordinary mortals look like me (namely, ruffled, crumpled, and a complete mess).

I think part of it may be because the Madrileños know how to dress well. The women have perfectly fitting jeans and always look as if they’ve just come out of a hairdresser. And the men are able to wear coloured pants without looking as if they’ve failed an audition for the circus.

What’s particularly interesting is that even though it’s getting cold, and they’re wearing loads of layers of clothing, they still manage to look incredibly sexy.

This just isn’t fair!

I used to think “Wow, Elena Anaya is so beautiful!” (I was going to put Penélope Cruz, but I think Elena Anaya is more attractive) and “Antonio Banderas looked really good in that film” (I know, I know, Antonio Banderas, lots of people don’t think he’s good looking, but for some reason, I do). However, since coming to Spain, I have come to realise that the vast majority of the population look like Elena or Antonio WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!

Elena Anaya

Antonio Banderas

There is simply no justice in this world.

But the most bizarre part of the whole thing is that one teacher at my school seems to think that I am the Australian Elena Anaya equivalent (I WISH!). She keeps telling me that my eyes are “sooooo pretty” (because they’re light in colour), that my hair is “soooooo curly” (I haven’t seen anyone with hair as curly as mine yet), and that my Spanish is “sooooooooo funny” (not sure if this is meant as praise or an insult).

I DO NOT look like this!

I think this teacher needs to book an urgent appointment at her optometrist, as her glasses clearly aren’t strong enough. Or maybe it’s simply the case that people tend to find difference attractive? Who knows? There’s probably a PhD in this for someone, and let me just say, I definitely think that investigating differences in attractiveness around the world would be much more interesting than a lot of other PhDs…

Any takers?