Culture shock and cat speak

Hello from Spain! Oh my goodness it’s been so much fun. Madrid is incredible and I love it. I’m sure you all aren’t surprised that Madrid is a whole lot safer than Minneapolis. I comfortably walk the whole city day or night without any fear of getting hurt; it’s a wonderful feeling. In the Cities, I sometimes don’t even feel safe walking on campus. Oh well. 

While I believe I recovered pretty quickly from the jet lag, let me explain the culture shocks I have experienced or witnessed. Besides safety, there are quite a few other things that have caught my attention or piqued my interest. 

First off, the food. While the food is good and I appreciate the fact that I am getting homemade genuine Spanish cuisine, it’s also quite interesting. Take breakfast for example. While usually people might have eggs, toast, bacon or more - or like my sister with a plateful of pancakes - in Spain they don’t really have breakfast. Of course, the coffee is inevitable but you might get a piece of toast or maybe a small pastry and call that breakfast. Speaking of coffee, they have no concept of iced coffee, which means my iced coffee addiction has subsided and I have finally learned how to drink hot coffee. 

Then there’s dinner. There’s nothing specifically different with the dinner itself and the food, but the fact that they don’t eat until eight or nine at night is interesting to me. Sometimes I have to eat four meals a day to keep from starving. Breakfast, regular lunch at noon, snack at four or five because I know I won’t be eating until later. It’s quite interesting. 

Also with dinner is the dessert. They do not do desserts like the states do. No sugar filled cakes or anything but instead fruit or yogurt or such. But that I am grateful for so that my sweet tooth doesn’t do me dirty. 

Another culture shock that I’ve had is smoking. I had been informed that smoking is more normalized here than at home, but I wasn’t prepared to walk down the street and be surrounded by smokers. I’m not complaining, it’s only much more than I had pictured because I come from an environment where smoking is less visible. 

I will say one of my favorite cultural differences is the siesta. Although people weren’t joking that stores close down in the middle of the afternoon and that it’s difficult to do anything then, at least now I don’t get judged for taking naps every day. And it doesn’t matter what time, either. I could get back from class at five and sleep and it’s just expected at this point. 

While these culture shocks haven’t really been difficult, it’s been the language barrier that I’ve still struggled with the most. My host family consists of a retired couple and their cat, none of whom speak English. While I can speak some Spanish I do not speak cat - as much as I’d like to think I do. 

But after a few awkward conversations, that hasn’t been going too badly either. My host mother Teresa and I have dinner and sit and talk for a while; It’s quite wholesome and I enjoy it.

My Determination: “You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed. You’re not gonna succeed all the time and I know that.” - Lebron James