But, hey, here we are.
Prepare yourself for some sweeping generalities in this one. I typically try (and occasionally fail) to avoid speaking on anything that I'm uninformed about, but, for reasons you'll soon learn, now is a good time for something a little sillier. It's still not easy, though; for starters, how does one describe life in the United States? My first reaction is to start talking about Kendrick Lamar, the underwhelming football and basketball teams that I support, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but there's a decent chance that an American reading this would not relate to anyone of those things.1 And maybe with some effort I could describe life in Nashville or (less likely) south central Kentucky, but I've never even been to most of the cities or regions that my students here want to talk about.2 Moreover, I haven't been anywhere other than Catalonia in Spain.
All that considered, here's a broad list of some of the differences that I've noticed (excluding obvious things like the language differences):
- People living here have nearly as many (and sometimes more) cultural and/or political opinions about the United States as people living in the States, and many people here, particularly younger people, expect Americans to have at least somewhat as many feelings about Spain and Spanish people. My students were disappointed to learn that the vast majority of United States citizens have little to no knowledge about anything related to Spain other than siestas (which, let me just say, are somewhat of a myth), perhaps the tiniest bit of an idea that some people living in Catalonia want independence from Spain, and the existence of Penelope Cruz and/or Enrique Iglesias.
- Speaking of Penelope Cruz and Enrique Iglesias, I've gotta say that the average person looks better here. How ever you would rate my looks on a scale of 1-10 in the States, you'd dock me at least 2-3 points here. It's crazy. I don't know if it's a product of the diet, lifestyle, or simply the style, but, whatever the cause, it's noteworthy.
- I wouldn't say that Spanish people are lazy, which is the perception that most people here believe that those living outside of the country have of Spaniards, but the typical Spaniard is not as concerned with punctuality as your typical American. That Christening that my host family and I went to the first day that I was in Barcelona? We were late. That 8:00 class that I go to every Thursday morning? The teacher's late every time; this isn't even strange, though, because the teacher of almost every class that I go to is at last a couple minutes late. The 8:00 class that I went to this Thursday morning? It was... cancelled? I still don't know what happened, but I know that neither the teacher nor the students were at school when I got here, and, as a product of that, I had some free time to write this post.
- Continuing with a similar theme, people in Barcelona also seem to be less concerned/stressed (depending on how you want to perceive things) with work here. Moreover, while saying such a thing about anyone living in the States would often be considered an attack on someone's character, the observation, which is made so often by Spaniards, is not really offensive here. In my experience, people in Barcelona, like people everywhere, can/do work as hard as anyone when necessary, but Spaniards, in general, are not so consumed by their work that they let if affect their personal lives and stress levels in a tremendous way. I think that's pretty cool.
- People eat all the time here, and that can initially be confusing for a foreigner living with locals. I eventually learned that the food we were eating at 6:00-6:30 was a "snack," but I was throwing down food like it was The Last Supper at 6:30 on my first couple days in Spain, and I paid for dearly at 10:00 when it was time to eat an actual dinner. You see, another thing about Spain that I noticed very quickly was that practically no adult leaves any food left on their plate. I'm known in the States for eating (and, ironically, being late), but it was killing me to eat all the food that I was taking in during my first week in Spain. I've grown used to the eating schedule here quickly, though, and if I miss any "snack" - which are basically small meals - between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner now, it feels like I'm dying.
- Many of the people who have lived in Barcelona for an extended period of time have become completed desensitized to how wonderful the weather is here. It's rained for longer than a hour one time in the three weeks that I've been here, and people were devastated. The temperature, for reference, is within 2 degrees of 20 degrees Celsius (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit) for the next month. The absolute hottest that it gets in Barcelona is essentially 30 degrees Celsius (about 86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late July/early August, and locals will tell you that the summers here are unbearable. Why? I'll give you two reason: the sun shines like it's going out of style, and people refuse to change their style. Men are particularly guilty of this, and they seem to take pleasure in wearing a sweater, a long-sleeve shirt, and cotton pants regardless of the weather.
1 Disliking Kendrick Lamar is heresy. Supporting successful sports teams or having a peanut allergy, while unrelatable for me, is acceptable.↩
2 Life for me in south central Kentucky primarily includes writing papers, teaching for free, and going to Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. I don't know if everyone else who lives in the area can relate to those three things, but I do know for a fact that 90% of the adults living there also go to Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen quite frequently. ↩
