Random Differences Between Here and the Good Old Estados Unidos

1. Electronics.

Forget about using all your chargers, entourage of hair styling tools, iphone charger...all of it. Even if you're the person who's like "yeah but my mom got me this awesome package of converters so everything's totally going to work!". It won't. Your converter from the U.S. will blow a fuse, which will cause your fuse box to semi-explode which will make for an interesting encounter with security. You just have to suck it up and buy all your tricked out hair styling tools here and converters for all your electronics. Yeahh it'll cost 100€ and yes it will be worth it to have the best 4 months of your life.


2. Communication

So you know when you're at Madison (or college in general) and out at night and your phone dies and you have a semi-freakout moment when you proceed to run around the party asking to use someone's mac to charge it because you don't know how to communicate with your friends who are, no doubt, all over Madison? No picture an extended version of that. A reallllly long extended version of that. I feel like my communication problems are 10x worse because apparently I missed the "everyone gets WhatsApp before they go abroad" memo and can't use my iphone for communicating AT ALL (WhatsApp lets you use wifi - or as the Spaniards call it, weefee/woofi - to text anyone else who has the app for free). I bought a pay-as-you-go phone about a week after I got here from Vodaphone (everyone uses pay as you go here...I haven't found out why yet though) and put 10 euro on it (texts are 15 cents and calling is more than that...I don't know how much) and it worked for 1 day and then stopped. Soooo I've kind of given up on that little guy, especially since going and explaining the issues I'm having to the store worker who only speaks Catalan is entirely out of the question. So it's been a lot of Facebook chat and skype for me thus far. Living in the residencia makes it easier too since people just make plans via facebook or knock on people's doors when they want to do something. 

3. Consumption of vino y cervesa

So there's the whole stereotype that Americans drink to get drunk and Spaniards don't, but thus far, I'm not entirely convinced. First of all, you can't fool me into thinking that all the Spanish students that are at the discotecas/clubs until 6am with Avicii and 1000 other remixes spinning at top volume are sober. They're just not. If they were, they wouldn't be raging to Avicii at 6am. It's also VERY common to drink with lunch. In fact, at almost all the restaurants that serve "el menu del dia" (3-5 course meal for around 9€...similar to the "special of the day" in America and very very common in Barcelona) you can choose to have either water or a half bottle of wine. For lunch! Young people, old people, people on their lunch break, everyone drinks with lunch and dinner. I feel like they're in a constant state of being a little buzzed. Maybe that's why they're known for being so relaxed and happy (take note America). Alcohol is also a lot cheaper than in the States. We usually get bottles of wine for around 1€ and hard alcohol is anywhere from 5-10€ a liter. You have to be 18 to drink, but they don't card at all, either. I feel like if you want to buy alcohol and you're 13, you probably could. In fact, Sunday in the park I had what appeared to be a 13 year old boy come up and try to sell me "cervesa frio" (cold beer). 

4. People Selling Things 

There are ALWAYS people trying to sell you things in Barcelona, especially at the beach, in the park, or on the streets later at night. So far I've been hassled to buy light-up jewelry, a rose, a Dora balloon, sunglasses, a scarf, a cross, a coconut?, chocolate donut looking things, beer/Coca-Cola/water (alllll the time), a massage, some stuff in jars that had to do with chicken that a gypsey lady showed us in her lunch box, "any drug I want"...sketch, the list goes on. At first I felt the need to let them down nicely and and smile and say a few words about why I didn't want it. Now it's just, "no". They say that Americans are too polite anyways and easily spotted by their overuse of por favor and gracias. So I'm adopting that part of the culture and now just saying "no" every time someone tries to sell me something. 

5. Daily Schedule and Meals

First of all, they get up later and it's very uncommon to find any store open before 9am. They have a light breakfast which is usually some kind of pastry - they incorporate chocolate into their breakfast food a lot more than Americans do - which I am completely okay with. A common breakfast could be a chocolate filled croissant or chocolate squares with milk (a cereal that I have yet to try and heard isn't all that great...especially at 9am). Lunch is eaten around 2:30 and is the biggest meal of the day. It's meant to be eaten slowly and it's almost impossible to find a food place that will let you take things "para llevar" or to-go. The meal is meant to last a couple hours and the waiter/waitress doesn't bring you your check until you specifically ask for it. If you don't ask for it, they'll let you sit there for 8 hours. Lunch is always served with a dessert, too, but here fruit is considered a dessert, and is the most common dessert (something I'm completely okay with). Stores and restaurants close around 5 for about 3 hours while everyone goes home to take their siestas (love love love this) and then dinner is served any time between 9 and 11pm (sometimes even until midnight) and is something small, usually just tapas (various little appetizers). 

6. All Things School-Related 

School, or at least college, isn't taken quite as seriously here. Students typically go to the college that they live closest too and it is very unusual for a student to travel to another part of Spain to go to a different university. Most of the Spanish students in Barcelona live with their parents still, but a few have apartments downtown. They talk a ton during their classes and don't really pay attention to the teacher. I'm in a class with 99 students and it's usually nearly impossible to hear what she's saying and she just keeps right on teaching because "she's not a fighter". She even told us we can sleep in class and we can leave whenever we want and she won't care or write our names down (her effort to get the people who talk to either shut up or leave). Classes never start on time and it's normal for a class to run 10 or 15 minutes late (or get out 25 minutes early). The starting and ending times of classes are kind of irrelevant. I also don't need textbooks for any of the classes I'm taking and there's absolutely no day to day work. We get graded solely on participation, one or more projects/papers, and sometimes a midterm and/or final. Three of my classes are centered around taking field trips (which is a dream come true) and all of my classes have at least one field trip. Also, every class has at least one 10 minute break which we see as a break to talk (since we don't talk the rest of the time because we feel rude talking over the teacher) and get coffee (because our sleep schedules are screwed up from being at the discotecas all night and having class at 9:30 at night) and they see as a smoke break. They alllll smoke here it seems. Also, on a side note, I've noticed when parents walk their kids to school, they all carry their children's backpacks for them. It is adorable. There'll be a dad carrying this tiny little superhero backpack on his shoulder and a little boy scootering alongside him (the kids love their scooters here...wish I would've brought my Razor!)

7. Transportation

One, left turns are usually not possible and Barcelona lovvvves the roundabouts. All the streets are one-way and if you need to go left, you just can't. You have to go in this little lane to the right and turn right and then go around a roundabout and then end up going the direction you wanted to go in the first place. Cars are smaller and mopeds/motorbikes are plentiful. Everyone uses the metro all the time. It's cheap, fast, and convenient and it comes every 2 minutes. Finally, you can't just tell a cab driver the name of a place and expect him to know where it is. They never do. You have to know the exact address and sometimes even have to explain what it's close to. The metro only runs all night on Saturdays so I feel like I've definitely been to doing my part in contributing a large amount of money to the income of the taxi drivers. We always take taxis at night, which is annoying and adds up quickly, especially if they know you're unsure of where you are and take you the long way to get home. 

8. Doggggs

There are dogs everywhere and they are always dressed in cute little outfits and are the most well-behaved dogs I've ever seen. Usually, they are not leashed and they just follow their owners everywhere and even wait outside obediently when their owners will run into the supermarket for something. I want onnnne.


9. Water


It depends who you ask about the water whether the tap water is safe to drink or not but after 2 weeks of trying to drink it (it tastes kind of bad) and feeling not sick, but just off, the entire time, I've broken down and only buy bottled water now. Restaurants NEVER serve tap water. In fact, water always come in glass bottles and makes you feel really fancy. Apparently, they're afraid of getting sued if anyone gets sick from the water so it's just a common practice to only serve bottled water to customers. There have also been some stomach issues going around the program which I can't help but think is somehow related to the water.

10. Americans are loud. Spanish people are touchy/repeated offenders of personal bubble area.

These stereotypes are true. Americans are loud, and therefore get stared down by locals quite often. They see it as being rude and quite honestly, I agree with them in that respect. And the Spanish people don't respect the personal bubble rule. Besides the whole "kiss, kiss" thing when you meet someone (which feels strange especially when its a 50 year old guy or something) they're just very touchy and like to stand very close to you when they talk to you. It's taken some getting used to, but I'm getting there. 

11. Spanish people take the time to enjoy life. 

On Sundays, everything is closed and no one is reachable by email. The parks of the city are PACKED with families doing cute little family things, and big family lunches on Sunday are common. Many Spaniards also take the month of August off to go on vacation and spend time with their friends and families. Similar to the relaxed culture of school, life is just more relaxing and enjoyable. It's refreshing to see people doing things that actually matter instead of getting old, fat, and gray climbing up the corporate ladder doing mindless work. 

I'm sure I'll think of many other things that I'll be sure to write in another post, but this post is getting way too long and I have to study for my Spanish exam at some point that is in 9 hours. So adios! Buenas noches