Major Cultural Differences

Spain. The United States of America. Very different countries. Here are some major differences between living in Spain and the U.S. that I may not have mentioned previously. If any of these are repeats from previous posts, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Grocery Stores: Think of your local ma and pa corner grocery, oh wait, there aren't any. There are a few small grocery stores around Seattle, but not many. That is how all of the stores in Madrid are. Even the gigantic stores are smaller than your average one at home. The variety is limited and you may need to go to more than one store to find all of the things you need. On the up side, there are less decisions to make while shopping! "Do I want frosted flakes, frosty crunch, sugared flakes or...damn, which one's the cheapest?"

Dryers: The U.S. is really the only place in the world where most people use a dryer. They are rather rare in the rest of the world, Spain included. I have been hanging my clothes to dry all year and it's now starting to seem a little less awkward that everyone sees each other's underwear hanging about all the time. A little.


Ovens: Many of the apartments for rent in Madrid do not have ovens. One of the other Seattle folks brought home a frozen pizza one day and when she tried to put it in the oven realized that there was no oven to be found! Oops! Luckily we do have one, a crappy old one, but still an oven nonetheless.

Family: Spain is very focused on family. You get an absurdly long time off after having a baby or getting married. When someone in your family is unemployed it becomes your duty to care for them. This may mean letting them live in your house or paying their rent. I'm not talking just parents caring for kids either. Your mom doesn't have a job, you support her. Your cousin is fired, you support him. I think that's why the country has managed to stay afloat during "the crisis". Sometimes it's really sweet and other times I want to shake people and say "grow up and get a life" or "go somewhere other than your parents' house for vacation" or even "traveling to your family's house every single weekend is completely unnecessary"...but I usually limit those phrases to my mind only.

Public Transport:
There are buses, metros, local trains, medium distance trains and long distance trains accessible from many places throughout the city. You could essentially get anywhere you want in the entire city or the suburbs and only walk a few blocks. Not the case in Seattle. And here things run in every direction, not just North-South. Such a silly layout Seattle!

Car Size: Cars in Europe are much smaller than cars in the U.S. Someone told me today that she has never understood why people in the U.S. drive such big cars. She said this while we were driving down a Spanish freeway and I looked out the window at all of the tiny cars driving by. She has a good point, we generally don't keep them full so why all the space? They're harder to parallel park, they use more fuel and they cost more. Why, indeed? I would like a small, used biodiesel when I move back to the states someday.


Ham: In the US we don't have pig legs hanging in the window of every restaurant and in every grocery store. Some of the kids going to England next week are panicking about bringing ham so they can make their own sandwiches for the week they'll be gone. Really? You can survive 7 days without ham!!! Plus, England has ham too. So silly! And I still have yet to see a real live pig in Spain. Don't know where they're getting all this ham...

Greetings: In Spain, instead of politely nodding across a circle of people or shaking hands with a stranger as you're being introduced, you get to do the dos besos. Yup, as you kiss each of their cheeks you mutter your name in their ear as they do the same to you. Luckily I'm a touchy feely person and I don't have much of a personal bubble, for those that do I'm sure this is a tough adjustment! I now realize how standoffish we must seem with our handshakes. So impersonal compared to a nice to meet you kiss!

Hello: If I hear anyone say hello in the halls at school, it is directed toward me or Monica (or both). Even if I have never seen the person before, I know they are talking to me. Weird!

Miss Rowland: None of that crap. I get to be Rachel here. Good thing too, Miss Rowland seems super formal. I kind of felt like I was being forced to grow up against my will when kids were required to call me that. It's like making Peter Pan leave Never Land even though he's not ready. Not cool, not cool.

Well, those are the ones that have come up in conversation in the last couple of days so they're fresh in my mind. I should probably write this sort of thing down so I can be better and updating y'all on life here. Next time? Yeah...

Saving the World? etc...

As some of you know, I am currently doing a 2nd Masters degree through Miami University, OH that has a strong focus on conservation and education. Lately there have been plenty of points brought up in our online discussion boards that can leave you feeling pretty helpless, like the world is coming to an end in a short while and there's nothing anyone can do other than prolong the inevitable. On the flip side, there are also some fantastic ideas on ways you can make a difference.

Here are some examples of things that anyone can do:

• Purchase this or similar toilet tank toppers to reduce water use by gallons per day (http://sinkpositive.com/site/).
• Implement the old brick in the toilet tank trick to reduce the amount of water used in each flush.
• Compost (if this option is not available in your city you can use plastic bottles http://www.bottlebiology.org/investigations/decomp_main.html)
• Recycle anything you can including clothing by shopping at second hand stores.
• Try to eat food that was grown or packaged locally.
• Avoid purchasing foods and other household items that use unsustainable palm oil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-1DQwaauwE)
• If you or anyone you know drive a biodiesel, try not to purchase fuel made from palm oil, instead purchase a converting device so you can put used oil from restaurants in your car instead. Free fuel for you, no messy disposal for the restaurant and the Orangutans will love you!
• Use cloth grocery bags or at least take old plastic/paper bags with you to the store.
• Purchase energy efficient light bulbs and dispose of them properly by recycling them when they die out. Be sure you do not break them! Many contain mercury which is extremely toxic for you and the environment!
• Turn off electronics when not in use. Up to 10% of the energy used in a given household is actually from things like the light on your phone charger and the digital time display on the microwave, so it's even better to unplug when not in use!
• Use cold water to wash your laundry and try to take the coldest showers you can tolerate.
• Don't let faucets or showers run when you're not ACTUALLY using them. 
• When choosing between foods, try to go for those with the least amount of packaging or at least recyclable packaging. 
• Participate in events like Earth Hour (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mxjbip6y04).
• Reuse your plastic water bottle 'til they are far beyond they point you should have stopped consuming their contents or purchase a washable bottle.

Well, there's a few to get you started. There are plenty more but I don't want to drone on so long that you stop reading.

Now we'll proceed to life in Spain. Today was one of those days...not good. The kids were a disaster and it's like they all act with mob mentality all the time! If 3 people are little terrors somehow it spreads through the entire school by the end of the day. Such is the life of teens, I suppose. I was in no mood for it today, not sure why. Sometimes I can smile and laugh off their treacherous behavior, but not today. I even caught one of the kids cheating on his science exam, the one time he actually studied too! We'll see what happens, his cheat sheet didn't have much on it so a lot of the responses really were from his mind, not the paper. Let's just say after a bunch of farting noises, a red pen projectile shooting ink across a few desks and my hand, a teacher showing up for class exactly 15 minutes late (only because a student went and told him that he needed to come to class) and various other events, I was in desperate need of getting of the school and taking a siesta. I ended up leaving a few minutes early so I could catch an earlier bus home. My nap was sooooo deep that when I woke up to my alarm I was drooling! I realize that this is normal for a lot of people, but I generally sleep with my mouth shut and haven't drooled while sleeping in years!

On Saturday I head to Brighton, England for a week as a chaperon for a group of 36 kids. Oh deary! Why would you ever travel with that many students? I get to go for free so I can't complain, but if it were me planning things I'm sure it would all go down a bit differently.

The day after we get back I fly home to Seattle for two weeks of AWESOME...or at least I hope so. I'm a little concerned that culture shock is going to hit me so hard I might explode. Full speed conversation in only English that includes idioms and slang, say what?! Restaurants that have individualized menus and serve a variety of food that is entirely different from the restaurant next door, say what?! McDonalds serves milkshakes, not beer, say what?! Fruits and veg cost how much, say what?! This is a grocery store, not a shopping mall, say what?! No metro, say what?! Wine with dinner costs how much, say what?! Dude, it's really going to be a mind_ _ _ _!

On another note of the completely different variety, I am pretty much obsessed with Macklemore, a Seattle rapper who speaks from the heart and isn't afraid to tell the truth. Uh-Maze-Ing! If you haven't heard any of his stuff or if you're thinking about ignoring this because you don't like rap, I call you on your crap right now! The Town is by far the best song but pretty much everything he does is good. No lie! Anyway, my obsession with him comes in waves, but today is one of those times that it is overwhelming my thoughts!

Another obsession as of late is Tom's shoes, although I don't own any yet. They don't have any retailers in Madrid so I have to wait 'til Brighton or Seattle to try some on. For each pair purchased, the organization donates one pair to someone who cannot afford shoes. In many undeveloped countries and rural areas, kids are unable to go to school without shoes. I know someone who met two brothers in a small village in Guatemala who only had one pair of shoes to share between them. Because of this, they alternated who got to go to school each day. Imagine, half of a child's education down the drain simply because you didn't want to buy a pair of shoes! How dare you! Psychological tricks that make you feel bad aside, they really are a great organization that believes in providing what is best for the people in the ways that are best for them. Now there is even a vegan line that contains no animal products of any kinds. Who knew you could have vegan shoes? Well, now you do! If you saw anyone walking around without shoes yesterday (April 5th), it was probably for their movement "One Day Without Shoes", not because they were completely insane. Check them out at http://www.toms.com/

Well, I suppose I should finish my book...I mean, hang up my laundry. Fine, I'll do both! Buenas noches al mundo!