One of the major cultural differences I’ve noticed after living in Madrid is the difference in the overall safety/security this city and this country has in comparison to the United States. From the moment we arrived we were told that Madrid was a very safe city and that the only real issue was with pickpockets and that has turned out to be 100% true. Several times I have seen police officers or some type of public transport security guards that don’t even carry a gun, just some type of baton. This is simply because its just not needed in Spain. At home there is the constant argument over gun rights and terror attacks and so forth while here, this type of violence doesn’t occur simply because there aren’t any guns in this country. This is especially welcome in a city like Madrid where people go out to bars and clubs on the weekends until the middle of the night and sometimes even until after the sun rises. If there were the same type of issues and concerns regarding crime and violence in Madrid that there are in some American cities, I don’t think I would feel completely comfortable going out and enjoying the city like we’ve been able to during our time here. This whole idea lends a little perspective to the differences between the different cultures that exist between out two countries and makes you think a little about why these differences exist in the first place and how they started.