Here we are again at another Monday, and this time I’m fresh off a train from Valencia! Visiting this beach-bordered town was my first full weekend trip outside of Madrid, and it was neat to immerse myself in a different Spanish city. My friends and I did a lot of Rose, Bud, Thorn sessions on this trip, so I’ll share my overall takes. My roses of the weekend would be the beach, staying at a hostel for the first time, and exploring downtown Valencia- a very beautiful maze of streets with fun architecture and orange trees. My thorns of the weekend would be my sunburned nose and the sad lack of paella- we learned that in a lot of restaurants, you have to call the day before or the morning of to reserve an order of paella, which we didn’t know beforehand! And my bud for the weekend would be that now that I’ve experienced one weekend trip out of Madrid, I’m looking forward to future excursions and getting better at all things travel- planning, flexibility, and not missing any trains! We’ve got another weekend trip booked and one more to plan out, so I’m eager to solidify plans and explore more of Spain.
In terms of Spanish culture, there have been one or two things that I’ve found took me some time to adjust to, but nothing serious. Most are silly to look back on, such as saying hola and adios to everyone when you enter and exit an elevator- I was surprised at first because in the United States, an elevator full of strangers is usually silent! Spaniards have proven themselves to be more friendly and easygoing in casual interactions like that than I expected, but it’s an expectation I’m glad to replace with a nicer reality.
Otherwise, I’ve realized that a lot of my general culture surprises stem more from the differences between my own family’s culture and customs and my host family’s. Also, that a lot of my culture shocks aren’t specific to the fact that I’m in Spain, but just the fact that I’m abroad at all! For example, mealtime customs- wine with dinner, having a postre after the main meal all together, small but new changes that at first were interesting and now I enjoy. Or, honestly just the differences in food- Spanish cuisine has incorporated much more ham, leeks, bechamel, and eggs into my diet than I normally eat at home, but it’s been a fun adjustment (though I did cave and treat myself to some 2€ ramen from the supermarket when I was really craving Asian food). All of these changes related to people’s attitudes, cuisine, & the like are simply changes you’ll encounter when you travel, no matter where you go, and so I’m enjoying the experience of learning how I adjust and reflect on these culture differences.
In my workplace at CIAL, I’d say the most challenging culture assimilation has been language related- specifically details like the rapid speed at which my coworkers talk, or the subtle adjustment to tuning my ears to a Catalan accent versus the different kinds of Latin American accents that in the United States, I’m more accustomed to hearing. The accents haven’t been a problem at all in terms of my understanding, which is awesome, but it was an adjustment to simply familiarize myself with a new Spanish accent. The fast talking, however, has taken more effort to understand! It’s always been fascinating to me that some languages are simply spoken at a faster rate or pace than others, and Spanish is definitely one of those- but in Spain they’re a lot quicker than I have ever really heard in the United States! It’s impressive, honestly, and I now aspire to be able to talk really fast in Spanish- I think consuming more Spanish media would help me with that, though practicing with my coworkers and host family is certainly good practice as well.
Otherwise, most of my adjustments with the workplace have been more work-related than culture-related, and I don’t think any one situation has been crazy difficult to adapt to, which I’m quite grateful for. I’ve also gotten to a point where I don’t think I’m actively adjusting to anything anymore- maybe at a residual level, but for the most part I’m comfortable and enjoying Spanish culture both in and out of the workplace. I know this because when I left Valencia last night, I found myself thinking that I was looking forward to going home- and home now means Madrid!
Ciao, Katherine