Hey, it's me again. I'm still sick :(
Perhaps going to school on Monday is what killed me, because that night my throat began to hurt. Then when I woke up yesterday my voice was all but gone, my throat was inflamed, and my head was still congested/aching from last weekend. There was no way I was going to go to school. Today I feel a little better, but not good enough to go to school. If I was in the US I may have gone to school today, but here, I'm not going to go to school to sit through classes I can hardly participate in if I feel like crud. I don't think I'm missing much, considering many of my classmates are skipping anyway since we're done with finals and Christmas break starts Saturday. Or is it Friday? I'm not really sure. I don't think anyone actually goes to school on Friday, but I don't know if we officially have class. Oh, Spain.
I don't actually have much else to tell you as far as an update on life here, so today I'll share some differences that I've noticed between living in Spain and in the US.
1. In Spain, almost everyone smokes.
Most of the adults smoke. Even friends of mine from school smoke -- it's not like they're bad kids, it's just a culture difference. I think that smoking is looked down on much more in the US. Although I am used to the smoking here, it bothers me that so many people, especially the youth, do it.
2. In Spain, nobody uses Facebook.
Yes, you read that correctly. Everyone at my school uses a social network called
Tuenti (pronounced like "twenty"), as well as Twitter. Tuenti is more or less "Spain's Facebook." It has the same basic functions, but it works way worse. Tuenti has so many malfunctions, that I wouldn't even bother with the thing it it weren't for the fact that everyone here uses it. Many people also Tweet here, which is quite a change from my dead Twitter feed I once had in the US. As far as Facebook goes, many people have it but never use it. I have probably 3 or 4 friends here who check their Facebook. This kind of stinks because you guys can't really creep on my Spanish friends.
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| A snapshot of Tuenti's Newsfeed (Not mine - GoogleImages, anyone?) |
3. In Spain, everybody is always making sure you don't get sick.
I can't tell you how many different things I've been told to do/not do in order to prevent colds/sickness. For example:
Wear shoes in the house; Wear a scarf, EAT YOUR MANDARINES! It isn't just parents - friends too, and even some teachers. At first I was a little bit annoyed by this, but really it isn't a bad thing - people are just looking out for each other. Except, now I am sick even though I did all those things :( From my friends' and my experiences, I think that colds in Europe are much stronger than they are in the US. Perhaps this is why everyone is trying to prevent them so much. Another thing I've noticed, however, is that people don't wash their hands in the bathroom here. I don't get this, especially since they're so particular about preventing sickness.
4. Everyone curses in Spain.
That's not really an exaggeration - little kids, my classmates, my family - everyone is constantly cursing! The thing is, cursing isn't as bad here as it is in the US. Swear words are more like "strong words" rather than "bad words" here. Also, many things aren't censored on TV here as they are in the US such as curse words and nudity. I'd do without the nudity though if it were up to me. The cursing isn't a big deal to me because it's not bad here.
5. People in Spain like Obama.
Many people here, as well as an English couple I was able to talk with in October, really like President Obama. In the US though, it seems that no matter who is in office Americans are generally displeased with the president. Speaking of politics though, I don't think that many Americans realize how much the world is watching the US - our government, news, economy, and media, among other things. To give you an idea of what I mean: I see news about the US everyday; Nearly all of the media here (music, movies, shows, etc.) is American; The US is constantly brought up in class, especially during Economy. The world is watching, America. It's something to keep in mind.
6. Most people in Spain live in Apartments
I actually live in a house at the moment, but most people here live in apartments. There are small ones, big ones; it all depends on the needs of whoever lives there. There are apartments in Newton, but most people live in houses.
7. The City Layouts
Okay, so I think that it's safe to say that most cities in the US follow a basic layout: You have the center of the city which is where you'll find most of the shops/restaurants/offices. As you move further from the center, there are less businesses and more residential areas, until you get into the suburbs. (If you're in Iowa and you move farther out than the residential areas you hit a ton of corn.) In Spain however, and much of Europe, this is not the case at all. Here, you have the center of the city -- common sights: plazas, churches, restaurants, shops -- but as you move out from the center, this continues. The "city" isn't in just one place. People live in the center of the city as well as around it. So it's a lot more mixed basically - people are living everywhere, and there are businesses everywhere.
8. Transportation
In Spain there is a lot more public transportation, so it's common to take the bus to whatever city you need to. Also, because of what I explained in #7, it's normal just to walk everywhere you need to go in a city. On the chance that you do ride in a car, it is usually filled to its max. It kind of reminds me of Shelby's car last year, but that's the norm here. All in all, transportation seems to be much more efficient here.
9. My classmates in Spain dress very casual - at school.
When at school, my classmates dress much more casual than we do in the US. Girls wear little/no makeup, and everyone is generally dressed way down. This is kind of a relief to me, because sometimes I just don't have any energy to put together a coordinating outfit, do my hair, all that good stuff. However, when they go out at night or on the weekends, they dress way up. The girls have on their make-up, and usually dresses or skirts or just nice clothes. So basically we have the two extremes here between casual school and dressy weekends. With the wardrobe that I brought from the US, I think that I generally dress between these two extremes. In the US, we definitely put more effort into our school appearance, but only dress up a little more, if any at all, to go out. I'm still not sure which system I like more.
10. Meals
In Spain, we start the day by having a light breakfast like a bowl of cereal. At 10:30 am, my school has a 20 minute reccess where most kids have a sandwich and a juice box (I'm not kidding about the juice boxes - everyone is walking around with them. It's awesome). Then at 1:50 pm there is another break where some people eat more, but I usually don't. After I get home from school, my family has a big lunch around 3:30 or 4:00 pm. This is the biggest meal of the day. Around 7:00 pm, or whenever one feels like it really, is snack time ("merienda"). This usually consists of something like Nutella toast and coffee for me. At 9:00 pm (sometimes later) we have a light dinner like a ham sandwich or maybe some lunch leftovers if there are any.
Well there are probably more differences that I meant to explain, but I can't think of them at the moment. If I think of more later, I'll try to write them down and blog 'em later. That's all I've got for now. Thanks to everyone who has sent me Christmas cards this past week - you have no idea how much a simple card has been able to make my day. Love you guys!
Only four days til Christmas!
Josie
