Six week anniversary

Palabra del día: No pasa nada
Translation: No worries, doesn't matter, etc.
Spilled food? Forgot homework? Asked someone to repeat a sentence 6 times? No pasa nada.

Comida del día: Tarta de chocolate from Los Italianos

 This wonderful dessert that I'm enjoying with my friend Annie is four amazing ice cream flavors formed into the shape of a slice of cake, and then placed into an ice cream cone. The flavors include chocolate chip, something with nuts, a mysterious beige flavor, and the best chocolate gelato in the world. It's from Los Italianos, which is the most famous gelato shop in Granada.  When Michelle Obama visisted Granada for a day, her two stops were the Alhambra and Los Italianos.  This photo is actually more of a memorial because the store closed for the winter last Saturday.  I guess they don't need the winter business so they decided to take some time off, but it makes me very very sad that I won't be able to enjoy this delicious treat again.

Foto del día:

This is the family of stray cats that lives outside my apartment building.  I'm actually not completely sure they're strays, because in this photo they are enjoying cat food that someone left on their doorstep.  What I am sure about is that whenever I come home late at night they always jump through the fence and make me jump a mile.

Granada and I are celebrating our six week anniversary today.  It was love at first sight.    On our one week anniversary, I made a list of some of the cultural differences I've noticed.  To give you a recap, it included:

• Lunch at 2:30 and siesta in the middle of the work day
• Army showers
• Walking everywhere
• People staying out all night, every night
• No bare feet
• Kids living with parents for much longer

After living together for six weeks I've discovered more of this city's hidden characteristics and secret habits, so I've decided it's time for a revised and expanded list of various aspects of life that I've been trying hard to adapt to.

1. One of the hardest things for me to get used to is greeting people with a kiss on each cheek instead of a handshake.  It's really hard to kiss someone that you literally met 5 seconds before!  But that is the custom for greetings here, whether you're old friends with someone or you just met them.  The only exception is if two men are greeting each other, in which case they use a handshake.  Unfortunately, that situation never applies to me.

2. Related to this, people here have a very different concept of personal space.  We all have that friend who's a "close talker," and who keeps inching up on you even when you try to take tiny steps backwards...in Spain, every friend is that friend.
This also applies in crowds of people.   If there is a crowded sidewalk, no one moves to let you pass because they expect that you will just push past them.  I find myself in this situation a lot because people here walk unusually slowly and the sidewalks are about one foot wide.  I usually decide that I would rather slow down and adjust to the Spanish pace of life rather than having to touch strangers.

4. On a similar note, waiting in lines is also something that never happens here.  In situations where Americans form neat and organized lines, Spanish people push there way to the front.  This works out really well for them because they end up ahead of all of the timid Americans who are unsuccessfully attempting to form a line.

5. Cafes are for drinking coffee.  Sidewalks are for walking.  To go cups are for tourists.

6. The rumors that Europeans are better dressed than Americans are absolutely true.  No one wears yoga pants and running sneakers to class, to run errands, or anywhere except the gym.  No one wears hooded sweatshirts except for international students flaunting their brand new University of Granada swag.  My host mom does my laundry, and returns all of my clothes flawlessly ironed.  Even my socks and underwear!

7. The street is everyone's living room.  When people hang out with friends at night, they are more likely to do it outside.  My host mom will have friends over occasionally, but usually this is for special occasions or scheduled dinners.  People are very social, but socializing happens in public instead of in people's houses.  Possibly as a result of this, public space is used for things that I previously considered private activities.  For example, PDA is rampant.  And unfortunately, streets sometimes double as bathrooms.  I've witnessed a child whose mother was letting him pee on the street. Dogs do it, so why shouldn't children?

Another example of this is such a strange story that I can't help but share it (this is definitely not normal, in Spain or anywhere in the world!). I was sitting in a park doing homework when I looked up and saw a man taking a crap.  In a public park.  No one else witnessed this event so I'm starting to doubt it actually happened, but I don't think I'm capable of making up a story that disgusting!

8. I've noticed a lot of differences between university life here and in the US.  First of all, exams work very differently.  In many classes, the final exam is 100 percent of your grade.  Exams happen one month after classes end (basically "reading month" instead of "reading week") but then the next semester's classes start immediately after exams, so there's no such thing as summer vacation.  There also seems to be less work and less reading.  In my last ancient music history class, I took tons of notes about Aristotle's Politics, but we aren't expected to read the book.  This ends up being a lot less work than my classes at WashU where I always have tons of reading, but I have mixed feelings about accepting what the professor says without doing much thinking for myself.  The amount of reading does depend on the course, but I've talked to a few friends whose classes work similarly.

Also, the school system in general functions differently.  At the end of high school, everyone takes a test, and your score on that test determines your choices for what to major in.  The major, or carrera, always leads directly into a career.  This means that students here have to decide their profession much earlier than students in the US and that universities are much more career-focused. 

College social life is also different.  Students here go to the university for classes and classes only.  There are hardly any clubs or sports teams associated directly with universities, though it seems that students become good friends with the other students in their carrera.  Although some students live in dorms, many live in apartments.  Additionally, many students go to college close to home, and in this case they always live with their parents (and save a lot of money).  There are plenty of opportunities to play sports, take dance classes, socialize, etc., but these activities are not exclusively for university students.  I think because of this students become more involved with the city as a whole rather than just with their university. 

9. I mentioned in my one-week list that people socialize all the time.  That's true, but a common misconception is that it's normal to go out with friends all night, every night.  I can see where this comes from because there are people out every single night.  There may be people who do that, but from talking to Spanish students I've learned that most people go out on Friday and Saturday night.  One of these nights but definitely not both, people might go to a discoteca until 6 am.  On nights when they don't go to a discoteca, people go out for tapas, to bars, or to parties at friends houses.  It is a more social and later-night culture than the US, but not to the extent that it seems like at first.

10. The drinking culture is also different.  People here drink all the time, but hardly every get as drunk as many college students do on weekend nights.  The culture here is to go to a tapas bar, sit there for a few hours, and have a few drinks that always come with food.  Socializing is more important than drinking.  The drinking age is 18 but no one really cares, and most people start drinking with their families before they drink with their friends.

11. Something I've struggled with a bit is the fact that the university here doesn't have an orchestra or opportunities to play music.  I've realized that this is because people tend to pursue music as a hobby much less frequently than people in the US.  Except for the guitar.  Everyone seems to play the guitar here and most people are really good at it!  It was extremely hard for me to find a place to practice piano because unlike WashU, UGR doesn't have a music building with practice rooms open to students.  My friend wanted to rent a cello and discovered that there is only one music store in all of Granada where you can do that.  To pursue music as a career, most people decide before high school and then go to a specialized music school that feeds into a conservatory. It is possible to study music history in college, but this degree doesn't involve any music performance.  There also don't seem to be any community orchestras, though community bands like the one that I play in are very common in the small towns outside of the city because they play in religious processionals.  Since there are no bands associated with schools, many young students and anyone who decides to keep playing as a hobby will join one of these bands.

Those are some of the most significant cultural differences I've noticed in the last six weeks.  Although at times it's hard to adjust and frustrating to make a fool of myself by saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way, I've enjoyed the challenge of adapting to another culture and learning about different customs.  I wonder what this list will look like at our twelve week anniversary?