Culture Shock
Overall, the most prominent difference between Spain and the United States I’ve noticed is the pace of life. In general, people in the US always seem to be in a hurry, trying to multitask all the time. In Spain, however, there is less of a sense of urgency on the streets, especially in Seville.
My first week it rained nonstop almost every day, which kept most of the students inside. Everyone was jet-lagged, too, so we had not yet adjusted to the Spanish schedule and would fall asleep right after dinner. It was a disorienting time! My stomach was adjusting to the heavily greased food, and using so much Spanish after having not really spoken it in a year was exhausting. However, I’ve always loved rainy weather, and although it didn’t come at the best time, it did allow me to see Seville in a different light than usual.
I spent the next two weeks learning the layout of Seville and gaining confidence in my Spanish. The weather was back to normal, and my classes began to pick up. By my fourth week in Seville, I felt as though I had finally gotten used to everything, but then all of a sudden it was time to move on to Granada and then Barcelona. I think dialogues are the perfect amount of time because they allow you to get used to a certain place, but move on before it gets too repetitive. And, although I loved Seville, I was excited to experience different cities.
There was a whole other level of culture shock when we got to Barcelona, because, as it is part of Cataluña, people’s first conversational language of choice was Catalan, not Castilian (Spanish). The street signs were in Catalan, and I’d always forget and begin to start reading things only to realize that it was written in a different language. It was very interesting to still be in Spain, with all the cathedrals and cobblestone roads (at least in the older quarters), and yet feel as though I was in a different country. Plus, as many tourists flock to Barcelona, most of the shopkeepers would speak English to me even if I greeted them in Spanish, which caught me off guard. After my first day in Barcelona I was a little disappointed that we had spent so much time in Seville instead of there, but now I am glad we spent so long in Seville because if I wanted to communicate there, I almost always had to use Spanish. It definitely helped me develop my language skills, push me out of my comfort zone, and really feel like I was part of the community there, not just a tourist.
