5 Major Culture Shock Moments

Now that I've been living here for 3 months, I can confidently say that I have adjusted to life here almost completely. There will always be things that confuse me. For example, just today, I learned that the word "magnum" means not only an ice cream brand, but a type of bottle of wine. "Magnum" means something large. This differs from the U.S. by the sole fact that "Magnum" is a very specific, well known condom brand. And, as my Mom as told me, a gun brand. That is all. I only associated it with the condom brand.

So what are 5 things(not including the one from today) that really shocked me?

5. Everything is smaller.
Seriously. Everything. The buildings aren't as tall, the cars aren't SUV or Hummer type cars. Even food portions and Spanish people are smaller than in the U.S. There aren't as many fat people here. My room is tiny, it would be considered a closet at home(it is the perfect size for me).  There aren't any Walmarts or Costcos. The cloth sizes are smaller. I wear a LARGE or an X-LARGE now. The skinny jeans don't fit at. All. Despite all this, I love that things are smaller. But it took a lot to get used to.

4. Children. Are. Everywhere. 

This one was hard for me at first. I'm not used to children just being everywhere, all the time. I'd go to a bar, and there'd be kids. Kids at fancy restaurants. Kids running you over with their soccer ball as you sit in the park. But no matter what, kids here are incredibly well behaved. Though I've seen a ton of kids in places I never thought I would, they were always quiet and polite. 

3. Dryers don't exist. And laundry takes FOREVER.

This one was tricky for me. Laundry is surprisingly complex here. My normal routine in the US- Separate by color, delicacy, and water temperature. Pop into the washing machine for 30 minutes and add detergent before starting. Pop into dryer for 60 minutes. Fold and put away. 

 My routine for Spain? Separate by color, delicacy, and water temperature. Pop into washing machine and add detergent, water softener, and fabric softener. Wait for 45 minutes-1 hr. 35 minutes.  Remove from washer and hang outside to dry. Pray it doesn't rain. Fold and put away when dry. It's an all day activity!

2. Milk and eggs don't need to be refrigerated. 

This one actually really freaked me out when I first saw E put milk in the cupboard. The same happened when I went to the market and the eggs were on a regular shelf next to the baked goods. I'm not sure what is so different that it doesn't need to be refrigerated and it still squicks me out when I see the eggs at the market and the milk in the cupboard. 

1. Racism doesn't exist.   

This one isn't particularly clear, so let me clarify. Racism DOES exist here, but it takes a different form that what I'm used to at home. Everyone here pretty much looks the same. The only exception is tourist, the expatriates who live and work here, and the immigrants. Let me be clear about my situation and an immigrant: I have no intention of staying. They do. 

 It is abundantly clear that Spanish people, for the most part, don't like immigrants. They are not called xxxxx-spanish as we do in the US. They are "foreigners" or "extranjeros". They are not considered Spanish. They probably never will be. But Spanish people don't go out of their way to show their distaste. They just don't like them. 

Then there is the question of just plain "ignorance" or what I view as such. My first experience was when one of my girls began to slant her eyes at me. Now, I wasn't particularly offended; she's young and hasn't experienced many Asian people. But when I explained to her why we don't do that, she looked at me and said "Why not? That's what they look like." I had no answer. She had a point. 

My next experience was watching a home video that the family had made. Now, these videos were hilarious and completely in jest. Then we got to the gospel one. Where they all wore afros and had painted black makeup on their face. 

I was appalled. Partly because I was raised that this was NOT OKAY. But yet again, "that's just what they look like". I have seen very few black people here. 

Well, there you have it. Five things that majorly shocked me. Some of them are funny, and some not so much.

  

Recap Of My Trip

Finally back from my holiday! And boy do I still wish I was where it was cooler...I'm melting here in the flat. I think I'm drinking water as fast as I'm sweating it out.

So my brother came two weeks ago to visit me in Barcelona. For 2 days, we swept through Barcelona, seeing as much of the city(that would interest him) as we could. It was pretty exhausting, but we made it through the sticky Spanish heat.

We then jetted off to Vienna, Austria. Where we stuffed ourselves silly with pastries, and I enjoyed the music scene. We went to the Haus der Musik, the Naschtmarket(my brother loved this), and the graves of many famous Austrian composers including Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert. We also went to the Astronomical Clock(or their version of it) to watch a parade of famous people. Things were a bit expensive, but not terrible compared to Barcelona. While I liked the city, it seemed stuck in the 1700's, probably because of the huge influence that Mozart had over the city. There wasn't a whole lot of night life. Unless you count the strip clubs that we had no interest in.

After a relatively short(5 hours) bus trip to Prague, Czech Republic we got in in the evening and hit the ground running. We got a great free tour from the hostel and walked around the city, and also went on another free ghost and legends tour. Prague was a great city, cheap(not on the Euro system), friendly people and absolutely beautiful. We were able to do so much because it was so affordable and we even could afford to do a Pub Crawl with a company. Our hostel could not have been friendlier or more helpful. It was our favorite city by far.

Then came the huge bus trip. A 15 hour bus ride to Amsterdam. Which, was really quite nice. The bus company that we used was really good, it was comfortable, there was entertainment and complimentary drinks. As my brother put it: "It was an airplane that didn't fly". Amsterdam itself was a bit of a letdown. The food was bad and expensive. The museums had no student discount for my brother and were horribly expensive. The Rijksmuseum was mostly closed for renovation, and only select works were on display. We did enjoy the Anne Frank house a lot though. But we quickly ran out of things to do. All the things we had planned to do took only half of the full day we had. There wasn't any nightlife either. Other than the red light district, which I had no interest in going to with my baby brother, and my baby brother had no interest in going to period.

Overall, the trip with my brother was great! And he then took a plane home and I went on the Ediburgh, Schotland.

And oh how I loved it! The Fringe, the biggest comedy festival in the world, was going on. So I went to a number of shows including Anthony Rapp's Without You. Oh and I met him! Pretty embarrassing experience, but now I know how I am when I see a celebrity...I did go to the Castle and managed to cram in seeing other sites. I met some pretty awesome people too, including an Olympic participant from France.

From there, I took the train back to London, England. Here, I met more awesome people, met back with the people I had met in Edinburgh and went to shows and the London Eye. I saw Rock of Ages(my first time) and Les Miserables(second time). Les Miserables had Sierra Boggess, who I had seen before in The Little Mermaid. She was amazing!

I'm now home and exhausted. Tonight A and the girls will come home and we will go to the FCB v. RM game tonight at Camp Nou.

Vacation Until August 21

The month of August is a month of vacation for the people of Spain. As per the custom, I will be traveling until the 21st. I will be in:

Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Edinburgh, Scotland
London, England

See you later! When I return: Montserrat and Figueres.

San Fermines: Part Four: What Else to Do during San Fermines

So, what else is there to do at San Fermines beside the typical "Get wasted and run"?

As it turned out, there's a lot you can do. I'm going to write about some of the highlights we saw. First though: Pamplona is a terrible place to see during San Fermines. There's trash everywhere from old bottles of alcohol to food wrappers and a constant smell of spilt alcohol, vomit and urine. Dumpsters became urinals. The city sprayed the streets with water every day, but it didn't really do anything. There are people passed out in the street or a field and other stumbling around or sitting with their head in their hands. We saw a guy who was just lying next to a bench, like he couldn't have made it on the bench. We were actually concerned he was dead. I was really glad to get back to Barcelona, it seemed like Heaven.

R took us to the ancient city wall, which overlooks another portion of the city. It was really beautiful and one of the few places that was "San Fermines" free. Which makes sense- if you were drunk and came here, you'd fall off the wall and die. It was a pretty long drop. We didn't take the elevator but we did walk along it until we came to the pen where the bulls were kept. We also went to a beautiful park(don't know the name)where the citadel was. Now, it's used to house deer and an assortment of birds. We saw a chicken that looked like David Bowie, it was incredibly bizarre.

I wanted to see some of the churches so we went to one that was the oldest church in Pamplona. I was a little appalled when two members of our group fell asleep in the pew, and that other tourists were talking pretty loudly during mass. There weren't many church goers, but it still made me a little sad. The church was really interesting, and we also saw a San Sebastian pilgrim. The other church was more interesting to me because it had one of the few statues of San Fermines. R told me that they think San Fermines was possibly Moorish because he has black skin(the statue does). But they couldn't be sure because it could have been the smoke from the candles.

San Fermines

San Fermines is a saint who was killed by being beheaded. He is one of the co-saints of Navarre. In Pamplona, it's also popular to say he was beheaded and dragged through the streets by bulls, hence why people run with the bulls. R told me that the bull running is actually just because that's how they used to get the bulls to the arena, and people just started running with them. I think I learned that tradition doesn't always have the easiest explanation. Or you have to find the right person to get the real reason.

Every night during San Fermines, there is a spectacular fireworks show. We went twice, which I really enjoyed both nights. One of R's roommates informed us that every night, the fireworks are from a different country. The first night, we didn't know but the second night was from Denmark.

L-R: America, Africa, Asia, Europe

One of most interesting things we did was go to the parade of gigantes and cabezudos. This was more of a family event, and it was so much fun! There are 8 gigantes which are large statues made of wood and plaster. They are lifted up by one dancer, who walks with it and eventually dances to traditional Basque music, which was mostly drums and flutes. It was really cute, watching the pairs dance with each other. Each pair represents a different continent: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North/South America. We had trouble identifying each one, the picture should give you an idea why.  The 11 cabezudos represent people from the town, like the mayor. They were smaller, just heads that people would wear. There was a pair of Japanese people(they looked Chinese) but we weren't sure why there were there. They carried whips with foam on the end(it used to be a pig bladder) that they would hit children and adults on the head with. I got hit a couple times but it was fun. We tried to get pictures with the most famous one, who we didn't know his name, but he wasn't standing still for anyone!

The best thing we did was running from the Toro del Fuego, or Fire Bull. We had no idea what to expect with this one, so we youtubed it! From what we saw, it was a metal frame of a bull strapped with fireworks that was put on a bike wheel and sent down the street. Okkkayyy...cool I guess.

Toro Del Fuego

It wasn't like that at all! We got there, ready to have some fun and run from the "bull". Turns out, it's NOT a bike and it's NOT just shot down the street. It's a man carrying it, and he chases you! We had a lot of fun running, and I got a little burned. Note: When running from a bull that shoots fireworks pretty low to the ground, where a long sleeve, high necked shirt. Sparks went down my shirt, and it hurt a bit. But, at least I can say I ran from something!

San Fermines: Part Three: The Running of the Bulls

Disclaimer: I want to point out that while I do talk a lot about drinking, I did not go overboard or lose control. For many tourists, the point of San Fermines is to drink and get smashed, but in my case, I didn't do that because I was in a city where I wasn't very familiar with the layout or the language.  I did feel safe drinking because I was with my friends, but none of us went overboard.

After our lovely, LONG nap, dinner, picking up C, and a little bit of pregaming, we went back out around midnight to party and stay up all night until the bull running at 8:00 am. We opted to do this because everything opens later in Spain, and since things don't close until 6:00 am it made more sense.

We started with the walk to the main city square and then on to where we had been earlier in the day. There, K and C went to grab something else to drink, and A made a new friend, a guy from France. I think he was really just messing with him, but I digress, it was funny. K and C came back with a group of guys they had made friends with and we all went to a bar that seemed to also be a club. We ended up staying there the entire night, I had a lot of fun and made some new friends, 2 French guys and one Spanish girl. R and I occasionally went out to the square to get some air, where in general, things were pretty crazy.

Finally it was time to go to the running. We originally tried to go to the fences where the bulls actually run but was unable to. There were so. Many. People. One of the French guys came with us, and we ended up at the arena where the running ends.

The actual running is dangerous. Everyone knows this. But it isn't just running from the bulls that's dangerous, it's also the people that are dangerous. R said that people don't realize that the Pamplonans train all year. The key is to run in a pack, not by yourself. There hasn't been a death since the 1970s, and most of them have been from being gored by bulls. The exception has been a case of a man who suffocated while trying to get in the doors of the arena. It gets really packed in the doors because they aren't very big and people must get in them before the bulls.

We found really great seats and waited for about an hour. My friends were dozing off and I had completely lost my voice. There was a band playing in the center of the ring while we waited.

Band!

 

 Finally, it started!We watched the actual running from a screen that was right across from us. People were cheering and shouting, and it was really cool to watch. They signal the race by a series of rockets, which we couldn't hear but we found out later. We didn't see anything unusual, it really just looked like people were running with bulls. And it seemed to go really slowly. In reality, it didn't take long before people began pouring into the arena, and the bulls soon followed. It must be an entirely different experience running as opposed to watching. We later found out there were several injuries, mostly just bruises and sprained bones, but one 73 year old man did get gored by a bull. He was from Pamplona, so it was unlikely that this was his first time running, or even getting gored. It happened at the very beginning of the race, which is why we didn't see it.

Watching the running

Releasing the bull into the ring.

Afterwards, when all the bulls had run through the arena, they locked the people in the arena and would push them back in if they tried to get out(or in if they hadn't run). Then, they released six other bulls one at a time and people tried to touch them or get them to charge. These bulls were not the ones that ran, they were actually younger bulls. These 6 bulls were supposed to be showcased for when they were older and would be entering the arena for a bullfight. The ones that had run would be killed later in the day at the bullfight. But the 6 that went in were young, with padded horns(so nobody really got all that hurt).

This part was my favorite part to watch. It was interesting to see how each bull was. Some were pretty docile and others were charging and jumping. One bull jumped clear over the people who were waiting at the gate for it, and then picked someone and charged. Another picked a guy up onto its horns and ran with him. Other people in the arena ended up taking him off to the side for a breather before he ran back out. One guy had a pink and yellow cape that he was waving around, but none of the bulls really went for it. I think he was a tourist. :)

It was particularly interesting to see how the bull got out of the arena. The bull handlers(men with long poles) would bring out an absolutely massive older bull. We never did figure out if it was a female or male, as this species has horns for both genders. But as soon as this bull was seen by the younger one, it immediately became docile and went to its side. We figured out it was most likely the head of the herd, and was quite old. Some people tried to get the older bull to engage, but it didn't. I don't know why they would have wanted it to. Even from as far as we were, we could see how huge it was. It looked like a giant compared to any of the others we had seen. One guy thought it was a good idea to continue to try and engage the younger bull(one of the more aggressive ones) after it had fallen in line with the older one. It was really obvious he was pulling the poor bulls tail, I could see him leaning back with the tail in his hands.

The bull handlers stepped in and began hitting him with the big poles they carried. When he let go and fell on the ground, they kept hitting him, and I think they might have kicked him as well. They dragged him over to the side of the ring and he was dragged out by the police. I didn't really feel all that bad for him.

After it was over, we went back to the flat and took a much needed sleep. It was a pretty crazy experience!