When traveling to a foreign country, it’s always great to experience the differences in food, music, language, and way of life. Here are some fun things we’ve learned about the culture in Spain:
FOOD!
First of all meal times are totally different than in the U.S. We eat breakfast at 10:40am at the school (we’re all starving by this point). Breakfast is usually very small: coffee/juice and bread of some sort. Then lunch is served around 1:00pm. In general, restaurants serve lunch from about 1:00pm-4:00pm, so we’re glad we got the early end of that deal. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, consisting of bread, salad, vegetables, a main meat/fish dish, and some sort of dessert. They do love their pastries in Spain, and we’re not complaining, especially when it comes to churros dipped in chocolate! Mm, Mm Tasty! Around 4:00, school is let out and the town goes into lockdown, or siesta time. Most restaurants and stores close. People go home to be with their families, take naps, or get tapas! Tapas are little appetizer dishes that are eaten for snack or dinner. We’ve experienced quite an array of tapas over this trip so far: sandwiches with mysterious meats, tortilla patatas (potatoes/eggs), crochuetas, calamari, and octopi?...maybe? (we’re still not sure on that one). In Granada, most tapas bars serve free tapas when you order a drink. Needless to say, we enjoyed our tapas during that visit. After siesta/tapas is dinner. We’re used to eating around 6:00pm back home, but here it is much, much later. Most restaurants do not even open until 7:00pm for dinner, and they are completely empty until about 9:00pm anyways. Dinner is served very late in Spain, usually anywhere between 8:00pm and 11:00pm. So we try not to eat too many spicy foods before bedtime!
Other than the meals, there were a few other things we noticed about the food here in Spain. The milk. Yeah, it’s served warm most of the time…in a glass, with cereal, whatever the case. It’s room temperature. Water. You can’t just get a free glass of water in Spain. This is something I seriously took for granted back home. If you want water at a restaurant, it comes in a bottle with a glass, or with bubbles, and costs between $1.50-$2.00. Finally, there is no peanut butter anywhere! It is extremely hard to come by in Spain. However, they do have some conventional alternatives: jams from just about every fruit you can imagine (apple, pear, orange, strawberry, peach, etc.), and nutella! (a chocolate, hazel spread that goes great with just about anything)
LANGUAGE!
Well, we all came to Spain knowing they spoke a lot of Spanish here, but we didn’t realize the differences in English we would be encountering. Everyone here is taught British English, so there are a few foreign words we’ve encountered even in our native language:
“Miss, I’m in trouble with my test, may I have a rubber?” were the words of a student during our P.E. teacher’s first year. “A rubber?! I cannot give you a rubber!” she responded. But don’t worry folks, a rubber here is not what it you might think; it’s simply a pencil eraser. Never ever tell someone to take off their pants in Spain. Pants mean underwear, not jeans or sweatpants. Those are referred to as trousers. And a sweatshirt back home is called a jumper in Spain. Just picture a little kindergarten saying, “That’s my jumper!” in a British accent. It’s way cuter than sweatshirt. Finally, if nature calls, ask for the toilet, not the bathroom. A toilet is the public place where you take care of business. A bathroom refers to a room at your house with a toilet, sink, shower, bath, etc.
TRANSPORTATION!
You never really truly appreciate something until it’s gone, like a car. A lot of people in Estepona have vehicles to get around, but in bigger cities (like Seville and Granada), it’s much cheaper, quicker, and healthier to walk everywhere. Watch out, we’re coming back with some buff legs! The streets are incredible narrow here anyways, so it’s more efficient to walk to your destination. But be careful of some crazy drivers. WARNING: cars here are very small, unpredictable, and produce quick movements. It’s not unusual to have a car driving six inches from your feet, or for a person to stop in the middle of the street and simply put their flashers on. From the wise words of Mereille (our P.E. teacher), “Once a car has their blinkers on, it’s like they are invisible.” The hustle and bustle of transportation here is unlike that of the U.S., and especially St. Peter. While we were in Seville, Ronda, and Granada, we took public transportation to reach our destinations. AKA long, smelly bus rides, and crabby drivers. Combine tired tourists, impatient regulars, foreign speaking cashiers, and temperamental bus drivers, and you have quite an interesting experience. Our modes of transportation during this week we’re quite noteworthy, and even though none of us had quite experienced this before, we actually made it to all these cities AND home successfully. No worries mom ;)
OTHER RANDOM FACTS!
Stray cats everywhere! Black ones, white ones, orange ones, furry ones, skinny ones, wild ones!
Everyone and their mother owns a dog, probably a little yelpy one. (which also leads to a lot of poo on the streets…)
Lights are on the outside of the bathrooms.
No clothes dryers.
No clocks anywhere! If you’re on time in Spain, you’re early. If you’re twenty minutes late, you’re on time.
-Ashley
-Ashley
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