Author: chruskoc

I am nearing the end of my trip and am beginning to feel sentimental about leaving this wonderful little college town. Salamanca has been a blast thus far and I have met so many amazing people. Along the way there have been many critical incidents and learning curves that I had to adapt to as a foreigner. One recent incident that comes to mind was when I was with some friends at a restaurant getting dinner. It was around 6:00 and we wanted to order food. However, I knew that in Spanish culture they usually don’t eat until 8-9 at night, and some places often don’t serve food at 6. When my friends and I went to order, we got extremely strange looks and the waiter began to almost yell at us in Spanish. Eventually we figured out that we couldn’t get full meals until later, and could only order tapas to begin with. Leaving dinner, I felt both embarrassed and upset that we got yelled at by the waiter.

Upon analyzing this situation after, my friends and I came to the conclusion that the waiter was not yelling at us at all. In reality he was simply telling us when we could order food and how the process works. Spanish people tend to have bolder voices, and we affiliated his tone with anger, rather than teaching. This moment helped me realize that these awkward situations are never as bad as they seem, and that adapting to a culture is hard and will take time.

In general I have loved the Spanish way of life. They often sleep in, work in the afternoon, take a siesta, then get a late dinner and stay up with friends. The siesta portion of the day was definitely the strangest to get used to. I did not realize how serious of a time it was for locals. In Salamanca, the majority of stores will close down from 2-4 in order for the shopkeepers to have a siesta and lunch. This took some getting used to, as I had to make sure I never needed to go into any shops at this time. Eventually, I learned to adapt to this timeline and actually enjoy it. I am a night-owl who loves to take naps during the day, so my previous habits align well with the culture here. It is going to be a hard adjustment coming back, as I will not have time in my usual day for a 2 hour break. Overall, I am enjoying life here and have loved every experience so far.

I am now in the middle of time abroad and have had a wonderful experience thus far. In my time abroad, I have been able to work on my language comprehension during the week, and then use what I have learned in real experiences on the weekend. The train system in Spain has made it easy to travel to various cities, and explore other local cultures. So far I have visited Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Gijón.

In these travels I have encountered situations in which people held stereotypes about me. The most common occurrence was in Madrid and Barcelona, as these bigger cities receive many more tourists than Salamanca. The locals there immediately starting speaking english to me since I do appear as an American. They immediately assumed that since I was American I would not know Spanish. While this assumption does have some validity to it, I was often a little upset. However, it was always exciting to see the look on locals faces when I did speak Spanish back to them.

Diving deeper into stereotypes, I recently had a conversation with a friend from the UK who lives in the same residence as me. When asking about American universities he immediately assumed I was in a fraternity. I did not take offense to this, as fraternities are great places to make friends and are a fun experience for certain schools. I believe he assumes that since I am extroverted and go out from time to time, it makes me a frat boy. From here, myself, and another U.S. students then asked him about what he believes American universities are like. He proceeded to assume that all schools are party school and that US universities are like they are in the movies. We all laughed, as we explained to him that, while he is right to a certain degree, that this style of college isn’t the only type out there.

This moment was full of us comparing cultures and stereotypes, and breaking down what it is really like to live in our perspective countries. As I continue to live here, I am breaking down more and more stereotypes, and changing the own stereotypes that I hold in my own head.