2 Astonishing Differences

So I’ve only been here for about a week and I have seen and even talked about some astonishing differences between Spanish and American culture. The first one I noticed right away were habits:

Everyone seems to smoke cigarettes here. When I say everyone, I mean every one. I literally walked by a group of five people, and then by a group of three people and then one person by herself and all. of. them. were smoking a cigarette. What surprised me the most was that even the young people around my age was smoking. This was surprising to me because America has the whole no smoking campaign so seeing people smoke cigarettes is really not as common as here (unless I am just not seeing it).

The second difference that I am about to list came up in a conversation with my host mother and I as we talked about the tragedy in Virginia Beach this week; she told me that possession of a firearm in general, among the citizens of Spain, is illegal. Now I honestly (I know, very terrible of me) just assumed that it was normal for people to be allowed to have firearms but here in Spain, it is not the case. Here are some other differences:

• dinner really starts at 9
• The elevators are tiny, as in only two people depending on your size can fit in them tiny, and they have doors
• There are no light switches; there, instead, are square like buttons that you just lightly press up
• There is no door handle on the outside of my host family’s (and others) house. Instead, there is just a lock to insert your key and there is this tiny knob thing toward the bottom center of the door that you then use to push it open.
• There is no lock on the inside of the house door as we have in America. I’m guessing there is an automatic lock.
• There is no AC
• Guns are not allowed
• There are shops, not stores or malls or outlets. Shops.
• Pastries are everything. I cannot really describe the difference, but there’s a difference.
• The fanta soda is everything!!! Much more fruitier and less carbonated
• Here’s a picture to satisfy your cravings 🙂

Taken by me at a coffee and pastry shop near my house! I got 6 of these for 2 euros !! Yummy!

–Mo the Adventurer