Spain vs. USA

09 September, 13

Spain vs. the USA

We are here to learn about Spain, its language, culture and spirit. In the process, we will learn about the USA as well. This will be a lesson in comparison. The danger with comparing one culture to another one is that we assign value to things based on what we are used to doing. For instance Americans, and most of the world. think the British are crazy for driving on the “wrong” side of the road. We don’t take time to consider the reason for the British way is that they are a maritime society, and the “rules of the road” derive from the laws of the sea. All boaters, all over the world, know to keep the other boat to your starboard, to your right. Now think about how the British drive. The other car is to their right. Very logical. So why do Americans boat like the Brits but drive the opposite way? I have no idea.

In Spain, where they drive on the same side as the Americans, things are different here. I am trying not to assign values to the differences. At the same time I am trying to embrace the culture, eschewing everything about my “American-ness” that does not line up with Spain. My reason for this is that I want to have a fundamental understanding of what it means to be Spanish. So far I have discovered a few differences.

They don’t have locks on their bathroom doors at home, but they do on public bathrooms. That does not mean, however, that anybody is welcome to come in while the "baño es ocupado". It does speak a little to their understanding of personal space, however. While at the beach, we saw women of every shape and size wearing bikinis. This was a little difficult for us to see. We also saw many younger women walking up and down the beach topless, which was a little easier for me to watch, but not so much for my girls. Julio and Toñi’s neighbor across the street walks around on her patio stark naked all day long. She is young, healthy and has a nice complexion and good skin tone. Julio spends a great deal of time on his patio, sipping coffee. I am trying hard not to be judgmental, which requires me to sit on the patio with Julio, solely in an attempt to understand his way of viewing the world around him. This will take some time.

Time is different here, but the same. Latins are notorious for being on time 3 hours late. Not so in Spain. They are punctual, but not uptight about it. Spain, and most of Europe, uses the 24 hour clock like our US military.  It makes sense to me. It is logical. Their digital clocks display all 24 hours, but they say the time like it is a 12 hour clock. For instance, when the clock says 19:00, they will say it is 7 o’clock. That is weird to me, and my friends don’t really have a good reason for doing it this way. I have a hard enough time figuring out what time it is, without having to do the extra math of converting 24 hours into twelve. This will take some time.

Air conditioning is not a given here.  People open their windows, use fans and shading to try to stay cool. They also sweat. When looking for an apartment, we had few hard-line conditions. Air conditioning was one of them. We can only embrace so far. Everyone has their limits. For me it was wearing a Speedo bathing suit. For Susan it’s air conditioning. I was thirty years old before I had a car with air conditioning. Susan was 16. Our apartment has air conditioning in every room. Well we have vents in every room, and a little digital thingy on the wall, but we can’t get the stupid thing to work. Susan was not happy last night. We will have air conditioning tonight. This will not take some time.