In November of 2017, I spent two weeks in Spain, traveling around the northern cities of Valladolid, Leon, Toledo, Segovia and the Capital of the Spain, Madrid. Over this two week period, I was “adapted” to Spanish culture, and learned several new things over that time. While first trip to Europe was overall a positive experience, I do have several qualms with the trip in a variety of different ways. It wouldn’t be one of my blogs posts if I didn’t have something to complain about. A lot of these will be nit-picky, as if the things I complain about weren’t already. But, I’ll be going over a few of the many things that happened to me while staying in Spain, along with some pictures if you don’t feel like reading.

Walking Around the Cities

I walked more in my two weeks in Spain that I previously had at any time in my life. +1 for exercise I guess. But, while walking around the cities was great exercise, I found it to be the time that I discovered the more… unusual parts of Spanish culture. Parts that were very different from culture in the U.S especially. For starters, the availability of vending machines was different, yet kind of charming. Normally, in the U.S, you only see vending machines in places like offices or shopping malls. But in Spain, you’d find a random vending machine on the side of an alley way, or in a little nook off of the side of a road. As an awkward person, I welcome these, considering you could buy sex toys for 6 euros and condoms for 3 euros. You won’t find those in your local mall’s vending machine. Another weird thing I noticed was that amount of PDA in the cities. PDA, or Public Displays of Affection was a spectator sport in Spain. Walking down the main street of Valladolid, I saw couples making out on a bench on more than one occasion. The girl I was staying with in Spain, Beatriz, just told me to keep walking and ignore it. PDA is something that is heavily frowned upon in the U.S, where most people will say it is disgusting if they come across it. So, as an American, I was creeped out.

Going to School

Most of the days I spent in Valladolid were spent in school. Now, we went over thanksgiving break, so it was different not having a holiday in late November. I think the first minute that I spent in the school perfectly sums up my experience in there. I walk into school, and while my Beatriz bent down to put things in her locker, another student walked up and introduced himself with the n-word. Lovely. This school that I went to was for ages 6 months to 17 years. We visited areas where they kept babies in cribs, as well as the what would be pre-k of the school. The most abnormal (at least to me) thing about the pre-k classrooms were the anatomically correct body part posters. Again, as an American, these would never been seen, let alone in a class for 4 year olds. However, the thing that weirded me out the most about the school was the amount of taxidermy animals that they had in their science rooms. I’ll show a picture that I took in a science lab below, but the picture alone does not do it justice. Almost all of the shelf space, as well as several other glass cabinets were filled with taxidermy animals, ranging from tiny field mice to swans and monkeys.

The Food

I will admit something here: while I was in Spain, although I walked an average of 5 miles a day while overseas, I gained weight in the process. Largely, this is because they eat 4 meals a day compared to the 3 we usually eat over here. In the early morning, we ate a small breakfast meal, which for me consisted of a slice of sugar bread, milk, and a piece of a baguette. As an American, the thing first and foremost that “freaked me out” was warm milk. I know, such a unique concept. But the first day, I was given warm milk at lunch, and it was hard to stomach (pun definitely intended). I usually had a small lunch, which consisted of what would be a normal school lunch in the U.S. Then, came the midday meal at around 3, which was the size of an American dinner. Lastly, we would have a smaller meal around 8-9. Through these different meals, I ate a bunch of different things including paella, which was most definitely microwaved at the hole-in-the-wall restaurant we ate at. I also sampled Bitter Kas, a drink which neither I nor the person I was walking with made the connection between the drink’s name, and the word bitter. The flavor was like the worst tasting medicine doubled, and tasted like a mixture of vinegar, barbecue sauce and battery acid.

The real kicker, the most unusual experience came when I was in the city of Segovia, south of Valladolid. For lunch, we attended a traditional Spanish lunch, complete with baby suckled pig as the main course. As is common place at the restaurant, the chef cut the pig with a porcelain plate to show how tender the meat was, and then tossed the plate on the ground like a Frisbee, shattering it into pieces. The pig was tasty, although we (being the 8 other people who ate the pig) did occasionally find a lung or other organ buried within our meat.

The Culture

Spain is Western culture wise, so there wasn’t as big as a culture shock as if I went to China or Japan. In fact, there weren’t too many differences that I noticed while over there. Of course, it was different living in a city, where I could walk a kilometer to school or walk a kilometer and a half to find a train station, even though Valladolid is a city of 300,000. Something to note about the cities, the concept of suburbs doesn’t exist in Spain, and there would be literal signs saying VALLADOLID, and then the houses and buildings would stop abruptly. What was weird in Spain was seeing American companies or other businesses in Spain. It felt unusual to see McDonald’s that had a green color scheme compared to the red that we are used to in the US. There also happened to be a random Dunkin’ Donuts in Segovia, which was the most weird to see, and this is coming from the person who ate at a Five Guys in Madrid. Speaking of Five Guys, I never saw it without a line. A normal restaurant in the U.S like Five Guys had a 50 person line outside it every night. People are also a lot more physical in their affection, as they do the kiss greeting (the one with the kiss on the two cheeks I don’t remember the name of) and friends are more likely to hug each other.

Madrid

While I spent the majority of the two weeks in Valladolid, the last 2-3 days were spent in Madrid. Madrid was much, much different that Valladolid, as you would expect from a city 10x bigger. But, there were a lot of differences that stood out to me in the short time that I was there. Madrid is your average city, but more European (real shocker, I know). For transport, they had a subway system, which as stupid Americans, no one knew how to use, as well as bike rentals which no one knew how to pay for. While in Madrid, I saw women’s marches, beautiful architecture, and a guy peeing on the side of the street. So, really, just a normal day. I think the scariest part of my trip came when I went to the Real Madrid stadium in wealthy Chamartin area of Madrid. I carried a Barcelona kit with me, which somehow didn’t get me killed. (For those of you unfamiliar with European/Spanish Soccer, bringing a Barca kit to Madrid would be like wearing a Cowboys jersey in Philly or a Yankees jersey in Boston). Alas, we made it back to the hotel, with nothing but pictures and fear in our hearts.

No Place for Hate

God I miss Spain. Going to Spain was one of the best experiences of my life, even if I did have a lot of complaints about it. I guess it was a culture shock of just traveling to a foreign country for the first time and not seeing English wherever I went. It would be a bigger culture shock if I went to a country like Japan or China, where culture is so different to that in the US. But, I don’t regret going, and hope to go back to Spain in the future, whether in college as a Student or as an adult. I encourage traveling to anyone, because you can learn so much by simply just wandering around a city of traveling around wherever.