Somos diferentes

I just wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the cultural differences that I've noticed this first week in Spain.

The most obvious is the daily schedule. Spaniards are on the extreme Western end of their time zone, which means that the sun rises and sets at later times, plus they often add on extra hours, so that people can utilize as many hours in the daylight as possible. Because of this, Spaniards are known to do things 2 hours later than everyone else. To use a tour guide's example: A German will wake up at 6, a Spaniard at 8. A German eats dinner at 7, the Spaniard at 9. It is definitely something that has taken a little while to get used to, especially the late huge lunch. Instead of eating around noon, the Spanish eat around 2, and lunch is the most important meal of the day. The usual eating schedule looks like this: breakfast at 8ish, a mid-morning merienda (a very small snack - maybe a very small sandwich and a cup of coffee), lunch around 2, another merienda around 5 or 6, and dinner around 8 or 9. It's taken me a while to get used to this, but I do enjoy the later larger lunch and the smaller breakfast. I've never been a big fan of breakfast, and the Spanish breakfast is often some sort of thinly sliced meat (usually a sausage or ham), a bread, and fruit with coffee, water, and/or juice. It's nice and balanced. I like it. (There has also been an abundance of cheese at the hotels' continental breakfasts, which makes me happy!) Lunch is fabulous. When you go out, you get the daily meal - an appetizer, a main course, a dessert, and a drink all for about 10 Euro. I haven't had lunch with a family yet, but I'll let you know what it's like when I do.

Another cultural difference is the custom of tipping. In the U.S., we tip for EVERYTHING, and we are taught to tip generously. In Spain, you don't really tip people. In fact, prices at restaurants include the service charge (or what we would leave as a tip). It is sometimes considered an insult to leave large sums on the table, but if you are satisfied with a meal you can choose to leave a small 5% tip (if you want). The custom is usually to round up and leave some spare change. Other industries are taking up the restaurant industry's practices in regards to service charges. So, while things here may seem like they have a higher price, if you think about the inclusion of service charges, it's really not that much more expensive. It's also nice not to have to worry about tipping because there are often debates over how much to leave.

This may not be a cultural thing, but in hotels, you use your key card to use the electricity. Without your key, you can't turn on the lights or use the outlets to charge your electronics. It makes for a much more efficient use of energy because you can still turn off the lights while in the room, but once you leave, the lights will turn off automatically. The environmentalist in me definitely fell in love with this idea (and also made me think of a certain E-Stud major). I think American hotels could learn a thing or two from this system.

Oh, and churros y chocolate! It's a little merienda, and I'm pretty sure people usually have it in between lunch and dinner. Anyway, it's hot chocolate (which is, as I said before, basically melted chocolate served hot) and churros. You dip the churros into the hot chocolate, and it's, in a word, perfection. I really love the food here - a lot of meat and seafood and fruit. Can't beat that with a stick!