Choque Cultural

Hello again!

Somehow this picture seems to explain culture shock the most

Blogging twice in one week? Crazy.... Especially because it's the week before midterms. This week has been pretty busy in terms of school, so I haven't done anything too exciting. We went to the Museo del Prado again yesterday to see Goya's paintings, but other than that, not much is new.

So I've decided to address the fact that I've been here for over a month (!!!) and the cultural differences I've experienced. While in the US this is called culture shock, I like the Spanish phrase better. "Choque cultural," which basically translates to culture crash, seems a little more accurate. (It reminds me of a car crash where some parts of the car get lost but it gets some paint from the other car scraped onto it. Metaphorically, the Spanish phrase seems better.)

Things I Love

-Siesta: built in nap-time? Yes, please
-Being able to practice and improve my Spanish. If all of your classes start being in another language, you learn pretty quick.
-The history and access to museums we don't have (or aren't close to) in the good ole US of A
-The night life. And having a bar named after me!
-Tapas: free food after you buy a drink. Delicious
-The weather. No Minnesota winter for me!
-The people I've met have been absolutely fantastic
-The ability to go lots of places in Europe while I'm here (Portugal next week, then Paris, then hopefully Italy...!)
-The short commute to classes

I took this picture from a moving bus. Impressive, right?

-Being popular on Facebook. I always wake up with quite a few notifications. It's the little things in life.
-Rebajas, which are super duper sales here.
-New food (Chocolate con Churros!)
-The view from my window (or anywhere in the city really. There are some excellent sites.)
-My art in Toledo class, where we get to look at beautiful buildings that I might never have found on my own
-Not tipping in restaurants
-Coffee for breakfast. Mostly I just didn't want to pay for it back home.


Things I Miss

I miss this lots.

-The Fam & Friends. Cheesy, but true.
-Being with Claire and driving Mom slightly crazy (it's much harder via Skype)
-Being in the same time zone as Minnesota.
-Some American food. No peanut butter here...
-Eating before 8:30 at night. The 7 hours between lunch and dinner can be a killer. This was probably the hardest thing to get used to and still can give me trouble if we've been hiking or traveling.
-My bathroom and bed from home. (We have a bidet in our bathroom, which is incredibly strange for all of us Americans)
-Netflix and keeping up with my TV shows from home. Not really a major thing, but I still miss it.
-Having my entire wardrobe.
-All of my shoes. I'm going to have to buy more. Which isn't really a bad thing, I guess :)


I'm sure there are a couple more things that could be put on either list. Overall, the trip is definitely worth the minor inconveniences of things like not getting to watch TV. I would stay in Europe forever even if I couldn't watch my shows.

Toledo. And I never want to leave!

The choque cultural hasn't been too bad (I almost wrote 'phrase' as 'frase' though, so the Spanish words are starting to make subconscious appearances) and it's been pretty easy to adjust. The schedule has been the hardest thing to get used to, (although having a few cleaning ladies come in is a little strange too) and it isn't really that big of a deal anymore. Although not feeling entirely confident when ordering in a restaurant is bit disappointing.

Hasta luego, folks.