In barely one month’s time, I will have to relearn how to be an American.
Currently, I am writing this article from my apartment in Madrid, Spain, where I am studying abroad for the semester. By the end of my time here, I will have lived in Madrid for about four months, but it feels like an entire lifetime with how quickly I adopted the Spanish lifestyle.
While I had anticipated experiencing culture shock when I got here, I didn’t expect to adjust to those differences so quickly and with such ease. Now that I’ve been immersed in the culture for so long, certain American tendencies seem odd to me and it’s going to be difficult adjusting back to my old life.
So, as a way to hold on to my new, European way of life, I want to highlight some of the most significant differences I’ve noticed between Spain and the U.S.
Public Transportation
Now that I no longer have a car back home, I’m actually a little worried about how I’m going to get around. Public transportation back in the states is easy enough to navigate, but it is nothing compared to the systems here in Europe. Every city we have visited has a very accessible public transportation system that we can easily understand, even when it is in a different language.
Virtually everyone in Madrid uses public transportation to get around, and I understand why. The idea of taking the train to school everyday seemed daunting when I first arrived here, but the Metro system in Madrid is so straightforward and reliable that I can’t imagine another way to get around without walking. Their Metro system is always clean and feels very safe, even when riding alone or late at night.
Meals
The Spanish take their meals here very seriously. Breakfast is less of an affair, typically just coffee and a pastry whenever you wake up, which is also much later than typical Americans would get up and ready for work.
Lunch, however, is the big meal of the day. If you ever get the chance to visit Spain, you have to have a traditional Spanish lunch. It starts around 2 p.m. and lasts for hours. With big portions, lots of drinks and dessert at the end, lunch in Spain is a slow and long affair that leaves you wanting a nap by the end, but in the best possible way! My roommates and I love to just walk around our neighborhood and stumble into any restaurant with a good menu del día for lunch.
Dinner is usually smaller than lunch, but still a much bigger affair than in the U.S. For starters, Europeans like to eat late. Like, really late. Most restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8 p.m., but you won’t see people lining up to eat until at least 9 p.m. As someone who grew up eating dinner around 6:30 p.m. everyday, this is something that continues to baffle me. As for the food, dinner is usually a selection of tapas, the European equivalent to appetizers, that you can share with your friends. I cannot count the number of times I have ordered croquettas for dinner, but I have never been disappointed with them.
Social Interactions
Let me put it plainly: people in Spain are blunt. And not in a bad way.
Social interactions play out differently here in Madrid than they do in the U.S. I’ll be honest, I was a little caught off guard by how straightforward everyone was (part of this might be because I grew up surrounded by Midwestern politeness), and it took me a while to get used to. Straightforwardness can often be confused with rudeness, so this was something that I had to quickly adapt to. When interacting with anyone in Madrid, they will almost always cut to the chase and be perfectly honest. There is little room for small talk, especially between you and a worker at a store or restaurant.
One of the main differences between going out to eat in Europe versus the U.S. is that you don’t tip the service staff here. At first glance, the staff could seem rude or forgetful because they only come to the table to take your order and deliver the food, and don’t bring the check until you ask them to. They aren’t going to constantly check up on you, make sure you have everything and ask you how the meal is, like they do in America. It’s honestly kind of nice how they will leave you alone to fully enjoy your meal, and you don’t have the awkward experience of a waiter asking you a question right as you have stuffed food in your mouth.
University Classes
This may depend on which university you attend, either in Europe or in the U.S., but the teaching styles between the two universities I have attended are vastly different. Just because I attended an American university while in Madrid doesn’t mean that they teach using traditional American methods.
They do not hold your hand through a course in Spain. Every class is almost exclusively lecture based, with very few homework assignments and quizzes to boost your grade. If you are struggling in a class, you can and should talk to your professors, and they will try to help you, but they do expect you to be able to stay on top of your work without them. There is nothing wrong with this style of teaching, but since I was so used to how my professors taught back home, it took me a while to adjust to when I first started the semester.
These are just a few examples of the most prominent differences I’ve noticed between America and Europe. While there are some customs that I may never fully understand, there are some that I would not be opposed to bringing over to the states, specifically Spain’s tendency to close shops for two hours in the middle of the day so everyone can take a nap.
As my time abroad comes to a close, I want to express how grateful I am that I was given this opportunity. Traveling around the world and fully immersing myself into another culture really has been life changing, and I will treasure everything this experience has taught me. That being said, I do miss all of my friends and family back home immensely and am very excited to start relearning how to be an American when I return.