Thursday, January 20

The biggest differences between the US and Spain

Because I've been here almost a week, I thought I'd write about the biggest differences between Spain and the United States (aside from the obvious time zone change) that I've noticed so far.

1. Everything is done later in the day.
They wake up later, they eat later, they party later, and they sleep later.  Lunch takes place between 2 and 3, dinner between 9 and 10, and I have no idea when or if anyone eats breakfast.  They go out to clubs at 12 and the 'coolest' time of night to party, i.e. when the clubs are most crowded, is around 4 or 5 in the morning.  I have no idea how they pull this off, but I don't think I'm going to try it.

2. Barcelona is greener than Chicago.
When you check out at the supermarket, each bag you use costs 2 centavos!  (Which isn't much... but still, the bags aren't free.)

3.  Fashion trends are quite different.
 Dark colors seem to be in.  Imagine my discomfort when I got on the subway wearing my bright yellow jacket and everyone else around me was wearing some shade of black.  All the kids around my age seem to be wearing black leather bomber jackets too-- I don't have any inclination to buy one though because I know as soon as I get back to the U.S. people will ask me if I ride a motorcycle.  But one thing is for sure, I see no North Face jackets and no Uggs.  If you wear these here, you can be easily picked out of a crowd.

EDIT 1/21/11: #4 added.

4.  Floors in buildings start at 0
So if you want to walk up to the 3rd floor, you're not walking up 2 flights of stairs, but rather you're walking up 3.  Also, there's no such thing as a basement level; instead, there is level -1, -2, -3, etc.

1 comment:

  1. Don't know how they pull it off either. But I guess you can try on weekends!

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