So, um... yeah. I kind of neglected this blog for a month. I swear I've been busy! I've finished my Intensivo, a month-long grammar course (4 hours a day, 5 days a week) and started in on regular classes. In addition to POE (grammar) and Spanish Culture/Civilization, I'm taking 20th-Century Spanish Lit and Art History from Baroque to Present. I've also been traveling a bit; my program gives us three or four free days every now and then to travel, so I've gone to the Parque Nacional de Doñana, Cádiz, Tarifa, and Gibraltar. Unfortunately, since my three-month-old camera decided to die on me, I don't have digital photos to post of the trips. Thanks a lot, Canon... the thing literally stopped working the moment I stepped into the Alhambra.Anyway, since I'm "maintaining" this blog as an assignment as well as for fun, I'm also supposed to do some reflection on my experiences here in addition to complaining about my camera. So for today, I decided to work off of one of the available prompts: "What did you assume before you left that you are not finding in your host-country, host-culture and/or host family and friends? Why did you make those assumptions?"
Well, one thing that surprised me about Spain is the racial makeup of Granada. Before I came here when I thought of Spaniards I thought of white Europeans, but there’s really a much more diverse population. For example, there’s a noticeable Asian presence, with lots of shops run by Chinese families, and many immigrants from Africa and South America. Every day I see at least one woman wearing a headscarf or other Islamic dress. In addition, Andalucía has the highest gitano (Gypsy) population in Spain.
Well, one thing that surprised me about Spain is the racial makeup of Granada. Before I came here when I thought of Spaniards I thought of white Europeans, but there’s really a much more diverse population. For example, there’s a noticeable Asian presence, with lots of shops run by Chinese families, and many immigrants from Africa and South America. Every day I see at least one woman wearing a headscarf or other Islamic dress. In addition, Andalucía has the highest gitano (Gypsy) population in Spain.
I’d heard that Spaniards (and Europeans in general) dress much more nicely than people from the U.S. And it’s largely true, but everyone doesn’t look like they stepped out of a catalog, like I imagined. There’s a whole range, from elegant jackets and high heels to baggy jeans and flip-flops. I had heard on various occasions, “No one wears tennis shoes in Spain”, but they’re all over the place. In fairness, Granada might be a special case; it has a really large student population and a reputation for being an easy-going city.
Another thing that went counter to my assumptions was how much people knew about the United States. Before arriving, I had had instances where I was shocked by how strongly the U.S. figured in the Spanish papers; one day I went to the website of El País and was amazed to see California’s gay marriage debate covered in the front page! Still, I didn’t expect people to be so familiar with our system of government, our politicians, our movies and music… after all, if you had asked me to describe the structure of Spain’s government before I decided to study abroad here, I would have been pretty useless.
A big thing: I had also thought before coming here that Spanish people were more interested in bullfighting. I mean, when people think about Spain, it’s one of the first things to come to mind. And the corrida is indeed an enduring part of Spanish culture. But all the same, as they told us in our civilization and culture class, only about half of Spaniards profess an interest in bullfighting; the other half of the population is either disinterested or actively opposed.
When I asked my host family, none of them had enthusiasm for bullfights; Sandra had been to one, but said she had to hide her eyes. The consensus was essentially that while they respect the artistic aspect of bullfighting, they feel too much pity for the animals to really enjoy it. And although proponents of ending corridas haven’t had much success (anti-bullfighting movements have become more potent over time, but the number of spectacles involving bulls has increased as well), they’re vocal in their opposition. One day walking home from class I passed a girl wearing a shirt that read, “Si los toros son cultura el canibalismo es gastronomía”: basically, “If bullfights are culture, cannibalism is high cuisine”.
(Anti-bullfighting graffiti near where I live: "Torturing bulls is neither art nor culture")