I thought that choosing to do a year in Spain teaching English would be a great way to avoid the real world and put off “becoming an adult,” but somehow the real world found me here; and it brought culture shock, communication breakdown, and frustrations with it. This is not study abroad part 2.
I’ve begun to realize that during study abroad we really were living a fairy tale. Everything was handed to us on a silver platter – food, fresh laundry, friendships. We were all in the honeymoon phase; everything was completely new and novel. Our only worries were where to travel. This time, however, the novelty has worn off and travelling has been put on the backburner for now. Simple things like going grocery shopping and doing laundry become even more frustrating and confusing in a place where you can’t find exactly what you want and things are unfamiliar. For instance, Rachel and I went to a fruit and vegetable stand this afternoon, and for some reason the owner of the store kept laughing at us whenever we ordered. We thought it was maybe because everybody else was ordering their fruits in terms of weight when we were saying “cinco tomates, tres zanahorias”(how are we even supposed to know how much a kilo of onions is?). He also made fun of the fact that we came with a list of things that we needed. And that we smiled and were polite. He then started speaking in English. For me, that was the most frustrating because clearly we are competent and were able to order in Spanish, thus we would be able to understand his Spanish. I suppose frustrations like this will just have to take getting used to. This experience has definitely brought with it high and low points, whereas study abroad seemed to have been all high points with the very infrequent hiccup.
On a happier note, this weekend Rachel and I finally got to meet up with some of the other participants on our program! On Friday we went to dinner at this great Italian place with Lauren, Gillie and Brittany. We tried to go to a bar afterwards, but indecisiveness mingled with a sudden downpour of rain sent us all home around midnight (early night!). Sunday, we went to Antonia’s for lunch, and ended up staying there for about 8 hours. She taught us how to make my favorite lentil stew, which we ate out on the terrace with her and her boyfriend Antonio (yes they are Antonia and Antonio). Antonio then taught us how to play a card game called Mentirosa, which is similar to bullshit but faster paced. Antonio was exceptionally good at this game, probably because a lot of the time he is full of bullshit. For instance, when I first met him he tried to tell me and Rachel these “facts” about Chicago (where Rachel is from). We weren’t buying it.
On Monday, Rachel and I went to the gym and took a Sevillanas dance class, which we were assured by the woman at the front desk was very basic and for beginners. Umm… no. The first sign that this was not a beginner class was that everyone there was Spanish, which means they already a basic knowledge of flamenco rhythm that I could only hope to learn. Second, some were wearing flamenco dancing shoes. Third, when the instructor came in, they all began doing the steps to the first dance together. What? I had learned this dance while tipsy on Manzanilla a year and a half ago at Feria, so I thought that my skills would translate. I clearly thought wrong. Their solution for our clear lack of knowledge was to move us to the front so we could see better. Even if I had these steps broadcasted on a big screen two inches from my face, I would not be able to mimic them at full speed, with the music and clapping in the background. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more lost, we switched to the second dance. Then we broke into partners. I pretty much felt very sorry for whoever was partnered with us, because my dancing was a lot more stumbling than dance moves. We decided maybe it would be best to find some sort of pre-beginner class solely for extranjeros so as not to repeat this frustrating and embarrassing experience.
On Monday night we met up with a large group of participants from our program at Plaza Nueva and went out for tapas. We were a force to be reckoned with – a group of 20 Americans wandering the narrow streets of Sevilla looking for fun. We stayed at this great tapas place for a little bit, and then headed to a bar near Plaza Alfalfa, which was pretty much a very large botellón crammed into a very narrow street. It was a lot of fun – we met some great people who we can hopefully keep in touch with! All in all, getting out and getting to meet up with even more people definitely made me feel better. It seemed like a lot of them were in the same boat as us, which was definitely reassuring!
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