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During the last few weeks, I´ve been noticing some cultural differences between Spain and the United States. Of course, these are just generalizations, and don't apply to everybody.
-First off, the Spanish eating schedule is very different from the American schedule. Instead of eating a large meal for dinner around 6 or 7 o´clock, Spaniards eat their main meal, La Comida, around 3 pm, a smaller snack around 5 or 6, and finally dinner, La Cena, around 9:30 or 10, sometimes later. My host parents had a couple friends over for a dinner last week, and people didn´t even show up until eleven. People don´t tend to eat food at all between meals. My house here has a lot less junk food, and snack food in general - very little that you would just grab out of the fridge or a cupboard and eat whenever you feel like it.
- Jamón (ham) is good. I like to eat it by itself, but apparently it's kind of a crime not to eat it in a bocadillo, a Spanish sandwich.
-iPods and Apple computers aren't nearly as popular here as at home. Lots of people have Macs or iPods, but mp4´s and other kinds of computers in general are more common.
-In school, you stay with mainly the same group of students. In Primero Bachillerato (like junior year), in my school, there are four tracks. I have 3 or 4 classes (out of 8) with about half of the class being from one of the other tracks, but apart from those classes, it's all the same group of other students. We're usually in the same classroom, but I have three classes that are in different rooms. The professors also switch classrooms during passing time, which means that none of the rooms have decorations or anything.
-In Murcia, at the very least, it is incredibly difficult to get textbooks.
-People yell more and tend to be more direct, saying what they think.
- Instead of intersections, there are roundabouts.
- My second weekend here, I got to go to a Spanish wedding. They're very different. http://www.notesfromspain.com/2008/09/10/how-do-spanish-weddings-work/
-In the city center, people tend to dress up more. I think women dress somewhat more conservatively here, but there's not a huge difference.
-Plans tend to be more fluid - changing plans at the last minute seems to happen a lot. Also, people are a lot more likely to go downtown or out with friends rather than going to the house of a friend.
-On Saturday and Friday nights, most people who are going out leave the house around eleven, and stay out a lot later than at home, but of course it depends on the individual person.
