The strange things I miss about America

I'm going to start by saying, Spain is a great country to study abroad in. However, as Americans, we take for granted the influence that cultures have made on our way of life. First thought that comes to my mind: Mexican food (but there's obviously a ton more).

 So, you know how they say you only know the true value of something once it's gone? ..Or something like that? Anyway. I've noticed after 3 months of completely, and I mean completely, changing my lifestyle to the Spanish way, that I've come to miss some classic American things. Of course, the majority of  this list will most definitely be food. But, here goes nothing.

1. American pizza. As much as I like almost any kind of pizza, there's just nothing that quite compares to a deep dish pizza from Jets. The cheese here is just too darn salty. I want some greasy, warm, gooey heart-attack causing pizza, and I most definitely can't wait to eat it again.

2. Craft beers. You know, I never even really thought I liked beer that much, until I didn't have the option to have a nice craft beer once in awhile. Don't get me wrong, they have craft beers here, but they're just too darn expensive for my taste. Bartender, what do you mean you don't have Oberon? (As we know, Oberon is created by Bell's Brewery from my good ol' home state of Michigan, which is one of the best craft brew states in America).

3. Taco Bell. Yes, we as Americans might be fat, lazy and eat garbage (not all of us). But you know what? Taco Bell will always have a warm place in my heart. What am I supposed to do when I want a cheap taco around here? Even Mexican food is basically non-existent which I miss just as much as Taco Bell. As many of you might think, no, they actually do not eat tacos in Spain. The food here is more like bread, cheese, wine, tapas, paella, and a looooot of seafood. I don't know if I can ever eat seafood again after I leave here. 

4. Having a car. Don't get me wrong, public transportation is incredible here. It's not bad for basically a dollar a ride, but sometimes I just don't want to leave an hour early from my house to get somewhere on time. And if you miss the tram, you have to wait 20 minutes for the next one, which means you'll definitely be late.  

My baby, oh how I miss you so

5. Having a job. Who knew being jobless would get me so frazzled like this? No source of income equals frugal spending, which I'm not so good at. Not to mention, I just feel darn lazy. 

6. Slurpees. You never need an occasion for a Slurpee. Somehow, my day could be crap, but getting a Slurpee would just make it all better. They just don't exist here and it makes me very sad. Especially when it was 90 degrees every day, it's all that I wanted. Guess I'll have to wait to get one in the dead of winter when I return!

7. The snow. BAHAHA. Just kidding.The Mediterranean climate out here has Michigan beat any day. You'll never hear the words "I miss snow" come out of my mouth. And I mean, the beach. I can WALK to the BEACH. This beach, in fact: 

Well, there you have it. All my cravings and things that I miss the most all in one list. However, I'm not trying to paint a negative picture of Spain here. You better believe there will be a blog titled "The strange things I miss about Spain" upon my return to America!  Follow my blog to keep continue hearing about my journey in Spain and reflections afterwards. Only 24 more days here and I fly home!

Week 11: Overcoming and accepting my host situation

So, here I am: sitting in the same bed, typing on the same computer, in the same room as the first day I got here… 11 weeks ago. But somehow, I feel way different.

Succeeding the theme of my last blog, where I explained the stages of culture shock, I can honestly say this hasn’t exactly been a “4 month vacation” for me, rather I’ve been constantly learning, struggling, overcoming and changing as a person.

Sure, Spain has been great. I love the weather, the culture, the myriad of things to do, the lifestyle and even the food isn’t too bad. On the other hand, I’ve been going through stress that is completely unnecessary from my host situation, that I’ve finally overcome.

There are many things culturally different here which weren’t as obvious when I first arrived. For example, the family. It’s not abnormal for children to live with their parents until they’re in their thirties. It’s totally acceptable and part of the culture, which leads to why I believe I’ve been butting heads with my host mom for a while.

It took me awhile to see that while living with families in Spain, they’re just treating you the same way they would treat their own children. Especially for an older host mom like mine, she’s very traditional in her ways. She cooks and cleans which is great, but likes to dictate things in my life and give me her two cents about everything, which is probably exactly how she treated her children when they lived here.

I shrugged things off for as long as I could until I finally broke down and got teary-eyed to my director. It made me realize why this was happening to hear it explained from another Spaniard. Not to mention the support of Damaris and Katie that day—I sincerely thank you!

Damaris also pointed out that the meaning of being a woman and "independence" has a different meaning here than in the U.S. My host mom loves to cook, I don't. She doesn't drink, I do. She doesn't like that I go out sometimes at night, I say oh well. She calls me unorganized, but I know no one's perfect and I believe I'm quite organized. Maybe she's judging my "womanliness" by these factors. Do I care anymore, though? No. 

I have been taking their advice into consideration and it's changed the way I've reacted and felt, such as “why do you care what she thinks?” “you don’t have to like your host mom—think of it as a bad roommate situation at school” and finally, “you don’t have to do everything she tells you—just say no gracias. Estoy bien. No hace falta” (no thank you. I am fine. Don’t worry about it).

I won’t go into every detail about why I've been extraordinarily stressed about my host family, but I will lend some advice to those of you who plan to study abroad in the future: every host situation is different. Maybe you expect a motherly figure to tell you what you should do, or if you’re like me, that absolutely gets on your nerves. Maybe your personality fits perfectly with your host family, or maybe you’re so completely different that you can’t even fathom knowing these people if you weren't forced into this situation to begin with. Just do your best to understand the situation without letting it get to you, like I did.  

Finally, I realize now that I was completely misunderstanding the final stage of culture shock (acceptance). I thought I accepted the culture all along, until I realized it was the exact entity that was the root of my stress.

What I learned about my situation is that you and only you have the power to control your own happiness. If you focus your attention on the things that aren't making you happy like I was, you'll lose focus of what's important. 

To wrap up this blog, I'd like to conclude with a quote that is quite fitting: 

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”
-Dale Carnegie

Exploring the beautiful new places is a reminder of what makes me happy in Spain. This is a picture of the bridge connecting the shopping center in Barcelona.