Dedicated to my baby Eleanor down in Murcia ❤

It’s 7 o’clock on Friday night and I’m sitting here jamming out to Macklemore. Never fear though; I do have a social life. It’s just that here, social lives generally don’t start until like, midnight on the weekends. So I have a while. The sun hasn’t even set yet.

So here I am! One month into my Spanish adventure, and I’m not going to lie, it’s been exhausting. I’m also not going to lie and say I love every minute of it – I dream about going home, I miss having pets SO MUCH, and I miss understanding my homework. But that’s okay, because I know I’m going to make it through this and be super duper proud of myself for it. I’m taking a hint from Jenna Marbles and whenever Current Emma is sad, I just imagine Future Emma (be it February Emma or University Emma or Married-with-kids Emma) coming down to talk to me and say “Hey, this sucks, but it’s gonna make you who you’re supposed to be, and you’re pretty darn cool, Little Emma.” Which sounds stupid when put on paper, but I mean, I’m my own best friend. So there. Future Emma is really cool BTW.

I just finished my first full week at my new school, and that has taken a lot of stress off. It’s further away, so I have to get up at 7 now (ick) to catch the 8:05 bus, to be there by 8:30. School ends at 2:10, and we have 6 classes and 2 recreos (err… breaks?) per day. I’ve been jotting down the cultural differences I encounter as I go, so if you’re interested in seeing more of those, visit my page titled Differences. Creative, I know. A couple that I’m going to highlight here have either really struck me or have been more difficult to adjust to.

Let me just say that none of my teachers, with their current styles, would be allowed to teach in an American classroom. They wear jeans to school, swear at the students/each other (totally calmly, though), grab at and generally invade the American perception of personal space, and could generally get sued up and down back in the good ole US of A. A teacher today wore a T-shirt that said “Mix scotch and work” today. And he’s the English teacher, so don’t tell me he doesn’t know what it says. Our PE teacher (who looks like Jack Black’s twin, by the way) actually touches us (both girls and boys) to demonstrate how to do stretches. When I told another teacher that I was from America, lived in China, and was born in Singapore, he just exclaimed “F**k” and shrugged his shoulders. Tooooootally different atmosphere. I still can’t manage to fit into that kind of thing.

Males in general are much more forward. We have a new English teaching assistant who’s actually from America (most English teachers here just managed to pass high school-level tests and secure the position) and here on a gap year from university, aged 22. Aside from my initial excitement at having a real actual American in my vicinity, I was excited to see that my classmates would be learning real English; not whatever they’re learning here. I’m a language snob. Anyway, yesterday, we had an English Q&A session with the poor girl. Within five minutes, all the males in the class were telling her (in Spanish) to come to their apartment, they’ll show her a good time, and other things that would definitely not be appropriate to blog about. And being the only English speaker, she just stared at me expecting me to translate. “Um… they want to know if you have a boyfriend?” Which was still uncomfortable. Poor girl is definitely in for a shock with the forwardness around here; I know I am.

I love how liberal everyone is with fashion though. Piercings, tattoos, modern haircuts and crazy styles are all totally fine here. I feel like people can express themselves more easily here, and generally the attitude about most things related to image and reputation is less intense. Less pressure, if you will. I still really want my labret, tragus and nose pierced, but I’m just biding my time til I’m eighteen. But I could definitely fit in here, in that regard.

OH. Speaking of fitting in, I’ve realized the advantages and disadvantages of not being recognized as a foreigner. First of all, people are more willing to speak Spanish with me because they don’t even realize I don’t speak it until I ask about a word or stumble over some grammar. Then my secret’s out. But I feel more incognito here. Every time I happen to talk in English for whatever reason in public, I get really weird stares, which is hilarious. I also notice that people are more willing to strike up conversations or talk faster when they think I’m just someone from the street (which they do, until someone tells them otherwise. I tend to keep my answers short around strangers in any language, regardless). The disadvantages, however, are almost the same: people think I’m absolutely stupid if I stumble over language, and also, people aren’t as helpful because I look like a local. I’m talking about teachers and random people if I ask for directions. Apparently, one of my teachers at my old school never knew I was American – which is weird, because first of all, my name is obviously not Spanish, and secondly that people pointed it out literally all the time. Plus the fact that, you know, I could never understand her when she spoke Gallego. But oh well. Obviously that needed to be made more clear. Everyone is immediately more interested when they find out I’m exciting and foreign, as opposed to just another Spaniard. It’s interesting getting to see both sides of things when I please.

Consequently, the reactions to my being American vary, I notice, between groups of people. Boys my age think I’m easy. Girls my age think I must love to party. Parents think I’m brave for coming to Spain by myself. Young adults want to practice their English as much as possible. People over 50 think foreign = mentally challenged, and they tend to avoid speaking to me at all costs, speaking instead through someone else (i.e. “Tell her that I like her shirt”) or even talking about me while I’m there (“I wonder how she’s liking Spain”). Everyone thinks I’m rich. The different perceptions of general non-Spaniards and specifically Americans are pretty amusing sometimes, and upsetting at others. For example, no matter how many times I tell older people that they can talk to me and I can understand what they say, they still don’t want to. I’ve only had one younger person question my ability to speak Spanish after I explained my level to them.

Alright, the end. My next post will be on Sunday or Monday, hopefully, and I’ll tell you all about the three different places I’ve visited outside of Vigo so far (one is in Portugal)! Also, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me @meiguoEmma.

Besos.