I have taken Spanish as a foreign language for many semesters now however, I still did not know it well when going to Spain. Foreign language has always been my hardest subject for me to learn. When I was first coming to Barcelona I thought it was going to be difficult learning Spanish with the locals and I was right at first. In Barcelona they not only speak Spanish, but also Catalan, which makes it even harder to understand sometimes since the locals will exchange back and forth and intertwine the two languages. With this being said, by the end I had started to learn the language better.

I have experienced culture shock a couple times. Firstly, they do not use dryers. I know it sounds strange, but it was definitely shocking to me when I went to do my first load of laundry and my washer was outside in the shed behind the apartment, did my clothes and then I had to air dry all of them. It rained almost a week straight after this, which is rare for Barcelona, but this made it take forever for my clothes to dry. Also, our apartment is very small. After living in Charleston I thought the apartments could not be much worse than the old house I lived in but it was. I guess it made it where we all did not want to be in the apartment and wanted to be out all the time.

Another culture shock is getting used to the times of everything. The Spanish eat lunch after 1pm, then take siestas between 3 and 5 which means pretty much all stores and even grocery stores will be closed, and then many restaurants do not open again until 8:30. The people do not go out until midnight to the bars and stay out all night. Also, pretty much everything is closed on Sunday, not just Chick-fil-a, which I am missing about now. So I try and have enough groceries for the weekend and go grocery shopping Monday or Tuesday. I did not realize, how prevalent pickpocketing was until about a week in. I talked to many different people and have heard of tons of people getting pickpocketed and men even getting mugged at night and getting everything taken. I also, learned the hard way, most grocery stores do not have bags so you must bring your own or you will pay for bags. In addition, you have to pay for water at any restaurant you go to and the wine is less than the water, so bring your own bottle of water and order the wine.

Another cultural difference I have noticed is that the Spanish all share their food when they go out to eat. So they order numerous appetizers, or tapas, and all share them. This is different than the American culture because we will order and appetizer and then each get their own main course and many people do not like sharing their food.

I have started getting used to these culture differences. I wash little bits of clothes at a time so I do not run out and have nothing to wear while it takes a couple days to dry. I learned to eat breakfast and a later lunch. I am still working out my groceries. I have a “pick pocket proof” purse I have gotten to help me prevent pickpocketing. I have also gotten reusable bags to use when going shopping. Also I have been keeping my water bottles and filling them with a Brita I got before I leave the apartment.