Two years ago exactly I arrived in Spain. In fact about this time (12pm) I had landed and was waiting for my suitcases to come out of the door on the conveyor belt of handsoffthatoneismine and sweatyhandsheartracing doom.
I came on a six month TEFL internship with two suitcases and around 800€ in cash that I was so terrified of losing or having it stolen that I kept checking every five minutes that it was there, which in hindsight probably make me either look like I has around 800€ in cash in my bag, or a terrorist with some kind of exploding purse.
As I landed on that hot day in August with my address written on a piece of paper to give to the taxi driver and enough Spanish to ask someone how they are but not enough to understand the reply, little did I know that all my dreams of travelling the world teaching English were about to come crashing down VERY rapidly, for less than three weeks after my first day arriving in one piece to the most disgusting flat i´ve ever seen I met the man that would change my whole outlook on life.
When I met my husband, I decided instantaneously that this was the guy for me, that all my dreams of country hopping, living out of a suitcase, never having to worry about anyone but myself popped, but in a good way. I lost the need to travel, I stopped in the first country I went to. I also used to be the girl who never wanted to get married and never wanted kids but I suppose my sister was right when she told me "wait until you meet the right man" because here we are almost two years after we met, married and I very much do want kids...
It hasn´t been all fairytales and looking at life through rose tinted glasees though, there are tonnes of diferences between the UK and Spain that i´ve had to get (I haven´t got) used to, here are just a few...
1: KISSING
In Spain it´s custom to give two kisses, one on each cheek. Men kiss only women but women have to miss everyone! I HATE IT Being a Brit, we are not used to kissing and when we go somewhere are there is a group of people, friends or family usually we say Hi and wave in general to everyone, maybe you kiss your parents, or give a hug to your best friend but we don´t kiss 20 people hello and then AGAIN to say goodbye!
2: LATENESS
I hate being late, I´d rather be an hour early than a minute late. This doesn´t seem to bother Spanish people though, we´re going to have lunch at 2pm, so the guests arrive at 2.30/3pm, we´ll start the meeting at 5.30pm so obviously i´m sitting alone until 5.45 when the other people start to arrive and we start the meeting somewhere between 5.45 and 6pm. Come on people I wanna go home!
3: PAPERWORK
No-one has told Spain that computers can hold a lot of information and that most of the annoying things that we had to make appointments for and wait in queue´s for in the past, well we can do those things now online. I´ve been here two years, it took me a year and a half to get around to registering that I live here, I had to go four times to get my national identity card because of all the paperwork I had to take, and trying to get a metro card was like trying to get a passport!!
4: FEVER
People are obsessed here with having a fever, if you sneeze someone will ask if you have a fever, if you have a headache someone will ask if you have a fever, if you cut your arm off, i´m pretty sure that someone will ask if you have a fever! And I work with children, I take at least one every day to see if they have a fever! And if they have a rever they go straight home, however, if they vomit, but don´t have a fever, well drink some water and back to class!
5: MEAL TIMES
In Spain we have lunch around 2-3pm (we have been known at home to have lunch at 5pm) and dinner is around 9-10pm. My family can´t believe this, being from the north of England they are strictly Tea at 5pm tupe of people. And I was too and although I spent my first few weeks here in a constant state of either starving or stuffed, you do get used to it.
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