I have spent 2 days in Madrid, then 6 days on a cultural exchange and teaching English by speaking to 14 Spaniards, just outside a remote village called Rascafria, near Madrid, at a beautiful 4 star monastery resort called Santa Maria el Paular, then 2 days in Barcelona.
These are my observations of Spanish life.
Spanish people kiss a lot on the street - I love this. Coming from England, my first instinct was to stare at these people and feel ashamed for even looking at them. I could not understand why they insisted in showing so much affection in public. Men were kissing and hugging the girls, smiling and laughing all the time, being what I would call "extremely affectionate" and showing no sign of any "proper" behaviors. These include being uptight and expressing no signs of having any emotions in public. Any feelings shall be expressed after consuming inappropriate quantities of alcohol when enough courage shall be build to act upon any emotions you might have in the privacy of your own house.
This moves us to my next observation - Spanish people don't drink a lot. They drink quite spread out and constant, maybe a glass of wine for lunch, then more for dinner, every day. But when they drink, they never drink to get drunk. The drinking ritual is more about being social, spending time with friends, enjoying conversation, laughter and generally interacting with other people. It's about spending quality time and since that are naturally good conversationalists and comfortable within social situations, drinking is there to accompany and maybe just set the initial relaxation mood, but never to actually elicit action.
Spanish people dance a lot - even men! The music is in their blood. The minute they hear a rhythm, they start dancing. For hours, energetic dancing, not just wobbling your body left and right hoping that if you move a little bit your going to be able to pretend that your sideways moves could be called dancing. Men also. This is what I found baffling. They love to dance. No dragging men on the dance floor, no making sure they have had enough liqueur to again build up the aforementioned "courage". And men are happy to dance, they are good dancers and they are fun!
There is a lot of police in Madrid on the street - not sure why this is the case. But they were all extremely helpful and didn't make me feel like there was something wrong. I just found it very surprising but very reassuring.
Spanish women wear a lot of sports shoes, especially Converse sneakers - not sure if this is some fashion trend that is temporary, but they are all looking very weird, not very feminine. Trousers - especially jeans are the item of choice with most of them. Also, they didn't generally seem to be very concerned about their appearance.
But the next point is that Spanish women are generally quite good looking, quite slim, but they don't really dress to impress at all. In the UK, women try to dress nice and their bodies don't help, so quite the other way around. Spanish men, as a majority, have quite low levels of fitness, because they all seems to have quite big bellies, poorly dressed, with no intention to look nice or color coordinate whatsoever.
Continuing from that idea, I've come across something very strange... Spanish men look younger than they are and Spanish women look older than they are. I've met 4 Spanish guys this week, 3 of them were 37, 38 and 39 and the 4th was 51 - I was quite shocked to find out they ages. The 3 ones all looked around 30... Women, I think because they wear old looking clothing and very strong make up, which looks unnatural, makes them look older. Also, I don't know if they use any creams, sun protection etc because the women who don't wear make up at all, which are quite a lot of ... Their skin looks quite old - which could be because of the sun to be fair.
Spanish men are very passionate when making love. Yes, I had to try it. The guy had a proper six pack, which was massively hot, his muscles of his arms were very well defined (all this hidden away under quite a baggy, boring shirt) and he was... Married with 3 kids....Well you can judge all you want, but he is the one who has to go back to his wife, I've got no commitments and we both were consenting adults in a one night stand. All this was new for me, so just had to... It's one of those myths that you hear of.... And it is true - Latin blood.
We didn't have to drink too much for the guy to be dancing with me, have quite light fun, good conversation along with other people around, then invite me to his room for a last drink. And then, I gave him the opportunity to kiss me and he grabbed it. Barely any drinking and then... Quite passionate ... In the way he touched me, in the way me held me so close and tight as it felt our skins have melted into one, in the way he had his arms all around me. I would say it was quite interesting to experience passionate that didn't feel possessive. It felt like it was just us in the entire hotel and we were there to make love - not shag, not be awkward, not question when to take clothes off, when to .... Etc. There were no feelings involved of course - but it was just magnificent exactly how it was. A passionate, but light one night stand.
Morning after, along with all the people in the group... He came to my table, had breakfast, then had lunch together and then sat in the bus together for the ride back, having some really interesting conversation, as the guy is very well educated as well as most people on this English learning programme, with quite impressive management positions in multinational companies. We will probably never see each other again, but he wasn't again awkward, was manly enough to live up to day after acceptable behaviour - not to make me feel like a last night's shag, by recognising that the previous night happened and continuing some sort of spending time together for the rest of the remaining hours of our programme, but also keep up appearances because he is married in the real life after all ...
In the UK, besides a massive hangover the next day, because that is the only way this would have happened, the guy would have been too shy or too scared to have any kind of conversation with me the next day, thinking we might give the wrong impression to the other people or he might give me the wrong impression that he wants anything to do with me after the one night stand. All awkward and too much thinking through.
I was thoroughly impressed by the very good overall behavior of the Spaniards. The programme that I took part in was a unique way to get such an amazing insight into these people's live, their way of thinking and their own fears and hopes etc. The sort of discussions about how much you earn, how much you pay rent, bills and how you would organize your life would be impossible to have in the UK where people are very private.
But the Spaniards were a pleasure to talk to, so open and so social, asking questions, being inquisitive, expressing their thoughts and opinions in such a refreshing, honest manner and generally keeping things quite fun and light - right up my street.
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