Reflections of an enfermita II

October 16, 2008 at 4:58 am | Posted in Cultural education | 2 Comments
Tags: observations

Today is an example of deja vu at its worst. I’m writing from my bed in Spain, where I’m laid up with a(nother) sprained ankle. If you’ll look at my first-ever post, you’ll see that this whole blog began as a result of a sprained ankle in Spain last April. And now, it’s the reason I’m finding the time and motivation to write this morning. Who knows, maybe I’ll even write more than one post today!

Yesterday, I was doing a greater amount of facebook stalking than usual, as my roommates had gone out for tapas and drinks and I was stuck home nursing my ankle, and I came across a blog that exemplified the kind of Americans-in-Spain that drive me up the wall.

It was written by a language assistant like me, and it was full of stereotypes and generalizations about Spanish people and culture. But the most annoying part was the “I’m so above these people and this place” tone that rang throughout the entire thing.

Maybe I’m being harsh…it was pretty obvious that this girl hadn’t spent much time abroad before, and maybe I was just as naive and oblivious when I first began my international adventures. I do remember commenting to my mom one day, three years ago, barely into my first stint in Spain, that Granada was a “cosmopolitan city, like New York!” The small town in southern Spain does has a lively atmosphere, decent shopping compared to my hometown,and lots of culture, but it’s no New York…not even close. (I hadn’t been to New York yet, either.)

But the sad thing is many people never progress beyond that first phase, where everything is foreign and exotic to you, and therefore silly, and you can laugh about it because you know you get to go home soon, where everything is “normal” and makes much more sense.

I’ve met so many people in the two-going-on-three years I’ve spent in Spain who say they’re here to experience another culture and learn the language, but they never step outside of the America bubble they create in Spain. They only spend time with other Americans, they make fun of Spanish customs that they don’t understand and people they think are funny because they’re different, and they meet one or two Spaniards and assume they’re all the same.

I know I’ve taken the integration and acceptance thing to the extreme, what with the Spanish boyfriend and all, but through my relationship I’ve been able to meet  and get to know a lot of Spaniards. Now, whenever I get caught in certain conversations with other Americans, I usually feel like it’s my personal responsability and mission to defend the Spaniards under attack and prove that the stereotypes are as true as many Europeans’ stereotypes about Americans — we’re all overweight, frequent McDonalds, eat eggs and bacon for breakfast every day, don’t know where Europe is on a map (ahem, John McCain), and carry guns at all times, among others.

I don’t know about you, but none of these oh-so-common stereotypes apply to me, and I’m as American as they come.