Intercultural Negotiations

Greetings everyone,

I've been in Seville for close to four weeks and there are many things which have caught me by surprise regarding how the Spanish arrange their day.When I looked through the assigned reading for this blog and examined its commentary on culture, I came across a sentence which reads "Don’t assume that you can learn about intercultural communication by staying in your comfort zone. Even if it is awkward at first, you need to expose yourself to different cultures." This advice can certainly be applied to my experience in Spain. Mostly, however, my exposure to the cultural differences here revolved around how the day is organized here which is a bit peculiar.


Something which I was aware of before was that time is recorded in military time so 5 p.m. would be 17:00 over here. Moreover, the Spanish day places great emphasis on having set periods of both rest and meals. This rest period, known as a siesta, takes place between 1:30 and 5:00 p.m. and during this time, shops and businesses are closed and this is generally when people go to eat their lunch. Many a time, I've gotten finished with my classes at the University of Pablo de Olavide at 3:00 and when I get home, I get back to my residence at about 3:45 and not only are many shops closed but lunch is no longer being served at my residence. I found this to be highly inconvenient but it was something I knew I needed to get used to. One thing which helped me greatly was when I expressed my issue with the food schedules, I got help from some of the other students here who offered me alternative ways I could get my lunch for the day and so far those alternative methods are working.By the way, all of the food I have had so far has been great so taste is not an issue just access.


Dinner here is also at a later hour then I am used to for it starts at 9:00 p.m. which I assume implies means that the siesta is meant for people to sleep after a large lunch and then have a small dinner. This arrangement seemed  strange at first but then I thought of it this way: three o-clock here would be about 9:00 back home and I'm just eating a large breakfast and similar to this, the 9:00 dinner is really a late lunch which is just a way to put these meals into a context around which I could wrap my head. It hasn't been perfect but I've found ways to make it a pleasant experience.  


Being an American over here in Spain has prompted me to identify myself as belonging to a co-culture and this designation has not changed yet because it's a new place and like any new situation, there are new people to meet and new relationships to establish and for now at least, I'm beginning to feel more welcome here and am more at ease when I walk to the metro stop. As my Spanish skills improve by becoming a second language, I hope that my cultural skills improve as well as I become more integrated into Spanish culture.

I'm taking this warning to heart so as not to insult the norms and rules of a society or culture without inviting scorn
I have done this and I don't plan to.