Living German in Spain

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Some time has past since I last wrote. But here is a little update.

I'm residing in Madrid and, step by step, I start understanding the way of life here, which is fascinatingly different from my own life in Denmark, and therefore also very likely to give me grey hair.

Uni

I have become enrolled as an Erasmus student in the largest University in Spain - Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The university is huge and spread over more than one city part, though having most of its facilities in the Ciudad Universitaria district.
Luckily I only have lectures in my own faculty, as a lecture often starts the same time the previous ended. But I still run confused around in my own faculty, which looks mostly like a large space ship made of concrete, just about to land. My lectures are beginning to start and so is my confusion as I meet professors who hate foreign students or speak a mumbling Spanish from which I only once in a while depict the word “puta”. But I also meet the friendlier professors, who catch the attention of their students as well as the more eccentric ones. One particular professor, who normally uses his computer for power point presentations, has a screensaver with erotic pictures from the 60s and it is often that the screensaver comes on before he is finished with a slide.

German

Madrid itself is an interesting mix of culture. 25%!o(MISSING)f the population is foreigners. You might say that I am absolutely far from being alone. In the Erasmus community, the majority of students seem to be German and I hear more German than Spanish these days. I might very well leave Spain, speaking fluently German. My best friends as well as my roommates are all German and discussions often fly around in German. So while I try to understand Spanish and Madrilien culture, I often stumble upon German culture and German mentality. Sometimes it gets a little too much when I for the fifth time that evening has to ask people to speak anything but German. But at the same time, it is extremely interesting to see how they as well as I myself struggle to adapt to the southern way of life. We are all of us unknown to the customs of siesta, two hour dinners and the importance of using your hands when explaining something. At home we all normally eat at 8 o'clock the latest, but here we don't get dinner until 10 o'clock.

Madrid - love and hate relationship

In such a large city as Madrid one cannot avoid both feeling excited and irritated about various things.
In the following I will allow myself to write about some of those things that piss me off the most. Thereafter, I hope to dwell a bit on the things that I fancy about this big metropolis.

Fliers and water
At every corner and metro exit, people hand out advertisement on small sheets of paper. The advertising is about everything from Idiomas (language schools) and Computer Classes to Discotecas, where if you enter before that and that hour you will get two copas for 10 euros.
It is bloody irritating to navigate your way through this stream of advertisers, and the streets are filled with thrown away fliers from Madriliens, who by reflex take them in order to throw them away two seconds later. It seems to me that no one really reads the fliers and you often get the same ones for days. I know that there is a large job industry among especially immigrants who hand out fliers and in this way the Spanish are very compassionate as they by reflex every day accept the offering of up to ten or twenty fliers. But I can’t help feeling sad, for while this might procure jobs it also kills the rainforest and makes the city look a mess. Furthermore, every night men sweep the streets free of all the fliers and because of the amount they use water, large quantities of water. If there is one thing that Spain does not have it is water. I heard that it has to rain for ten weeks straight all over the country in order to get to a normal level. How then can they use so much water on cleaning the streets from fliers?
There must be other and better ways to procure jobs for those who stand every day handing out fliers. There must be a way in which to help the environment and include these people in more meaningful jobs. But what do I know? All can do is wonder and feel sad.

Air Condition
Another thing which bothers me extremely, is the Spanish fascination for air conditioning. In the summertime, when it is more than 40 degrees Celsius outside, the public transportation as well as the shops are like freezers. Entering the metro in Madrid on a hot summer’s day, you can easily imagine a penguin sitting next to you so cold it is. Now as winter approaches and it becomes cold outside, the public transport and the shops turn into ovens and the humidity in the metro is far beyond 80 %! (MISSING)This constant change in temperature can do nothing but make you sick. All through my stay in Madrid as well as on my travel around Spain, I have felt sick and had a pain in my throat. I know it is hot in the summer in Madrid, but making people freeze everytime they enter a place is perhaps not the best way of cooling them off.

Chinos and tapas
But there is something about the everyday life in Madrid which dazzles me, and makes me love the atmosphere. One thing that I really appreciate are the chinos. There is always a chino nearby in case you run out of beer or need a sandwich. Furthermore, beer can be bought in one and two litter bottles, which I know is common in many countries, but not in Denmark. I like having a litter with me when I go out enjoying the tradition of botelon. I find it is so much handier than a six pack for some reason.
Also the tradition of cervezas and tapas is wonderful. Where at home we tend to go out and drink, the Spanish know how to both drink and eat and talk at the same time. Cervezas are cheap and small and easily going down and they are followed by nice traditional Spanish tapas which makes the evening much cozier.

The local café
But not everything is beer in Spain. The Spanish drinking culture also includes a daily visit to the local café. Every street has its own cafés and I am proud to say that I have found my own local place where I have gotten the status as a regular. I often go there after a confusing day at the spaceship faculty in order to get a café and a tosta and a bit of solitude after all the confusion. The half an hour that I spend there to enjoy a café, is perhaps the best time of day and the best thing about my stay here. Here is where you really see Madrid. Though the streets are full of stressed people rushing, you can be sure that those very people, when they enter a café, change their entire attitude. They laugh, they talk, they drink a cana (small beer) and relax for a while before they get off somewhere looking stressed. It is this small part of Spanish culture that so impresses me. Where we in Denmark only run around looking stressed and sad, they in Spain have discovered how important a regular break with friends or colleagues is. This is the most important lesson I've got so far from living in Madrid. The knowledge of how important it is to stop and take a break once in a while.

Cultural meetings
Though I do not always understand why Spanish people do as they do, I try to appreciate the experience as it comes along. Some of the cultural differences are tremendous and it especially within the study environment I have had my culture chocks, but I learn and not only about the Spanish, but also and foremost about me and where I come from. This is the main reason for travelling. - To not only face and understand new cultures, but also to face and understand your own.

Anna

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Photos

overlook of Chueca
taking from a balcony towards the metro station Chueca at Noche Blanca, Madrid

Gran Vía on Noche Blanco
Gran Vía on Noche Blanco, Madrid

Comments

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Congratulations
Congratulations Zofka. From someone born in Madrid it´s great to hear the best thing about my city is that you can find beer and cheap booze all around. Sure you got the spirit. Keep the same...