- along the lines of sí, one must use 30 forms of goodbye in rapid sequence in order to part company. "adios" doesn't do it. "adios venga hasta luego cuidate mañana" does.
- if possible, never mention within a school that you are american. if you do, then they ask you the meaning of 500 curse words and tell you english ones that even you didn't know.
- george bush is best left out of conversations.
- when the romanian housekeeper offers a "suggestion" that you don't take, your sheets end up unclean for several weeks. as do your clothes.
- NEVER EVER think so hard in school about a spanish word that your mouth hangs open and you drool on your clothes. from experience, i can say that it's awkward.
- laugh at any spanish joke. even if you don't understand, laugh. otherwise it's evident to everyone that you have no sense of humor. note: before laughing, be sure that it is in fact a joke. people don't like it when you laugh after they've told you that their mother is in the hospital. once again, my experience should be your guide.
- stores are always closed when you finally find the time to go shopping.
- if you've run through the rain and slipped and dropped your books and you finally made it to the library soaked and in pain, it will be closed.
- heed the wisdom of small children. my younger brother marcos after hearing me cough: "simon, you must go to the doctor soon. otherwise you're going to die."
- google in spain is pronounced "GOOG-lay."
- always check whether the door says empujar (push) or tirar (pull). pushing on a door for 5 minutes when it says pull gets you some VERY strange looks.
- don't cough on the family bread. not cool. similarly, don't drop your retainer in the family soup.
keep these in mind!
=D
1 comment:
hola! que tal?
My name is Jocelyn, I'm from California, and I spent last semester in Spain also. Bret gave me the link to your blog and I've only read this one post but I was cracking up! Man, I so relate about stores never being open at convenient hours and laughing at jokes. Toward the end of my stay, I started getting all the jokes and really laughing and I told one of my friends "yeah, I'm so excited because I finally get all the jokes" and he was like, "um, didn't you get them before? You always laughed"?" and I pointed out to him that just because I laugh doesn't mean I have any idea what is going on. :-) Ah, life as an exchange student! Sounds as though you make as many blatant and humorous errors as I do! If you wanna check out any of my blog, I havn't put up anything since my exchange, but it is at jocelynprice.blogspot.com.
Que disfrutes!
Besos,
Jocelyn
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