Monday, October 13, 2008

is it just me?

Okay, so I'm trying to learn about the culture here in Spain and be open-minded to cultural differences and not just say that things are "weird" because they are not what I am used to... but these things seemed to me to be kinda awkward.

- I was standing in the metro waiting to catch the train home. There was a little boy standing next to me with his two dads...at least I'm guessing that they were two dads because it's legal here for homosexual couples to adopt kids...anyway, not that it's relevant. So the little boy is complaining to dad #1 that he has to go pee and dad #2 is like hmm, what should I do? Oh, I know, I'll proceed to pull down his shorts and tell him to go pee right here...on the wall in the metro. Is it just me or is that gross? Like, okay, I'm totally fine with little kids (even big ones) peeing outside in bushes or whatever. No big deal. But when it is in a building (albeit one underground) where the pee does not soak in to the grass but flows down the floor and spreads all over the place as everyone doesn't notice it (except me) and walks all in it and tracks it everywhere not knowing what it is...?!?

- My host dad is in love with dogs. You know how there are some people that really LOVE a certain animal...and usually they have posters of horses or cats in their room, calendars, folders, etc of that one animal? Well, I am not one of those people that loves any animal that much, but I'm totally cool with people that do. My host dad has pictures over the house of him with dogs. Cute, right? Well, the one aspect that's kind of a downer is that in my room there is a dog "bust." A statue of just the head of a dog. It is not anything like the cool statues of African animals that Nan and Dave have in their house. This is a gray and black head of a dog that sits on the ground right by the desk and stares at me...just the head. I don't know if it's the location on the ground, or the eyes, or what, but it really creeps me out.

- The other night we went to a dance club called "Kapital"...yes, with a k. It's pretty intense. Anyway, so this guy asks me to dance and I said okay. We danced for about 4 songs and then he was starting to get a little sketch. So it was getting really hot and I told him that I needed to get some fresh air (perfect way to leave, right?) Wrong. He decides that instead of me leaving the room to get fresh air, he would just blow on my face... ?? Dude, I don't even know you. It was really awkward. Nevertheless I told him it was insufficient to cool me down, and I found my friend Anh and got out of there asap.

One thing that isn't awkward, but kind of cool is that the lady from Honduras that comes to clean the house can't say 'Noelle' so she calls me 'Noelia'...I'm not sure how that is much easier, but I guess it is. It's kind of weird to me that people here can't say my name, unless I pronounce it No-ayle. But I like 'Noelia' better than Noayle, so it's all good.

4 comments:

Damaris @Kitchen Corners said...

you're used to kids peeing outside b/c you come from beautiful Hawaii where there is nature everywhere. In big cities there are hardly any bushes, I'm thinking Sao Paulo. Anyway...I'm not trying t justify it because it's totally nasty and disrespectful.

The blowing on your face thing sounds way nastier to me. I think I would of blown on his face back and then gagged. yuck!

p.s I hate dogs! you are being a good sport.

Pamela Palmer said...

judging from the way stairwells smells in most public places, i'd say the peeing thing is not unique to spain. maybe here they do wait until no one is around. the dog thing i think is ubiquitous also. can you use him as a clothes rack? cover him with a basket? the blowing in the face ting. . .i'm sure i would have attracted that same guy. i also attracted the weirder ones (heh, that might be one good thing about this stage in my life where i don't attract any. . .)

Karen said...

Noelia, it is all good because you write such good story. From one of your followers.

sienna said...

yeah sounds pretty strange. i don't get the dog thing at all.