Student Bloggers
Class, Culture and Tour of Barcelona!
Date
January 16, 2015
First week of classes went great! It was long, but great nevertheless. Classes can go as early as 9:00 am and finish at 6:00 pm. Each class runs for an hour and a half from Monday-Thursday. We have no Friday classes. All the teachers are nice and what is cool about Arcadia is the fact we get to go off on academic field studies for some of our classes to get hands-on learning.
On Friday, we went on a city tour of Barcelona and saw so many architectural buildings such as the Sagrada Família. Sagrada Família is a famous church designed by a Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. It is said to be the heart of Barcelona. In addition, we saw Templo Tibidabo: Templo Expiatorio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. It was beautiful. This is a temple where the highest point of Barcelona is. The places I saw were indescribable.
This week, there were many interesting things that I have noticed about the culture here. First, lunch is the biggest meal of the day and people usually spend from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm for this event. One reason is because of la siesta, where people work and go back to their families to either eat or take a little nap. After la siesta ends, they have to return to work. Breakfast and dinner are usually smaller portions. Also, people do not tip. If they do, they round to the nearest euro. It is because workers here work on salary and not below minimum wage like in the United States. In addition, people do not smile while walking by strangers. It’s strange to me because it is a way of greeting in the United States, but people typically do not waste a smile on strangers and only on family and friends here.
As you can see, there are many cultural differences between the United States and Spain. In my opinion, it is good to have cultural differences because it forces you to step outside of your comfort zone and experience new things. Life would be boring if everything was the same. Let’s see where next week takes us!