Most are familiar with that iconic scene in “Pulp Fiction” where John Travolta declares that the funniest thing about Europe is “the little differences.” After spending much of my summer studying abroad in Spain, I finally understand what Travolta means by this.
For instance, in America, there is almost always a small lever located on the upper right part of the toilet, which allows it to flush. We are so pampered here that sometimes our toilets are trained to flush themselves, completely relieving bathroom users of the daunting task.
This is not the case in Europe, where flushing a toilet can require Sherlock Holmes-level detective skills. Sometimes an inconspicuous chain dangles from the ceiling near the toilet, and, in order for the flush to take place, the chain must be pulled. But sometimes it’s not so easy.
Every once in a while, I’d enter an aseo and spend a couple minutes trying to learn what to do in order to make the toilet flush. I’d eventually discover a miniscule button, discretely placed somewhere in the vicinity of the toilet or on the toilet itself.
Something else that I learned is that personal space is pretty much nonexistent in Spain. Spaniards who I’d only just met got inches from my face without thinking twice about it.
Europeans also seem to be more open to casual touching than Americans; for example, people often put an arm around me or touched my shoulder while talking to me.
Another difference that I noticed was the Spanish diet.
Americans have distinctive and yet diverse eating habits. Here, it is not uncommon for someone who exclusively dines off of fast-food dollar menus to live happily in the same household as an ovo-lacto-vegetarian who refuses to eat anything that isn’t organic.
As someone who is unable to eat red meat, I quickly learned that the Spanish mostly stick to one universal diet, which consists of a lot of ham.
There are a few vegetarians in Spain, but it’s uncommon. To make things even more complicated, cutting out only red meat, all meat but fish, or going completely vegan seemed to be considered freakish.
As a result, the cooks in Spain lumped me in with the vegetarianas and served me a lot of stewed vegetables and bread.
Though fast food is still available in Spain, it’s not as cheap as it is in America, and the menu is a bit different. For example, McDonald’s Mediterranean salads in Spain come topped with tuna and hardboiled eggs.
And in case you were wondering, in Spain a Big Mac is still a Big Mac, but they call it El Big Mac.
Holly Combs can be reached at [email protected]
