Navidad

I wasn't suprised when there were differences between what Manolo and I ate for breakfast or what time we went to sleep at, but I was suprised when Manolo and I began talking about Christmas traditions and found how wildly different the USA and Spain celebrate.

In USA the holidays focus on December 25th. On Christmas Eve some families gather for dinner but some do not. Some families go to church that night at midnight but most do not. On Christmas Day Santa comes, presents are delivered, everyone gathers around the Christmas Tree in the morning and opens gifts. Then an early dinner is eaten (typically ham or prime rib) and everyone goes home (or to bed). After this Christmas is over.

In Spain it is very different. Pretty much all families gather on Christmas Eve and do mass at midnight. Christmas Day is a big meal with lots of friends celebrating Jesus' birth. There are no gifts but this is when the real holiday celebrations begin. The holiday celebrations last aaaaalllllllll the way until January 6th which is 3 Kings Day. On this day way back when according to the bible is the day when the 3 Kings visited Jesus and gave him presents to celebrate his birth. To honor this day, presents are given to your immediate family and they give presents in return. No Christmas trees (big boo for that!). Instead the focal point of the holiday celebrations is a rather large and intricate nativity scene in each home.

Día de Acción de Gracias y Números

I was super excited to share the Thanksgiving Holiday with Manolo until I realized that it really wasn't all that exciting. We get together with family, eat a really big turkey, then sit on the couch and watch tv or football together, the end. At least that is the way it is in my family. There are no huge festivals, late night adventures (too much turkey in your belly to allow being awake past 10pm), songs, or elaborate traditions (besides going around the table and saying what you are thankful for). Manolo did enjoy the food (although roasting a turkey is not unique to America) especially the stuffing and he did enjoy the opportunity to meet most of my family. He thought the day was more like a typical Sunday dinner with family then a National Holiday. I must agree.

The one difference we did find was how to pronounce numbers. As we drove up to my Mother's house in the country he asked how to pronounce her address "12455". He was expecting me to say it as one giant number "twelve thousand four hundred and fifty five". Instead I said as is normal here in America "twelve - four - fifty five". In Spain almost all long numbers (except telephone numbers) are pronounced as a long number. For example a hotel room in Spain "307" would always be pronounced as "trescientos siete" while here in America it would be "three zero seven" or even "three oh seven". This further confused Manolo because he couldn't figure out why in the world we would ever say "oh" for 0 instead of the correct "zero". Unfortunately I really don't have a correct answer for him except that a "o" and "0" look similar.

El Cantante

So … the singing. The damn singing. The all the time singing.

In Spain, fun and revelry are very much valued. I really appreciate their love of life, food, drink, family, and friends. Often in the middle of the dinner people will break out into song. In the car people sing. At soccer games people sing. Sometimes old traditional songs, sometimes funny songs, sometimes religious songs, sometimes new contemporary songs. A few times I have been in the middle of cooking dinner and I'll ask Manolo to hurry to the grocery store and pick up an item that I need but forgot. I'll say a word that triggers a memory of a song for him and this will set him off into full blown singing of that song. Like loud singing that does not help me when I just need him to hurry to the store and pick up an onion before the chicken finishes cooking!

I've never seen Manolo more disappointed in American culture then when I informed him that people don't actually go Christmas caroling like you see in the movies. I guess in Spain this is a pretty common thing, for friends to get together and go around and sing for their neighbors and friends during the holiday season. Manolo had assumed that we too would be doing this (and maybe they do this in other parts of the Country) but here in Cali it's just not done. Really we don't sing anywhere. When we cook, we don't sing. In the car with friends, we don't sing (unless a really great classic song is played). And much to Manolo's dismay, while there are a few chants played during American Football games, there really are no songs that we sing. For the Sevilla Soccer Club there are over 20 songs that are sung by the crowd during the game. And they sing one song or another during the entire game. Some are short but most are 3-4 minutes (or more!) and quite elaborate. (Believe me, one time I had to sit through Manolo reminiscing and singing me all 20 songs. The things we do for love).

The really interesting thing is that it seems that the Spaniards (and especially those from Sevilla) are naturally gifted with fantastic singing voices. Manolo is not known for his voice (compared to his friends and family) but boy can that boy carry a tune. And so can many of the other Sevillanos that I have met. The video below is a bride from Sevilla breaking out into song in the middle of her wedding. And while her voice is better then average it really is typical of the women's voices I have heard while visiting with Manolo's friends. (Plus bonus for this video being from the Catholic Church that Manolo has attended since he was a baby).

Dormir y Comer

It's very odd. I expected there to be many, many differences between Manolo and I when he moved here. In a normal relationship there is differences between how two people were differently raised, socio-economic status, etc. I figured that these changes compounded with the fact that Manolo and I come from two different continents and cultures would mean that much of our time together would be spent trying to overcome the different ways that we each saw the world. (I really thought that much of this blog would be written to note those differences). Surprisingly, we’ve encountered many more similarities then differences.

The 3 big differences that we have encountered:

1) Sleep – As I’ve mentioned before it is typical in Spain to work an 8 hour day, taking a short nap (3 hours or so), go out to eat with friends and family at 10pm or 11pm, go to sleep at 2am, and then sleep for another 4 hours before going to work again at 8am. (And this sleep pattern isn’t just for the young. Married couples, kids, and older people also maintain this schedule. It was very bizarre for me to be in Spain the first time and see 3 year olds eating dinner at 11pm with their families as well as 80 year old couples eating dinner at midnight). Manolo thought it was very weird in the beginning that he was expected to sleep in an 8 hour chunk of time. He has quickly adapted to this mode of sleeping though and often sleeps longer then I.

2) Eating – What he eats and I eat is not so different (except breakfast which I need to write about in more detail later), the differences come more into meal times and quantity of food eaten at each meal which we are still trying to work out.

Typical American meals:
breakfast at 8am
lunch at noon (mid-size portions)
snack
dinner at 6pm (larger size portions)

Typical Spanish meals:
breakfast (desayuno) at 8am
lunch (almuerzo) at 2pm (large portions) that is eaten back at home with family and not at your desk by yourself
smaller 2nd lunch at 5pm (typically tapas with coworkers after work)
dinner (cena) at 11pm (smaller portions).

We’re still trying to work out the mutual agreement of when we eat and how much we eat at each meal, but at this time we are just wonky. Manolo keeps waiting for me to come home before eating lunch (I don’t get home until 4pm) which is unfortunate since I’ve already eaten lunch at work at noon. I then usually end up eating a 2nd large portion lunch which just then makes for a very odd hour for dinner which is usually large as well since I am used to cooking full-scale meals for dinner and not smaller size portions.

OK, so this is long and I need to get back to work. More later on a typical Spanish breakfast (it was a shock for me while in Spain) as well as the 3rd difference: the damn singing all the time.