Training dogs, by Nikki Gosselin

I have always been a dog person all my life, and coming to Spain I was super excited to be living with a family that had a 10 month old puppy. Once I got here I realized dogs as pets were treated much differently than they are back at home. First of all, there are so many dogs that I see in the streets, and I think it might even be more than in the United States. One thing I thought was a little different than how dogs are in the United States is that some people walking their dogs on the side of the road in the city don’t use leashes. I noticed this a lot in Barcelona, and even sometimes in Sevilla. This seemed a little unusual for me because I’m from a very small town in Connecticut, and everyone there still uses leashes to walk their dogs even on roads that aren’t busy at all. I do not recall any time back home where I would see a dog following obediently behind its owner on a busy road without a leash. When I first noticed that they didn’t wear leashes, I thought it was extremely dangerous. This is because there are consequences that can arise from this, such as your dog getting injured by a car, especially in a busy city, or even injuring a person or another dog. However, I soon came to realize that dogs from here are very obedient. Even with no leash, dogs of all breeds and sizes follow their owner wherever they go and are well-behaved. They aren’t as distracted by things they see, or other dogs. I wondered how they got to be so obedient. My host family’s dog, Helga, is only 10 months old, and is in the process of being trained. For instance, she is still being potty-trained. Whenever they take her on walks, she uses a leash because she is still learning. I noticed that whenever their puppy misbehaves or won’t stop its loud whining, the family will smack the dog, as if giving a child a spanking. I was shocked when I saw this happen because back in the United States I have never seen a person smack a dog as frequently to behave. I have since come to realize that this is just their way of life and their culture of how to train their dogs and get them to be so well-behaved. Once their dogs are trained, they have a lot of trust in them to follow their orders and be compliant.

My New Personal Bubble

I come from a family who loves to travel, my father is always looking into the next place he wants to visit or plot where he’s going to retire. I am not the type of person who dreams of living in another country but I knew that if I didn’t take the opportunity to study abroad I would regret I applied with my fingers crossed and was approved. As the flight date got closer and I became more nervous than excited. I had travelled to Europe before but living there for four months and visiting for a week at a time are very different. As the butterflies in my stomach got worse I turned to my father, I was hoping he could settle my nerves as he usually can. He did calm me down but he gave me some advice that I couldn’t shake lose. I am very much my father’s daughter, but where we differ is that he is a very close talker and I am someone who needs their space. He warned me that in Europe, southern countries in particular lacked the concept of personal space.

A few days passed and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that everyone would always be really close to me no matter where I went while I was abroad. I decided that I should talk to someone who had actually been to Seville instead of my dad who was just assuming rather than telling me based off personal experience. My great aunt had actually lived and taught in Seville for over 10 years, so before I left I gave her a call hoping to find out if I should really be worried or if I was blowing this way out of proportion. Thankfully, she told me I had nothing to worry about and that my dad was just trying to ensure that I was aware of my surroundings while I was alone studying abroad. She said people did have less of a sense of personal space but not like my father described, which made me feel a whole lot better and I quickly brushed off what my dad told me.

This, however, was a huge mistake. I started to notice how much more “rude” the Spaniards were as soon as the flight landed. I happened to sit next to a Spanish woman, I was on the isle and boarded before she did. She sat in the window seat. We were in the middle of the plane but closer to the front, she kept to herself and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until we landed. The plane landed and she immediately unbuckled and began looking at her other family members sitting around us who were already standing up and starting to gathering their bags and standing in the isle waiting to exit the plane. I was waiting for the rows in front of me to move forward and leave the plane because that is what you do, you don’t cut the people off in the row next to or in front of you to leave the plane first because it is rude. The woman next to me started to move closer to me, I was expecting her to wait just like I was but she stepped over my legs and bag as I was sitting so that she could get into the isle and get off the plane faster. I was shocked and had never seen anything like it before. When we made eye contact I gave her a little bit of a nasty look which she completely disregarded. As the line to exit started to reach the rows directly in front of me I started to stand and put my bag on so I could leave my row.

As we boarded the shuttle from the plane everyone was so close we were touching, I went to a corner where I thought I would have a little space but the person directly behind me stood so close to me that our whole sides were touching. I didn’t know why he was standing SO close to me when there was so much room. I couldn’t even turn my head without touching someone. I felt like we were all breathing on each other and I was the only one who thought it was uncomfortable. This was not the end either, in every line I stood in I felt the person behind me up against my back or backpack. I would try and move forward to give myself a little bit more room and then would keep inching forward. Dirty looks, moving forward, trying to take up more room all did nothing to change the fact that everywhere I went in Seville my sweat was mixing with someone else’s. Whether it was going out to eat, standing on the metro, or talking one on one to someone there was less than an inch of space between us at any given time. I know that it is very normal here but I still can’t help feeling a little violated and that people are being rude when they are getting extremely close to me. I am still trying to adjust when someone bumps into me and doesn’t apologize or doesn’t even try to avoid me at all.

My First (and Last) Bullfight

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when my friends and I met for drinks before the bullfight. As it got closer to the start time, we noticed many people walking in the direction of the Plaza de Toros and decided to join the crowd. To my surprise, those in attendance were dressed very elegantly. Men were wearing dress pants and nice shirts with suit jackets, and women were dressed in cocktail dresses and heals. As we found our seats, the crowd was settling in, many holding a cigar in one hand and a beer in the other. The show started off with a march of some sort in the ring and matadors waving to the crowd. A trumpet played a catchy tune during various parts of the show. It was quite a beautiful scene, with many colors and elegant clothes. Soon after that, the ring was cleared and a bull charged of the gate. The matador’s assistants, with pink/purple flags, engaged with the bull. Following that, two men on horseback were released into the ring with long javelins in their hands. The crowd chanted “fuera” during these times. The men on horseback stabbed the bull, I’m assuming to anger him. After that, other men with two swords in their hands charged the bull, sticking the swords in the bull’s shoulders three times. For the remainder of the match, the bull kept those swords in his body. Finally, the head matador came out with the red flag and engaged with the bull. The crowd was completely silent during these times, except when chanting in unison for reasons I do not know of due to my lack of knowledge about the sport. The bull would charge at the red flag, and upon each charge, the crowd yelled “olé;” after an X amount of consecutive charges, the crowd would cheer loudly, and sometimes wave white scarves in the air. There was a total of six matches, each one lasting around 20 minutes, and each match used a new bull. At the end of each match the bull fell to the ground and the matador killed the bull (I closed my eyes during this part so I cannot provide a detailed description). Once the bull is dead, the team brings out three horses and dragged the bull around the ring to show the crowd, before taking it out of the public's eye. Within a few minutes, the ring was cleaned and another match began.

I do not regret my decision to attend this event. Although I will not attend it again, it taught me about the Spanish culture in this specific aspect. I have never been a “crazy” animal lover, but I am definitly against animal cruelty. I do not think that all Spaniards support bullfighting, nor do I believe it is a vital aspect of the Spanish culture. In fact, there was a protest right outside the Plaza de Toros for animal rights before the event started. While I am sad about the outcome of the sport, it was somewhat comforting to learn that the bull’s meat is purchased by butchers and restaurants for sale.

Environmentally friendly?, by Devon Sarazin

According to The Telegraph, a major news source of England, Spain is the 6th most environmentally friendly country in the world. Spain is consistently ranks in the top 20 most eco-friendly countries in the world across a variety of other news sources such as Real Leaders and Environmental Performance Index; Spain is constantly ranking higher than the United States. I found this profoundly interesting, as one of my first observations in Spain was the amount of plastic being used. One example was water bottles; In the United States people tend to use reusable water bottles when out and about. Comparatively, when out and about most Spaniards seem to buy a plastic water bottle. Additionally, in the United States, when ordering water at a restaurant, bubbly or flat, it comes in a glass. Here in Spain you are often brought a plastic bottle at a restaurant. Another observation of plastic usage in Spain is the ice bags. When moving into our apartment, the program director asked if my roommates and I used ice. We answered yes and he recommended self-sealing ice cube bags. We actually ended up buying them by accident, meaning to buy Ziploc baggies. These bags are not reusable as you have to rip the plastic to get the cubes out. In the United States when making Ice cubes, people use reusable ice trays. These observations as well as a few others lead me to believe that Spain was wasteful. When I did some research, I was surprised to find just the opposite. According to Plastic Pollution, an article written in Our World Data, The United States uses significantly more plastic per capita than Spain. Spain is more environmentally friendly in ways other than just plastic consumption. There are less CO2 emissions because people walk, bike or scooter instead of driving cars. Also, people are more conservation with electricity and water than in the United States. It is interesting to see how emphasized environmentalism is in the United States, yet Spain, where at first glance environmentalism seems like less of a priority, can be making environmental strides in different and more effective ways.

Bibliography 

DeAngelis, Mark T. “2018 EPI Results.” 2018 EPI Results | Environmental Performance Index, 2018, epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-topline?country&order=field_epi_rank_new&sort=asc.

Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Plastic Pollution.” Our World in Data, 1 Sept. 2018, ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution.

Smith, Oliver. “Mapped: The World's Most Eco-Friendly Countries – Where Does the UK Rank?” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 22 Apr. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/most-and-least-environmentally-friendly-countries/.

“Which Countries Are The Most Environmentally-Friendly?” Real Leaders, 14 Aug. 2018, real-leaders.com/which-countries-are-the-most-environmentally-friendly/.