Something that I had never thought about before arriving in Spain was where I met up to hang out with my friends and family. In the United States, I would drive over to my friends house and spend hours on end sitting on their couch casually spending time with them. We would order food in, grab some drinks, and watch a movie without thinking twice about it. Socializing in a home setting was not a construct I had to think twice about. Upon my arrival in Spain, however, this norm was disrupted when one of my program advisors informed us that most Spaniards only spent time in their homes to eat, clean, and sleep. This means that Spaniards view their homes as being a more personal place where people don’t come to socialize or spend time. At first, I thought this was surely an exaggeration, but as I became more familiar with “the ways” of people living in Seville I found this to be true. Most of my friends that I made through study abroad lived in homestays and we were not allowed into their home, so this forced us to meet up in public to spend time together. Though this was strange at first, I grew accustomed to it and learned to enjoy my time spent exploring the city. It allowed us to try new places often and establish favorite spots that we would return to on a weekly basis.
While the change in my concept of space was uncomfortable for me to adapt to, it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and spend more time exploring Seville. Many of my most cherished memories that I made are because of this forced change in social norms, and for that I am grateful. Now that I am back in the United States, I am going to remember this positive change and try to implement the norm more into my life here. I will encourage meeting with people outside of our homes and thus explore new areas in places which I am already familiar with.
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