Final Blog – John Kirkley

I just got back home after traveling to Oviedo, Asturias, Spain for the Fall 2022 semester. I loved every moment I spent in Spain: learning the language, the culture, and enjoying my first time in Europe by traveling to various countries. Overall, Europe is quite westernized, meaning there are not grand culture shocks when comparing it to living in the United States; however, I will say that Spanish people tend to have a more relaxed style of living, where the clock is not as important, yet they still maintain their “efficiency” with tasks. I quite enjoyed this less stressed style of life, it allowed me to understand that not knowing what you will be doing next is okay, and if things do not go the way you want, you can still have a fulfilling life. Furthermore, there is more of a compartmentalization of the self in which one can be a student who studies every day and receives almost perfect notes, yet at night or on the weekends, they can be the exact opposite: going out, living carefree as if they do not have to study anything ever again. I think any American can go to Spain and be perfectly fine; Spain is a tourist country with lots of people from all over the world coming to visit, work, and learn. As opposed to what our intuition may tell us, Spain actually is very secular, and also very progressive. They have much stronger and much more defined anti-discrimination laws regarding LGBTQ+ and other minority groups. Furthermore, queerness is normalized within Spain so you do not have to worry about a hate crime as opposed to the United States – even the older generation. In school, we rarely learn about Spain except about maybe a bullet point on the Spanish Inquisition, but almost 40 years ago, Spain was controlled by a dictator which means that people our parents’ age lived under a dictatorship. This shapes their perspectives on democracy and their ideals about how a democracy should function. I thought this idea of living under a fascist dictator changed their approach and their intracultural relationships. Almost every area of Spain has some kind of independence movement – the most famous being in Catalunya and Vasque Region. Thus, they have a strong regional identity with many languages within each region as well which is very different from the United States which can appear as a singular hegemony of culture. I do not think my any direct clash with the foreign culture is what I gained from my experience in Spain, but rather a more relaxed approach to life where “what will happen is meant to happen” and to not stress over the little things. I believe I have found a mindset that can help protect me from the hustle and “outward-facing value” culture of the United States. I will return to Spain sometime in my life, whether to fully live there, vacation there, or just pass through. And I cannot wait to go back – because I miss the food most of all.