things I have learnt so far: Part 3

One more before hometime:

I am a tall Spanish woman

If I was a Spanish woman, that is. At home I'm pretty average height wise at 5'6" but here that seems to be towards the tall end of the height spectrum. It's quite a strange feeling to walk around looking over the heads of, well, almost everyone apart from about 50% of the male population in Torre. It also leaves me feeling like a bit of an awkward giraffe-type creature in Zumba classes...but it's fine, I just stand far away from the mirror and then I'm the same size as everyone else.

Spanish dogs are way more hilarious than UK mutts

Not sure why. Maybe it's because they're all pretty tiny and therefore not the brightest of animals. Anyway, my flatmate and I have spent a good percentage of our free time in muffled laughter at a passing pug-crossed-with-large-guinea-pig dressed in a Messi football tee or, even better (worse) still, a purple puffa jacket complete with fur-lined hood.

I still don't quite know how to order food or drink in Spanish

And yes, I know, this is one of the first things you are taught when learning a new language - how to say 'I would like...' and 'how much is...?' and 'the bill please'. Turns out, however, that regurgetating your old GCSE Spanish phrases in a restaurant/bar/cafe makes you sound as posh as voluntarily attending a regatta. On asking for 'the bill please' we would invariably be met with, yep, the bill, but also a slight smirk flitting across the waiters' respective mouths. Thankfully the guys in our local café informed us that it is more usual to say 'how much do I owe you?' or even, 'charge me'. Imagine saying either in a British eatery; one sounds too familiar, the other plain rude. Thus I've discovered the added difficulty of trying to find the appropriate words in the particular context in order to avoid sounding like a div, a problem that I hadn't really got the hang of in my own language let alone prepared myself for before moving here.

Commerical breaks: long, boring and sporadic

"See you in 8 minutes" chirps the TV part way through an exchange of dialogue between Ted and Barney in Cómo conocí a vuestra madre. After this substantial length of time watching five adverts about five different brands of yoghurt all claiming immediate (and seemingly extreme) constipation relief, the programme returns only to be interrupted just 10 minutes later for a "2 minute break"! Pattern or purpose? I see neither.

Alternative music has yet to arrive in Santander..!?

I should emphasise that this is from my experience anyway, so perhaps I'm not looking in the right places. However, after a conversation with a friend from Santander itself I'm led to believe that my experience has been pretty accurate. The standard musical repertoire in a club goes like this: Europop, Pitbull, Europop ft. Pitbull and maybe, maybe, a bit of Reggaeton. So far disappointing, but I'm still on the hunt as I'm fairly sure I've yet to explore even a quarter of the bars and clubs that the city has to offer. On the up side, Torre's nightlife often offers something at least more diverse (if not my typical cup o' tea), with clubs like En Vivo holding rock music nights and the rest of the town providing various live music events if you take the time to look for them.

things I have learnt so far: Part 2

it's your Birthday? Great, buy me a drink!

to my eyes it's a very positive aspect of Spanish culture, their pleasure in giving and sharing things. And it's not just with material things; I have never encountered such willingness to help one out through the sharing of knowledge, from my estate agents' recommendations and tour of the best bakeries in Torre to my surf instructor's thorough, detailed explanation of tidal movements and coastal features. They love it, they love sharing stories and giving things so much that they will use any excuse (birthdays, weddings, sister's wedding, birthday 2 months ago) to bring in cakes/wine/chocolates and home-made tortillas...the only downfall is that on your birthday it is you that foots the bill and buys the drinks. At least it only happens once a year eh, har har.

personal space is not a "thing"

or at least the permitted personal space allowance per individual is greatly reduced from what I'm used to in the UK; in various situations I have found myself close enough to be inspect the pores of my fellow converser. However, I'm learning to appreciate the feeling of confidence that it so expresses as well as the generally more physical nature of Spanish social interaction interaction. No longer do I lean back slightly when greeted by people with a kiss on each cheek; on the contrary, I've found the less you resist all this intimacy the more you acknowledge its value as an exchange of trust and friendship.

neither is brown eye make up

exemplified by both my housemate and my extreme difficulty in finding any in the shops. Rachel tells me her experience of being met with blank expressions or of surprise when requesting this elusive object. The style of make up here is black, black, black and a little bit more black. Which looks lovely on Spanish skin but a bit vampiric on Rach and my paler, rosier complexion.

english language music is v. popular

but they don't understand the words. For example, TV shows/ads frequently use songs with vaguely inappropriate lyrics or by musicians whose accompanying culture is at complete odds to that of the show - 'Californication' and Avril Lavigne play in the background of a documentary about Cantabrian livestock whilst the explicit version of Cyrus' 'We Can't Stop' bridges a segment in a day-time chat show. Bizarre, visual/audio juxtapositions galore.

someone saying "See you later" is more like someone saying "seyalaah"

"hasta luego" will be expressed "'stalogo", said rapidly and in passing to a neighbour or conocido. There are plenty of other interesting details of pronunciation that I'm learning, such as the Northern tendency to drop the 'd' in past perfect verbs. For example, "pasado" becomes "pasao", making it sound quite Portuguese or even Chilean (to my limited knowledge anyway!).

So there's a little update on some of the fascinating things I have noticed (or at least think I am noticing as it 

could well be all in my mind) from my time spent here. Expect more at some future date!