Before coming to Spain, I figured that Spain would not be that different from other countries I have visited. I assumed that because I have been fortunate to have traveled to other countries abroad that I could easily fit in with a new country and a new culture. Looking back on these first three days, I was very wrong.
On the first day we arrived in Barcelona, I went to a restaurant close to our apartment and made two simple mistakes due to cultural differences. The first, is that after the meal was finished, I did not ask for the check. Unknown to me, the Spanish have a very different approach to time and meals than Americans do. Americans focus on productivity and efficiency from both the perspective of the customer and the restaurant. In Spain, they focus on the experience and view time not nearly as segmented as Americans do. Consequently, if you do not ask for the check immediately after ordering your food, it may not come for 30 minutes to an hour later (which is what happened to me). The second mistake I made was concerning the tip. When the check finally came, I assumed I would tip 15% on top of the final price. When I attempted to do just that, the waiter refused to take it and I was left puzzled. After doing some research, however, I learned that waiters are paid more, and you are not supposed to tip them unless it is for exceptional service.
On the second day of the trip the in class learning my professor did before the trip started to come to life. We discussed both cultural intelligence and design thinking in a classroom setting. In terms of cultural intelligence, what stood out to me was that the efficiencies in Barcelona seemed to allow the residence to have a more laid-back lifestyle in comparison to those in the U.S. Efficient Barcelona systems that I noticed included their public transportation system, the reutilization of water in bathrooms, the muted attire, and their general compliance with regulations. Compared to the states, all these systems in Barcelona are exponentially simpler or operate more efficiently. Citizens in America have made many of these systems unnecessarily complicated or simply neglected to update them resulting in a less efficient system. For instance, public transportation in Barcelona is used by almost everybody and has taken two days for nonresidents (i.e.: study abroad students) to learn at minimal cost. In comparison, when we took a straw poll today, almost every student mentioned that the Texas A&M bus system has made them late to class. Continuing with design thinking, I really took note of something that the U.S has done a great job of, but Barcelona seemed to lack. Whenever I went to Washington, D.C, a couple weeks ago, I toured all the monuments, important homes, and museums. It was amazing that each monument, home, and museum could be accessed by anyone with disabilities. America has done a great job in terms of design thinking of building or reconstructing structures that are accessible to those with disabilities. In Barcelona, however, I have yet to see a wheelchair ramp.
On the third day of class, we visited a local Vermouth manufacturer called Celler Diaz in the beautiful port city of Sitges, Spain. While there, we went on a tour of their production facilities and followed that up with a short lunch. While touring their production facilities, a student asked what their expansion plans were. The guide (who happened to be the owner) said they did not have any expansion plans. In America, this would be crazy. If you have ever watched Shark Tank or met an employee at a startup firm, their concentration is on the company growing larger and expanding to make more and more money. This was not the case with Celler Diaz. Continuing with this theme, a student later in the day needed a new hair dryer because she had blown hers. Therefore, we went to a local electric store to purchase one. Nevertheless, we tried to do this around 2:00 pm and were not able to go inside the store. We discovered that this was because stores in Sitges are closed from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm every day for a siesta. Coming from America, this idea of a two hour break for a lunch and nap was ridiculous. This means that every day, they give up 2 hours of time that they could be making money, to eat and relax. These findings led to me to make bigger conclusions of the value and importance of work life balance to the Spanish in comparison to Americans.
Overall, Barcelona has been much different than I expected. Businesses in Barcelona are run out of joy and not to produce the most amount of money possible, restaurants are not trying to get as many people in and out as the possibly can, and while they have amazing churches and historical sites, they are not accessible to those with disabilities. Looking forward, I cannot wait for what is to come and to experience more of Barcelona!