Things I Like and Dislike About Seville

I’ve been in Spain for five weeks now, and I’ve been taking notes about some of the things I like, as well as some of the things I don’t like, about living here and my experience as a study abroad student! Overall, this is a fantastic city, and I’m so glad I’m able to be here. There are lots of quirky, interesting things I enjoy, as well as some things that can be a bit more difficult. This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while (I’m actually referring to some notes I’ve been keeping in one of my little notebooks I carry around, haha), so I’m glad to finally add some of these ideas to the blog!

 

Things I Like

1. Church Bells. Spain is a very culturally-Catholic country, and Seville has tons of churches, large and small. They’re omnipresent, and every hour (or half hour, or quarter of an hour, or right before/after a service), you can hear bells chiming. From my room, I can hear the bells from the church down the street, and I really like the sound. When I’m at school at Mizzou in the US, I can sometimes hear the bells from Memorial Union or the Alumni Center, but here, it’s constant no matter where you are.
2. Cola Cao. This is a brand name for a hot chocolate kind of drink that you can order at pretty much any café in Seville. If you order it, the waiter will serve you a cup of hot milk and give you a packet of Cola Cao powder and a packet of sugar. It’s delicious, and I love having that option if I don’t feel like drinking coffee.
3. Beautiful, Old Buildings EVERYWHERE. This is a fact I just can’t get over. Everywhere you go, there are gorgeous, historic buildings. It’s so disorienting to walk around and think, “Oh, that random apartment building is older than the government of the United States.” It’s amazing. There’s so much history, and it’s really fun to realize that historic figures like royalty, explorers, and artists lived and worked in some of the places I’ve visited.
4. Orange Trees. The streets of Seville are lined with orange trees. It’s a nice pop of color and greenery in the middle of the city, and I think it adds a lot of charm. However, I’ve been advised not to eat the oranges. Apparently they’re very bitter, and are only used for making things like marmalade and soaps. They look and smell great, though!
5. Bike Lanes. The majority of the major streets in Seville have designated bike lines marked with green paint or silver markers on the sidewalk. In a place where bicycles are a popular mode of transportation, it’s really nice to have designated lanes so pedestrians can avoid getting run over during rush hour.
6. Hearing Children Speak Spanish. It’s absolutely adorable hearing little kids speaking Spanish here. (And usually their Spanish is a million times better than mine, so that’s entertaining.) I love that kids, no matter what language they speak, generally say the same things (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “¡Mamá! ¡Mírame!” “Mom! Look at me!”.)
7. Pharmacies’ Flashing Neon Signs. I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t been under-the-weather at all since I arrived, but whenever I do get sick, I won’t have a hard time finding a place to go to buy medicine. All of the pharmacies here have flashing, neon green and red signs, so you can see them from several blocks away.
8. El Corte Inglés. This is kind of like Spain’s answer to Walmart (except fancier.) El Corte Inglés is Spain’s major department store, and you can pretty much buy anything there. The only downside is that things are generally way overpriced, but I’m not kidding when I say that it’s kind of like a Macy’s/Dillard’s/Barnes and Noble/Walmart/Target/Claire’s all crammed into one. In Seville, the main store location on Plaza del Duque has five or six floors, and the first time I went inside, I was completely overwhelmed. I kept going up the escalators expecting to reach the top floor, but it just. kept. going. Definitely one-of-a-kind!
9. No Tipping or Tax Added. If you’re at a store or a restaurant, the price listed is the price you pay. It’s very unusual to tip waiters, as they are considered to be paid enough not to need additional tips. I’ve heard of people giving a waiter a 0.50€ ($0.69) tip (in a “just keep the change” kind of way, and the waiter brought it back saying it was “too much.”) Tax is included in the listed price, which means you aren’t actually paying less, but after getting used to having to round up when looking at prices in the US, it feels like you’re getting a great bargain! (It also makes doing the mental math a lot easier!)

 

Things I Dislike:

1. The “Siesta” Schedule. Between the hours of around 2 and 4PM (give or take), everything shuts down (except the restaurants and bars). In Spain, lunch is the main meal of the day and is eaten at about 2PM, so between 2 and 4PM, people go home from work and school, eat lunch with their families, and relax, before returning to work. At first, I just thought this would take some getting used to, and it isn’t the worst thing in the world, but for someone like me who wants to be productive all the time, it’s a little annoying that I can’t go run an errand if I don’t plan my day around this schedule. Someone from my program posted a link to this New York Times article on Facebook that I thought was pretty interesting: Link.  According to the article, some people believe that this traditional schedule should change in order for Spain to match the rest of the world. Spain is currently suffering from an economic crisis, and some predict that changing the work day schedule might help the situation improve. Unfortunately, that’s a cultural shift that would be impossible to take effect overnight, as many people believe the current daily schedule is a significant aspect of Spanish culture.
2. Impatient Drivers. When I first got to Seville, I took a taxi from the airport to my homestay, and I was absolutely terrified by the taxi driver’s technique: swerving in and out of lanes, speeding around tight corners; it was horrifying. I assumed this was just because he was a taxi driver and was accustomed to driving around Seville, but I’ve since noticed that pretty much everyone drives like that: very assertively, very defensively, and very impatiently. People are not afraid to honk horns, and it makes me glad I don’t have to worry about driving while I’m here.
3. Language Barrier. This is kind of a no-brainer, and I plan to write about this in more detail in a future post, but it’s definitely a very interesting experience being in the language minority. Most Spaniards have some knowledge of English, as English classes are taught starting at the colegio (elementary school) level, and English-language pop culture is guay (cool). However, as I’ve learned from speaking to many Spaniards, the quality of English education varies widely (one person told me they took English classes from elementary school through instituto: high school, but only practiced written English, never spoken English, so they never learned proper pronunciation!) So, sometimes people know some English, but it really depends. Probably what’s most frustrating is when someone says something in Spanish that I don’t understand because I couldn’t hear them clearly or they said a word I didn’t recognize, so I ask for clarification or for them to repeat, and then they immediately assume I know absolutely no Spanish and resort to miming or speaking very broken, caveman-like English. This usually happens with shopkeepers or waiters who probably assume I’m a tourist who doesn’t know any Spanish (as opposed to a foreign student who knows some! haha.) It’s also just very mentally exhausting having to constantly translate and constantly plan how to say something that would be second-nature to me in English.
4. Navigating the Streets. The majority of streets in Seville are narrow, one-way, and not at all straight. There usually isn’t a “direct” way to get somewhere without having to take millions of turns. There also aren’t very many street signs! In Seville, the streets are labeled with tiles on the sides of buildings, but sometimes, you’ll look up to try and find the name of the street, and won’t be able to find the name on any of the buildings around you, so you have to go up another block to try and find the name there. There are also a lot of thin, uneven, and sometimes nonexistent (!) sidewalks. These are all things that come with a city being as old as Seville is, but it can be a real pain when you’re trying to get somewhere in a hurry and you can’t find the name of the street you’re on, and there’s a car coming but there’s no sidewalk so you have to quickly duck into the nearest doorway to avoid being run over! Phew!
5. Stores/Store Hours. Upon arriving in Seville, I realized how spoiled I am in the US to have access to places like Walmart that sell pretty much everything you might need, and are open late (if not 24/7). Here, with the exception of El Corte Inglés, stores are highly specialized. Pharmacies aren’t like Walgreen’s or CVS, and there’s nothing that compares to the warehouse-budget-grocery-superstore that is Walmart or SuperTarget. Things also open later and close earlier (in addition to being closed for siesta), and nothing is open on Sundays. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it takes some getting used to, and can be really hard when you have to find a store that sells the exact kind of thing you’re looking for and you don’t have a lot of time.
6. Smoking. Smoking seems to be much more common here. Though there are laws against smoking indoors, I don’t think there are laws like in the US that require smokers to stand X-number of feet away from the entrances of buildings. Oftentimes, people stand right in the doorway when they smoke, or go smoke in the interior patios that are common in many buildings in Spain. People also don’t typically ask if you mind they smoke, especially if you’re outside.

 

So, there are more random things I like than random things I dislike! That’s a good sign! And I completely understand that many of the things I “dislike” are just because I’m not used to them. It definitely is interesting being here and realizing that the way I’ve grown up doing things isn’t the only way to do things. There’s nothing better or worse about any of the differences I’ve noticed, they just make Seville different, which makes for a more educational and memorable experience!