HSINAPS
By Jamie Isabel Rosado
I was both looking forward
to and
dreading my visit to Spain.
I knew that it would not be pointless but I wondered how much I could
learn.
Although I have never been to the city of Cadiz
before I have been to Spain
over six times and have seen the country extensively. I also
have spoken
the language and eaten the food all my life. After circumstance
derailed my
plan to go back to sites I have already been to, playing tour guide to
my
friends. I began to think about Horace Miner’s article on the Nacirema.
In that
article the author does an analysis of a “strange new culture” and it
turns out
to be about the American people. I began
to pay attention to the little things others may not notice or not be
able to
fully understand.
As I walked down the Main
street of Cadiz
I stopped to ask a
man for directions and before answering me he asked me where I was
from. When I
told him his reply was “I knew you were a colonial,” then he told me
where to
go. While in Sevilla I inquired of a museum attendant as to the price
of
entrance and he also asked me where I was from. After I told him he
said that
today the museum was free for colonials and their friends.
The first time I came to Spain
I was
somewhat taken aback by people always guessing where I was from based
on my
choice of words. It would be unfair to saw that English speakers don’t
do the
same thing but though we may do it we don’t preface the answer to a
question
with “Where are you from?” The last time I
was here was two years ago and every time someone would ask me where
are you
from I would respond with one phrase, “Vale” or basically, does it make
a
difference? That would always elicit a laugh and an "of course not."
One of the few complaints
that SAS people
seemed to have about Spain
was the casual indifference they received from the general population. I had to run to catch the train back from
Cortadura. I was on board seconds before the train doors closed and had
to
walk up the
moving train to get to a vacant seat. As
I was walking the train suddenly rocked and I lost my balance and was
forced to
drop one of my bags to keep my balance. After I had recovered my wits I
picked
up my things and sat in the last vacant seat. The first thing to run
through my
head once settled was that nobody had seemed to notice my acrobatic
act. Then I
began to relax and began to have a conversation with the man sitting
across
from me about the Journal of
Infectious Medicine he was carrying and
comparative rates of infection. As our conversation winded down to an
end, he
asked me “are you all right?” Yeah I
said I’m fine.
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