Sociable

One very important feature of the Spanish culture is how sociable they are. While Americans tend to define themselves by their career, Spainards define themselves through time spent with others.

I'm used to going home after school somedays and just relaxing for the rest of the day, because we all need to unwind a bit. Here, not so much. If you don't want to go out everyday there's something wrong with you.

My Spanish parents actually told me (brace yourself) that I've been focusing too much on my studies and haven't been going out enough partying and what not.

Wow. What a change. In America, I'm very sociable and don't spend enough time on my studies. And suddenly slowing down to relax means you're sick or anti-social.

Another part of sociablity here is physical contact. Spainards touch eachother often when speaking to eachother. (and yes, they kiss instead of shaking hands) It's actually to the extent where at times I want to say, DANGER STRANGER PERSONAL SPACE PLEASE AND THANK YOU, but here if you don't want to be touched, then you're again, anti-social.

At first when I got here, I saw all this physical contact and I thought everyone was a child molester or hitting on eachother. But it's made me reflect on my own culture and I'm starting to think we Americans like our personal space a bit too much. I remember in class in 1st grade, we were all taught about the rules of personal space and how we should respect others' personal space, and ONLY ENTER ANOTHER PERSON'S PERSONAL SPACE WHEN GIVEN PERMISSION!! RAWR!!

Touch is just one of the aspects of Spanish sociability. They're also A LOT louder. Personally, I want to preserve my hearing until I die so I enjoy the quiet. But it's absolutely normal here to shout to a friend because other people nearby are having a conversation, instead of just walking over there and speaking in an indoor voice. They yell and shout to be heard, even in situations I find inappropriate. My math teacher likes to scream an explanation rather than use different words to explain it.

In this way, they're very hot headed. For example, if you think of the relationship between a parent and child as a sinusidual wave (sorry to get all mathy on you) and an American family having a period of of say 4 (because the distance because two troughs is 4 days, as in, there's a high for two days, or, content and getting along, and two days of a low, or, noncontent and in a fight) then the Spanish family has a period of 64. Suddenly out of peace and quiet they're screaming and shouting and then they're kissing and laughing and an hour later it starts all over again.

Though this sounds chaotic, and it is, there are good things out of this social chaos. It is all verbal, and everything gets resolved. While an American teenager would run to his room, slam the door and not speak to his parent for two days and the parent the same, it is not like that here at all. Americans are much more passive agressive in this way, and only bury problems deeper.
Although I do enjoy the silence that unresolved problems can bring, the Spainards I think have found a better method.