¡No Me Toques!

As I've already mentioned, Spainards are much more touchy than Americans. But as I've learned, Spanish stereotypes become more typical the farther south you go (sort of like American stereotypes. There are more fat, war-loving, Protestants in the South than the North)

So the touching here is more exagerated here. One of my amigos here likes to kiss all of her male friends on the cheek and sit on their laps. But she has a boyfriend. Two other girls tackle eachother in hugs and kisses in the middle of class until one of them says uncle. A boy and girl rub the underside of eachother's arm for ten minutes non-stop, without any non-plutonic implication. All the boys do that manly arm-around-the-other's-shoulder when talking to eachother. At first it looks fairly normal: until one of them leans over and kisses his friend on the neck.

Which brings me into my next point: the Spanish are much less shameful of their bodies. Kids watch TV shows designed for their age group that have multiple sex scenes per episode. Magazines about music for teens have more sex articles (and corresponding cartoon images) than Cosmo. The boys in gym like to wear their shorts like a thong as a joke, showing everyone their fannies, and any teen that has had sex, has told his parents, including details such as with who, when, where, etc. (and all the parents respond with, "Have fun, and here's a condom")
One of the first questions people ask me is if I'm a virgin, and who I think is attractive and would like to sleep with, and then think it's weird when I don't feel like answering all those questions with someone I barely know.

But at the same, no one dresses like a slut, and they only sleep with people they're dating, which is a lot more than I can say for many Americans. I think Americans put a lot more stress and importance on sex and the human body, as if it were some holy sacrament. But I think this pressure makes it a lot harder to openly and honestly talk about those things, which leads to ignorance, and dumb choices, like sex without a condom. The teen prgnancy rate is much lower here. A lot of American parents like to say, "La la la, that doesn't happen, don't tell me I don't want to know," something that Spanish parents frankly are smarter about.