After our time in La Vera, Lydia (one of my roomates) and I went to Madrid to spend a week with another missionary couple, Ken and Allison. They were such a lovely couple...and they did many things as a couple that I thought were just precious...but this blog is not for Hailey's relational opinions. We'll save that for when I get back to the states and I'm allowed to return to my feisty self. Speaking of not being myself...
I'll just admit it. The hardest thing for me here is not the food, culture, or the language. It's not even the extraordinarily weird mealtimes. It's not even the foot-inflaming terrain! It's the people. It always is, isn't it? And not even the Spaniards so much...it's the people I work with. And what makes it hard isn't necessarily personality differences(though sometimes it is, of course) or their likes and dislikes. It's culture. Plain and simple. Almost all of us are from different nations...and those of us who ARE from the same nation are from extremely different parts. So communication is difficult. And personally, I get frustrated. I don't feel like I can be myself...and then when I am, I feel like I've offended someone. So I go off by myself a lot. Like right now..haha. So what's this have to do with Madrid and English people? Well, just that.
Ken and Allison had lived in a Spanish world for a long time...but their home was incredibly English. It was like they lived in a little English haven in the midst of a Spanish world. So enter me, an American (a sarcastic midwestern one at that), and I'm just plain confused. I've always thought that I was an adaptable person...but that's not true. I like constants. In fact, I love them. When I'm placed in new situations, I tend to ask five million questions and second guess everything. And EVERYTHING's different here. So I'm always asking questions, and feeling stupid. Not that I mind being curious and learning things...but I'm just not this cross cultural. Sometimes, you just need to be yourself. And I really don't feel freedom to do that here. But I guess you sacrifice some parts of your culture in order to fit in with the new one. I guess I can last without running and sarcasm for 6 more weeks.
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