So much happening lately that I need to pause and appreciate it all. Life in Madrid can be very active and full of enriching experiences, so can life in LA, or for a matter of fact in any big city. But it's the mindset of the observer that really makes any city in the world what it is. If you're from Spain and you move to LA then every experience in LA would have a greater effect on you than if you were me, living in LA after having spent 8 years there. You'd maybe be spending every day at the beach because that's the #1 complaint from Madrid residents about their city - the lack of a large body of water. You'd maybe be enjoying the food trucks, but quickly realizing that you have to watch out because a lot of the food is spicy. If you're lucky, you'd be enjoying Venice or Santa Monica, or the east side towns. If you're really lucky, then you'd already have friends there or you'd have fun coworkers that you'd have lunch with and drinks with after work/on the weekends. Maybe they'd be so kind to show you around town and take you on amazing day trips up the coast or wherever. You'd find comfort in the similarities, the outgoing and inviting people (depending on the above-mentioned luck), the mountains that are even more accessible in LA, lots of Spanish all around.
If you're not as lucky, you might experience some sadness and loneliness which everyone does when moving, but I can imagine more so if you've spent your entire life in a city where you were born, grew up, went to university, had a big group of friends and family that you'd see on a regular basis, that you shared lots of stories with. Maybe your commute to work would be a surprise, maybe the coworkers would not be so social and helpful, and maybe you'd struggle with the language. Then comes culture shock and the questions. Why am I here? Why is this city so cold and spread out? Why don't people understand me? Maybe I should go back. Depending on how prepared you were and what you expected it could be pretty unpleasant.
And hopefully you get past this resistance, maybe first make some Mexican friends, learn about their culture in the process, and slowly but surely adjust to your new home. Improve your English, make English-speaking friends (possibly other ex-pats because they've also been through it), see the value of the new things you've encountered, and come out with a shifted identity.
Meanwhile every experience you have will be new and different, which is how I feel here. In fact I didn't realize how different my life was until I wrote it down today. Let's look at a typical Monday.
Wake up, run past roommate ironing his daily shirt for his regular office job (office wear is business casual, no jeans), make coffee and toast and consume in 10min, telephone class (poor people have to speak a foreign language at 8am on Monday morning), do Spanish homework, metro, Spanish class, metro, class with young architecture student thirsty to study abroad, walk home, make lunch, have short siesta, metro, class at hospital with cardiology residents (very witty, love them), metro, class with girl my age, a teacher who must pass an English exam to keep her job (possibly waiting for her for 15min as her mother irons in the living room...they love to iron), stop at the Bangladeshi chestnut roaster stand (they've been getting worse, I think the season is over), eat chestnuts on the bus home. At home switch brain to Spanish as I encounter my roommates.
The rest of the week is similar, on lighter days interspersed with interesting activities. This week I had yoga, Toastmaster meeting, tomorrow acro class, then philosophy dinner, sunday yoga and brunch. And today a lecture on adapting to culture, which is what inspired this post.
LA life was just as interesting. Always dinners with friends, concerts, volleyball, surfing on brave days, bikes, trips to the mountains. Yet somehow I wouldn't change my decision to move here given a chance because I've discovered different ways of living, different perspectives and routines, and from that different parts of myself. Do you have to move across the ocean? Probably not. You can challenge yourself back home. I just needed a push.
If you're not as lucky, you might experience some sadness and loneliness which everyone does when moving, but I can imagine more so if you've spent your entire life in a city where you were born, grew up, went to university, had a big group of friends and family that you'd see on a regular basis, that you shared lots of stories with. Maybe your commute to work would be a surprise, maybe the coworkers would not be so social and helpful, and maybe you'd struggle with the language. Then comes culture shock and the questions. Why am I here? Why is this city so cold and spread out? Why don't people understand me? Maybe I should go back. Depending on how prepared you were and what you expected it could be pretty unpleasant.
And hopefully you get past this resistance, maybe first make some Mexican friends, learn about their culture in the process, and slowly but surely adjust to your new home. Improve your English, make English-speaking friends (possibly other ex-pats because they've also been through it), see the value of the new things you've encountered, and come out with a shifted identity.
Meanwhile every experience you have will be new and different, which is how I feel here. In fact I didn't realize how different my life was until I wrote it down today. Let's look at a typical Monday.
Wake up, run past roommate ironing his daily shirt for his regular office job (office wear is business casual, no jeans), make coffee and toast and consume in 10min, telephone class (poor people have to speak a foreign language at 8am on Monday morning), do Spanish homework, metro, Spanish class, metro, class with young architecture student thirsty to study abroad, walk home, make lunch, have short siesta, metro, class at hospital with cardiology residents (very witty, love them), metro, class with girl my age, a teacher who must pass an English exam to keep her job (possibly waiting for her for 15min as her mother irons in the living room...they love to iron), stop at the Bangladeshi chestnut roaster stand (they've been getting worse, I think the season is over), eat chestnuts on the bus home. At home switch brain to Spanish as I encounter my roommates.
The rest of the week is similar, on lighter days interspersed with interesting activities. This week I had yoga, Toastmaster meeting, tomorrow acro class, then philosophy dinner, sunday yoga and brunch. And today a lecture on adapting to culture, which is what inspired this post.
LA life was just as interesting. Always dinners with friends, concerts, volleyball, surfing on brave days, bikes, trips to the mountains. Yet somehow I wouldn't change my decision to move here given a chance because I've discovered different ways of living, different perspectives and routines, and from that different parts of myself. Do you have to move across the ocean? Probably not. You can challenge yourself back home. I just needed a push.
Some of the Xian Terracotta warriors visited us in Spain
My dad also visited and we found his 300yr old doppelgänger
Nice thing about visitors is that you go see lots of cultural things like the beautiful library at El Escorial
But then there's always time for a New Years celebration in Puerta del Sol - Happy 2014!
