Until coming to Spain for the first time several years ago, I never realized quite how challenging it was to spell “Christopher.”  Soon after arriving to the country, however, the “complexity” of my name became quite clear to me.  In fact, after living in Spain for several years, I think I’ve seen probably just about every spelling of the word “Christopher” imaginable on all types of things ranging from official governmental documents to hotel reservations and pizza delivery orders.

Still, I must say that “Kristofer” isn’t really that far off considering some of the other spellings I have seen.  In fact, one time a Spaniard wrote me an email that began with the salutation “Hola Christ.”   Obviously, I was flattered that the person writing to me considered me to be the Son of God… until I realized that he was simply trying to abbreviate my name and that “Christ” was just the best abbreviation he could come up with.

I suppose that my name is hard to spell for Spaniards because in Spanish things are spelled phonetically — Spanish people are simply not used to silent letters and ‘ph’ combinations that sound like the letter ‘f.’  It’s probably a cultural thing as well: if my name were something with more “Hispanic Flair” — like Juan or Julio — I’m sure they’d be able to spell it correctly.

Here’s a question for the comments section of this post.  If you’re a foreigner in Spain, has your name ever been spelled incorrectly by Spaniards? If you’re a Spaniard, have you ever had your name spelled incorrectly by a foreigner? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

You see, today started like any other day.  I woke up, got a shower, got dressed, and went to the school to teach class.  I went through most of the morning normally — the same way I would any other morning — completely oblivious to the fact that today was Thanksgiving.  Later in the day, when I had a free moment, I decided to check my email and, lo and behold, I had a message from my mom in the States wishing me a “HAPPPYYYYYYY THANKSGIVINGGGG” (I write the phrase in capitals because that’s how she put it in the email).

It wasn’t until I received that email from my mother that I realized that today was Thanksgiving.  It’s funny, really.  Since I’m living in Spain and Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here, the whole fact that today was the day just “slipped my mind,” so to speak.  Still, my Thanksgiving story does not end there….

After I realized that today was Thanksgiving, I mentioned something about the holiday to my housemates.  Of course, they explained to me that they already knew all about the holiday from watching American movies on TV.  They then proceeded to elaborate further on how the “Americans” wake up very early on Thanksgiving morning to go outside and kill the turkey that they’re going to eat for dinner.  This made me laugh a bit because, despite being an American who has celebrated Thanksgiving pretty much every year of his life, I have never “went outside to kill a turkey.”  I then explained to my housemates that I preferred to buy my turkeys “already dead” from the supermarket and, although it may have been disappointing for them at first, they seemed to accept the new information rather well.

So, to end this post I’d like to remind everyone in the USA to be careful with those axes when they’re killing their turkeys.  After all, we don’t want any accidents, do we?  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Today was one of those days.  You see, I just got home from a private class with a “very energetic” five year old student.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great kid, but keeping his attention is a task.  Let me give you an example….

The topic of today’s lesson was “fruits.”  I went to my young student’s house with my colorful “fruit book” and I also brought along some plastic fruits to use as visual aids.  I read him the fruit book a couple of times and everything went fine.  After a while, my young student was starting to recognize the fruits in the book pretty well… so I decided it was time to whip out the plastic fruits and do some vocabulary practice — bad idea.  My dear little student saw the plastic fruits and went totally “loco.”  He began to grab the fruits from me, hit me over the head with them, and he even went as far as to step on my plastic apple leaving it totally squashed.  Of course, he did all this while laughing uncontrollably and saying “frutas, frutas” in Spanish. 

What have I learned from this ordeal?  When using plastic fruits with five-year-olds, be careful that they don’t throw any at your head.  You may also want to watch their feet just in case they get the urge to trample a plastic apple.  And always carry a “back-up” supply of plastic fruit — something is bound to come up missing. 

I suppose I can say that the class was a learning experience… for the teacher, at least.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

You see, here in Spain there is a very large aged population and, since returning, I’ve come to realize that, well, old people are everywhere.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, it does present a certain problem when you are trying to make your way down a sidewalk. 

Imagine the following.  You are late for an important appointment.  You go out of your house to the street below and being walking hurriedly to your destination.  All of a sudden, you come across a row of very old “señoras” sprawled shoulder to shoulder across the entire width of the sidewalk, walking at a snail’s pace, and happily gossiping with each other.  They’re pretty much oblivious to the fact that you would like to get past them or that you even exist.  You try to pass them on the right and somehow they drift in that direction.  You then try to pass them on the left and they drift that direction too.  You can’t get around them, they’re taking up the entire sidewalk, and you’re worried about arriving late to your appointment.  You’re doing the sidewalk shuffle. 

I guess this is just something that happens in Spain… nobody is ever in much of a hurry to get anywhere.  Maybe it goes with the more relaxed lifestyle that, culturally, most English speakers aren’t as used to.  In any event, I’m back in Spain and back to doing some shuffling when I walk down the sidewalk.  A guiri has to do what a guiri has to do to get around in the city, I guess. 

Do you know of any “Spain quirks” like the sidewalk shuffle?  Put them in the comment section of this post.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

As soon as the song started pumping from the speakers in the club, all the Spaniards formed a line and began to dance in sync — with choreographed movements and beautiful timing — just as if they were actually living in the movie.  That’s right, they danced just like Danny and Sandy in the movie, complete with the wavy hand movements and the “ooo, ooo, oooooo, honey” lyrics.  What was really surprising to me was the fact that most of the Spaniards were even able to mutter out the chorus in English (with pronunciation that, well, more or less resembled English). 

Now, this entire spectacle left me quite perplexed.  After all, it’s not every day that you see a bunch of Spaniards suddenly form a line and dance as if they were performing an off-Broadway musical right in the middle of the discoteca.  What’s even more surprising is that the “song of choice” happened to be from an American film as opposed to a Spanish one.  So, since I was so stricken by this whole affair, I began to do some research by asking my Spanish friends what they knew about the film “Grease.”  I came to find out that, in Spain, “Grease” is a true classic and most Spaniards have watched the film numerous times.  Pretty surprising considering that most Americans have probably only seen the film once (at least I think that most Americans have only seen the film once — it doesn’t seem too popular in the USA to me). 

In any event, I’d like to get down to the bottom of this whole “Grease Popularity” issue and I need your help.  Please post your own opinion about the movie “Grease” in the comments of this post.  It would also help if you posted the country you are from and the number of times that you have seen this film.  In this way, perhaps we can see what country is the biggest “Grease” fan. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

My dentist in America barely talks to me and the truth is that I am quite used to going in, having my teeth cleaned, and leaving without much more than a “how are you” being exchanged.  Here in Spain, however, the dentist that I saw had a bit of a different “approach” to dealing with his patients — I guess the best way to put it is that he was quite outspoken.  In fact, the first thing that he said to me after taking a quick peek inside my mouth was “joder” (fuck).   Now, “joder” is something that you never want any doctor to say the minute he lays eyes upon you and, when I heard this one little word, I instantly began to fear the worst.  I immediately asked the dentist what was wrong and he began to explain to me that I had the largest teeth he had ever seen in his life.  He went on to say that he hopes I never have to get a tooth pulled because those big chompers of mine must surely have some humongous roots and therefore yanking on them would hurt a lot. 

Anyway, after the “big teeth” conversation was over, the dentist began the examination and cleaning.  The exam itself was just like what I am used to having in the USA with one small difference.  You see, here in Spain, my “talkative” Spanish dentist never stopped asking me questions while he was performing the exam.  This is something that I had never encountered at my dentist in the USA and I soon found that responding to the Spanish dentist’s questions put me in a bit of an awkward situation.  After all, it’s pretty hard to pronounce Spanish with a bunch of dental instruments in your mouth.  I managed as best I could to nod and respond with a simple “sí” or “no” and this seemed to satisfy my new dentist “friend.” 

In any event, once the exam and subsequent cleaning were finished, I paid the receptionist my thirty euros and went on my way.  Really, it wasn’t a bad experience at all and I’m sure I’ll go back to the same dentist when I need another six-month checkup.  Of course, I’m also sure that I’ll never forget the first word that my new Spanish dentist said to me: “joder.” 

Readers: Have you ever had any strange or funny experiences like this one in Spain or another foreign country?  Please leave your stories/comments about this (or anything else) below. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com