Culture Shock: Phase II

Culture shock is when people have difficulty adjusting to a new culture. There are four phases to this process, however, each person is affected differently. It begins with the Honeymoon phase, then the Irritation phase, next is the Adjustment stage, and then finally you reach the Mastery level. Right now I'm definitely in the irritation phase! You really begin to think "Why did I come here?" and "What was I thinking??" These last couple of days have been extremely annoying and frustrating...not to mention I'm still suffering from jet lag which causes confusion over the change of sleep when you cross the ocean by air. The language barrier (even the CHINESE people speak Spanish!), weird stares, traffic safety, nasty food, time difference, slow internet, and the fact that I can't text or tweet when I want are all taking a toll on me :( . I'm so use to having my crackberry by my side that sometimes I stop what I'm doing and look for it thinking I lost it. Then I realize that it's powered off and still packed in my suitcase lol. Lots of blonde moments lol. I did get a lil prepaid phone though and it came with 20 free text messages. Hecks yeah! But unfortunately, I can only make calls in Spain lol.

Yes. Don't roast me. I know it's pretty 20th century but I have to work with what I got lol. Yoigo is a good service I heard!

So about these weird stares. Everybody stares at us. According to Zachoria everybody looks at us like we're some type of Mob lmao! I agree to a certain extent, but I think a lot of the guys think we're really cute--which we are :). I notice sometimes as we walk past they stop in the middle of their sentence, look at us and say "muy bonita..blah blah I don't understand the rest" lol. There are a lot of Africans here too. They usually sell hats, gloves, and jewelry on the sidewalks. When they see us their faces light up! We're probably thinking the same thing "Finally I see a black person" lol. One guy yelled out "ellooo my siiistaa" one day lol. It was the funniest thing!

Traffic safety. I can't tell the road from the sidewalk. The roads in the neighborhood where we stay look like alleys so I didn't think those were streets that people drive on. Ha! Got me together real quick. I thought we drive crazy down south, nope. These people drive soooo freakin fast down this little streets it's ridiculous! I'm always paranoid because I never know when a car is just gonna bust out and hit me. There's no white lines, parallel lines, or yellow lines.

This is one of the few two way streets. Does it look like two cars can pass through here?

But then again all the cars here have hatchbacks lmao! So lame!

Poor Audi :(

Yup! Even the BMW's. 

Check this, I found this one to be hilarious!

I can't take any police serious who drives one of these! lol!

These are the only American cars I've seen so far. A Ford Focus and a Ford Mondeo. Weird. Can't say that I have ever seen a Ford Mondeo in America.

If I come back 10lbs lighter don't be surprised. The food here sucks! Everything that I have ordered up until today was disgusting and a waste of my money! If you know me then you know that I am a verrry picky eater and I don't have money to be wasting on nasty food. The first night we got here we ate at this Italian place. I thought I was in good standing. I love pasta! That was the nastiest pasta I've ever had in my life *Regina George voice* lol. It was so tasteless. We had like 5 different pastas and I didn't like not one. The program Director was like "Oh yea this place is really good! The food is so good students usually never finish it" ...I'm almost certain that I know the real reason why they never finish it. The next night Zachoria, Samara, Sam, and I call ourselves going to eat at this bar and "luckily" they had fried shrimp, or gambas romanas I should say. Everybody knows I love shrimp. That's like all I eat. When I say this was THE nastiest shrimp I've ever had.....seriously, who messes up shrimp?? 

This picture actually looks more appetizing than the one I ordered. Mine didn't have this nice golden color. No mine was white, the shrimp was still hard, and again tasteless. I just don't understand.

My latest disappointment was yesterday. I apologize for not taking a pic of it -__- I was just so mad! But here is the closest pic I found and I'll try to explain it. Let me just say I thought I was ordering a sandwich and this is what I got: 

Instead of whatever that is in the middle it was a teeny tiny piece of bread that was half the slice of the one in the picture below.

-_______- What was I suppose to do with a piece of bread half the size of my palm and 10 slices of cheese drenched in olive oil??!!! And to think I paid 7 Euros for that! I almost forgot to mention that there is no such thing as a complimentary glass of water or free refills on drinks o_O. I couldn't even sip on my drink in hopes of getting full! Just ridiculous.  

Today had to be the best day my taste buds have seen in a long time. I ate at this Asian place called Wok to Walk and it was ah-may-zing! Good food and a nice portion :) more of my style. 

The picture may look a little disgusting but I promise it was reeeeally good! 

I hope you are not bored reading this yet I'm almost done lol. I just have so much to say! But like I said before we walk everywhere we go and surprisingly my navigational skills are starting to kick in I just don't remember the names of the streets yet. A couple of days ago we got so lost isn't wasn't even funny. Being lost, not knowing the language, and not having a cell phn (this incident assured me I needed one) is theee worst. Many failed attempts at getting directions.

Me: "¿Habla Inglés?"

Them: "No." 

Me: "Great."

So I tried to get the directions anyway and was praying that would I "learned" in Spanish I in 7th grade would pay off lmao. Wrong. We never made it to where we was trying to go but we did manage to make it back to the study center in one piece. The streets/alleys in our neighborhood have weird smells. You walk 2 steps and it smells like good food...then you walk 2 more steps and it smells like shit lol. Literally. There are so many dogs that walk around and they just shit everywhere. No pooper scooper or anything. These dogs are huge too! Imagine big German Shepards, Golden Retrievers, and Dalmatians walking around. There are a few Yorkies and Chiwawas that roam the streets too and I originally thought these dogs were strays but they have owners..they just don't really use leashes or pooper scoopers. Can you believe there is like a public janitor crew that cleans all their crap up. Don't think I would want that job. 

I really hope I didn't make Valencia seem like a horrible place lol. Remember I'm just annoyed and irritated with a lot of things, however, these last 2 days have been fun. We went to a club call La Tres. I finally understand why Spanish people have house parties all night long in America. The party doesn't start until 1am! First you barhop and then you go to the club. Of course us Americanos threw in a lil pregame session before we went barhopping lol, and that's fine. 

 (not a good angle of my thigh here)

Think the alcohol had kicked in at this point lol

Wish I had pictures of us actually at the club but oh well. I ordered another drink once we got there, vodka y piña, & it was pretty good. I wore boots so my feet wouldn't hurt since we walk so much, but my freakin knees were killing me once we left! Fist pumping is tough work! lol! The dj was good and the techno music was putting me in the zone. My favorite songs of the night were:

1.Shut Up & Let Me Go- The Ting Tings! 

2.F*ck You- Cee-Lo

3.The Time- Black Eyed Peas (may be the theme song of this trip)

Download these and tell me what you think!