Madrileños

Madrileños is the term used to refer to a person from Madrid. In today's post, I am going to talk about los Madrileños/Spaniards. So to start off, I have to say that I am obsessed with how cute Spanish children are! I swear, they are sooo much cuter than American kids. They even dress well, too! Most of the little tykes I've seen here in Madrid have the cutest little dresses for the girls and the boys wear cute little preppy outfits. It's ADORABLE! On my way to class this morning, for instance, I saw a little boy and girl, probably both around 5-6 yrs. old, running with their mom to the bus stop for school. The little boy had a side satchel and everything. It was presh! BUT, everyone tells me that most all Spanish kids are brats. :( (From what I understand, the reasoning behind this is because during the time of Franco, everyone was so scared to do anything wrong or behave badly and no one was spoiled [?] and once Franco's era ended and a new generation emerged, they felt entitled to everything. It's just a different culture now...something along those lines).

Fashion in Madrid: Madrid is SUPER (said with a Spanish accent, ha) fashionable! Everyone here--people of all ages--dresses well. You always see men walking to and from work in their suits, and women either running around in their high heels or their trendy sandals that always seem to match their outfit perfectly. AND, everyone here is SO skinny! Even men. The thing about Spain (and Europe in general), is that everything is smaller: the people, the portions, the elevators, the clothes/shoe sizes, the beds, the showers, etc. You name it, it's small. Exactly the opposite of America, and Texas in particular, where we have the mindset that "bigger is better." I love that Madrid is so fashionable because it is so different from when I was in Mexico last summer where the fashion was...non-existent, to say the least. Madrileños also smell very good, which sounds weird, but, for the most part, men and women wear perfume and cologne, so it's a pretty good-smelling city!

Dogs: a surprising number of Madrileños have dogs! Most are small dogs, but it's kind of funny to me because everyone lives in apartments, for the most part, and Madrid is such an urban city that there isn't a lot of grassy areas for doggies to run and play. The exception, of course, is Retiro Park and a few dog parks, but other than that, not much. I love that there are so many dogs here, since I'm a dog lover, but there is kind of a lot of doggy poo on the sidewalks. Ew. Oh well. I just walk around it!

Other facts/info: Spaniards smoke A LOT. It's awful, but luckily Spain passed a law this past January that banned smoking indoors! My marketing teacher, who's from Mexico City and is a non-smoker, told us that smoking is so prevalent here in Spain that before this law was passed, students and teachers would smoke DURING class and that even news anchors would smoke while delivering the news! WHAT?!?! Can you imagine trying to take notes while smoking?? Or having the weather man pause for a second to take a puff of his cigarette while telling you about how tomorrow it's going to be partly cloudy with a chance of rain? Crazy! Anyways, that's all changed now, but I always see moms and dads smoking around their babies or small children and it just kills me! Yuck.

Another interesting fact I learned from my marketing teacher is that it is rare to see people eating in the street, i.e. drinking a Starbucks on the go or snacking on a cereal bar on your way to school, work, wherever. Eating/mealtime in Spain is not meant to be fast-paced or done alone. Meals are like mini social events. It's a time to relax, eat, and spend time chatting with friends or family. You NEVER eat or drink alone here. It's simply not done. I find this so interesting because it is so different from America. We are always running around, getting take-out or fast food, grabbing a quick bite to eat in our 30 minute lunch breaks, etc. There is no such thing as a business lunch in Spain, for example, because you just can't have lunch and do work at the same time.

Well that's all for now. I'll blog again after my trip to Barcelona this weekend!