We have talked a lot about how it can be difficult to observe our own cultural values and distinguish them from our personal experiences and personalities, but how it is important to do so to understand better how to interact with people who have a different set of cultural values. As a native of the Pacific Northwest and a liberal, middle-class family, I know for example that some of my values are very different from most of the U.S. and others are very similar. I am not religious, and I have been well-educated and exposed to ideas about politics and social justice/change from a very young age. Because of my education, I tend to think of things in terms of privilege which I don´t think is common for an American, but is part of how I have been ¨socialized.¨I for example have white privilege, and privilege of being middle-class. On the other hand, as a woman and a lesbian I have also experienced axes of disadvantage. It is a politcized way of looking at the world (hey, I am a Politics major) that I don´t think is common in the U.S., let alone in Spain, and it is something that is extremely difficult to explain in another language! I think this aspect of me is more personality and context than it is a cultural value. However there are U.S. cultural values that we have discussed in Seminar that I did not even realized how true they were for me, personally, until this semester. For example, the idea of self-sufficiency and independence. I respect myself and others more, I have realized, when I accomplish something all myself, or when someone is self-made in any way. People who ¨pull themselves up by their bootstraps¨to use an American expression, are somehow more admirable. People who strike out and do something dramatic and interesting and unexpected with their lives are fascinating role models. I think this is evident in so many choices that I and other Americans make, even in my decision to come to Spain. People move across the country for college or a new job, people challenge their boss to rise up the corporate ladder, people risk huge amounts of money on ventures that might fail to ¨follow their dreams.¨And even if an American never does any of these things, they might always wish they had, or at the very least admire those who do.

In Spain it is not like this at all. One example we use often is the fact that it is normal and perfectly acceptable for a young Spanish person to live at home with their parents until they are in their thirties. People tend to live in the same place, near their families, for their whole lives. Decision-making is more community and family based and much less selfish. I think Americans must seem selfish, egotistical, or at the very least extremely driven and ambitious, to Spaniards. I have found that  talking about the way it makes me feel to accomplish things on my own with my host family is a good way to make them realize that it is not that at all ambition or selfishness but more something that gives me confidence and strength. However, outside of a relationship the like one that I have with Carmela and her daughters where we can actually have long conversations about that kind of thing, I wonder if people here think of me that way. What about, for example, the professor of my direct enrollment class at University of Alicante, Women´s Psychology, who is confused by the fact that I always sit in the front row and try to make comments during her lectures about the ¨gender spectrum¨? Does the awkwardness I feel when talking to most Spaniards come from more than the language barrier, which is becoming less and less of a problem every day anyway? Could my streak of independence, which I think is fairly moderate for an American, be seen as something negative even if it is never explicitly discussed? Is everyone just wondering what I´m doing here: 20, blonde, alone and far from home?

I don´t see a way to clear up this misunderstanding with strangers on the street, but in other relationships I do think the key is communication, just as it is with my host family, even if we can´t get into it as much. Instead of comparing Americans and Spaniards, explaining personal opinions and feelings tend to get the point across. I think people in general comprehend emotions better than they do a sweeping value that is foreign to them. And in the end, even though I have identified that my emotions about this subject come from a cultural value, it doesn´t make them any less emotions or any less of a human experience, which is something that anyone, anywhere, and can understand.

Musings for now are over, I´ll be back soon with some pictures from my Paris adventures!