It is april, a few weeks after las Fallas. A week after las Fallas, I didn’t feel like doing anything outside. Which is weird, since the lifestyle here is different than in Holland. Especially when you don’t live in the West of Holland or the bigger cities where there cities are more alive. Normally in Holland, I go to school/work, and I go back home, and I repeat. Sometimes I go to the gym, but during the weekdays, I do not do anything special. Only in the weekend you can do fun things, but sometimes it is so cold, that I don’t even want to go out then.

Here in Spain, people have wine at 14.00 pm. They have a break in the middle of the day to rest a little bit, and in the evening, everyone is outside. They really enjoy their lives, even though a lot of people are a little bit poor.

But then I started realizing that I have been here in Spain for almost three months out of six. According to the Culture shock model of Pedersen, I should be in the stage of negotiation right now. But I don’t feel like I am. I think I like the cultural environment here more than the one in the Netherland. Differences between the old and new culture became apparent but it does not give me unpleasant feelings or frustration, anger or anxiety. The language barrier is ok because I was and still am very motivated to learn the language and so far it has been good enough. Most of the people here don’t speak English, but they are very understanding and with my ‘’Spanglish’’, I never have any problems.

I think it is also because I am from Tunisia. I have members in my family who are very rich, but I also have some members who are poor. When I visit them in Tunisia, I don’t mind that they don’t have internet, that they cannot offer me a lot. The most important thing for me, is that it is clean. Spain is very similar to Tunisia, so I don’t mind that the tap water is not drinkable and I have to buy water from the store, I don’t like tap water anyways. There are a lot of Islamic butchers and restaurants in Spain, so the food accessibility is even better than the east of the Netherlands.

I do have to say, I think Spanish people party too much, but that does not put me in the second stage of the shock model. So far so good.

It suddenly hits me while writing, in the beginning I could not get used to the Spanish eatingway!eating pattern! They have breakfast around 909.00 am, unlike in the Netherlands, the breakfast here is not that important. Then around 12.00 am they have some fruit or yoghurt, while in the Netherlands we have lunch around that time. But the luchlunch in Spain is aroun around 15.00 am and they eat what we would have for dinner, at 6.18.00 pm . But in Spain, at 6this time it is snack time. And then around 21.00 they have a light dinner, but it is not as heavy. .

In the beginning I just kept on eating like I did in the Netherlands, but since Spain had siesta in the afternoon and I would have school until late, I wouldn’t eat anything until I got home. And on other days I would have dinner around 6, but then I would be hungry around 9-10 because the days in Spain are so long. This was really frustrating because I was not used to it and I did not want to have a unhealthy eating pattern. But after a while, I understood it, and I knew how to adept.