So last weekend I got to go see a Spanish fair/feria. These are held in towns all throughout the south of Spain, the biggest one being in Seville. Typically an Andalucian (region covering most of southern Spain) custom, I went to the one in Puerto de Santa Maria (near Cadiz for those in the know). It has food stands, ice cream booths, typical carnival games and rides (coasters, bumper cars, the works). Additionally there a number of tents where most people congregate to eat, drink, dance and just generally be merry. Each tent is unique in its own way, varying the food, drinks, music and the crowd they attract. Some tents have older people, some younger, some are more focused on dancing while others on eating and drinking. All in all, the Spanish definitely know how to have a good time.
When we got to the fair we (me and some work friends I was with) went looking for a tent which some people we knew had congregated in (well my friends knew them. I was as always the polite foreigner). When I was introduced to the new people, the women introduced me to the concept of the “European air kisses (twin edition)”. You know the one: you knock your cheeks together on each side and kiss the air while doing it. I had always thought of it as a feature of la-dee-dah parties and hoity-toity events with the glitterati. But it seems to have replaced the handshake or hello as the standard greeting here. End result, I air-kissed introduced myself to a number of strange women. Fortunately they were all attractive enough and even more fortunately I had chosen to shave that day. Though with one I/she banged the cheek too hard and she laughed as she rubbed her cheek while saying something in Spanish (she might have said “Oh, what a strong jaw line you have” or “Oh my God, I think he just tried to kill me. I better fake laugh so as not to entice his psychotic rage!”).
In the tent itself the booze was flowing pretty freely at 2 in the afternoon. In the same space people were drinking as well as looking after their little children. As the day wore on into night some tents turned into mini clubs (complete with booty dancing in addition to expected Spanish flamenco and tacky techno. Interesting side note: they played summer days/grease lightening not once but TWICE in one of the dance tents). But even around midnight (aka dinner time in Spain) I noticed couples pushing around 1 yr olds in prams and little kids running around playing tag with no adult supervision!
But why am I going into all of this? Today I wanted to talk about something called culture shock. Fish out of water syndrome. Sub par American comedy plotline in real life. Whatever you want to call it. When I first moved to the US from India I had expected to experience some difficulty in adjusting. But I didn’t. Sure some things were different. A lot of things were new, but that’s just a part of life in college and the new experiences it brings. But by and large, the prominent influence of American media and culture in India had prepared me to some extent for life in the states. And while they do have their differences, the US and India do have a lot in common. Both are fairly conservative societies at a certain level with an emphasis on hard work and the go-go-go lifestyle. English is the lingua franca in both countries.
But somehow coming to Spain has induced my first ever feeling of culture shock. Not a bad shock necessarily; but certain things take getting used to. I have moved around a lot (between the US and India and within both countries a fair amount. Not counting all the other countries I have visited) but this is the first time I have felt anything remotely of this kind. I guess for me it comes down to having to change the way I think about most things. Here all the meals are much later and many places don’t even open for lunch. The earliest you get dinner anywhere is 8pm, and most locals eat dinner at 10. Service at restaurants is equally as relaxed with meals taking anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours as a norm. People go out to party around midnight and usually stagger home sometime around 4am. Booze is as cheap/expensive as water and flows freely at all times. But at the same time I haven’t seen any drunken Spanish people doing stupid shit. I can’t imagine that much adult beverage consumption in US or India without someone destroying/vomiting on something. The Spanish are just more relaxed about life in general. I haven’t seen many confrontations around here and most Spanish drivers are very conscious of the rights of pedestrians and generally give them right of way 90% of the time. In the US such behavior would result in an increased number of gourangas (aka human casualties in an entertaining fashion for those not in the know). Their relaxed attitude extends to the workplace as well. Come summertime, our Spanish construction contractor will start summer hours: Come to work at 8am and leave at 2pm! It’s just such a different way of thinking about things and a different lifestyle compared to the one I’m used to.
I actually approve of the Spanish concept of a good life. It becomes a problem when you are working for an amercan-capitalist-hardcore-10hr workday company that tries to apply its corporate working culture in a place where the social culture is completely at odds with it. I often wonder how the construction guys manage to work their 9-10hr days and party all night later in the day. When do they sleep? (There’s a question that deserves a thinking man statue to ponder it). All the same, it seems like more and more countries are trending towards the workaholic lifestyle. As I write this, the French government is having issues with the number of holidays its workers have and how that compromises their productivity and their industries’ viability in an increasingly globalized world. Most of North America and almost all of Asia and the Middle East have switched over to the ‘Live to work’ philosophy as opposed to the ‘Work to live’ mantra. Not using all your vacation has become more and more common. Our cell phones, laptops and blackberries have left us permanently ‘on call’. How long can things like 3 hour lunch hours and 2 month long vacations survive in this ever changing and increasingly competitive fast paced world. Europe (not including the UK) and South America seem to be the last bastions with the work-life balance tilted heavily in favor of life. And even then most of the modern bustling cities in these places are becoming more and more indistinguishable from similar cities in the US and Asia. How different will Buenos Aires and Madrid be from New York and Hong Kong in 10 or 20 years? There will still be fundamental differences but the key point is that there will be a lot more similarities than anyone could have predicted.
A lot of us in the US wish we enjoyed the kind of lifestyle our counterparts do in Europe (though they usually earn less than us). But how long can these lifestyles survive in a global economy? Is your job really secure if your company can hire someone else who will not take 1 month vacations and won’t throw a hissy fit if they have to work more than 7 hours a day? This is a bleaker version of the future than I would like. We are making lots of advances in areas like working from home, entrepreneurship and telecommunications. I think it’s up to each individual to determine their work-life balance. If that puts a ceiling on how far you can advance at a particular company then either you pay the price or you move to a different company. Food for thought.
PS: I know this post got a little off topic, but what can I say? If you are reading this that shouldn’t surprise you at all.