Euro in for a surprise.

el apartamento español
die spanische Wohnung
l'appartamento spagnolo

I live in a Spanish apartment with an Italian, 2 Americans, a German, and a Swiss (as of now- people move in and out every week). I speak Spanish to my Italian apartment mate, he speaks Spanish to us Americans. The German and the Swiss speak German to one another, English to us Americans. And sometimes (very rarely) we all communicate in the same language, Spanish.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been sucking up the nationality slurs from other Europeans – Americans always pack too much, Americans always want money, Americans aren’t genuine when they meet people, Americans are too agreeable, Americans are impatient, etc. Ah yes, I can see how these generalizations came to being…and I also see how impossible/futile/moot it is to argue these things with people who don’t speak English. For example, my German friend asked me why Americans make small talk when they don’t really care about you or why Americans say "okay" so much (because in German saying “okay” a lot means you don’t have an opinion = dumb). What can I really tell him? If anything, I think its just customary, language habits. I have these set phrases in my head from learning Spanish that don’t really translate into English – you just say them at particular times. In Spanish, it’s common to say “para mi” before saying an opinion. Can you imagine how egotistical it would sound if person X said “for me” before every opinion person X stated?
Y por eso, how can you really judge an entire set of people without knowing their language?

I’m going to take a short siesta. I’ll post my excursion pictures soon!