Manners and Mannerisms

This post is dedicated to all of you who are punctilious about the niceties of etiquette and other various cultural norms.  Which is to say, I don't expect it will be very interesting.  However, if you ever plan on travelling to Spain and wish to blend in like a pro, here are some things you should know:

Table manners--Naturally, you're not supposed to put your elbows on the table.  What I was slightly surprised to learn is that it's also bad form to have one or both hands below the table while you're eating.  So keep both hands above the table during meals.  Also, here in Europe they don't do that ridiculous thing where you switch your fork back and forth when you're cutting something.  Which is nice, although keeping the fork in my left hand tends to remind me how inept said hand really is.

House manners--If you're going to be staying in a Spanish home, bring a pair of slippers.  Seriously.  Everybody wears slippers and the señoras generally have a thing against walking around the house barefoot or in stocking feet.  They'll probably tell you it's because they don't want you to catch cold, but one of my esteemed professors has advanced the academic theory that it's actually because they don't want you to see if the floor is dirty.  Of course, this worked out well for me since I already wear slippers around the house anyway.  Other various things to do if you're in someone's house: turn off the lights when you leave a room (electricity is expensive here) and close the bathroom door when you're done using it (don't ask me why; it's just something they do).

Conversational manners--Something else that worked out well for me is that it's not considered very polite to stand there silently and listen to someone talk.  Interrupting shows that you're involved in the conversation and that you're interested in what the other person has to say.  This is something that our Conversation professor has been trying to teach us, with varying measures of success.  Fortunately, interrupting comes naturally to me (in fact, I've been told I'm a bit of a prodigy in that regard).  If you're not that fluent, or even if you are, it helps to have a handful of stock phrases memorized so that you can politely interrupt without having to think too hard about what you're going to say.

The siesta--It's the first thing that most people mention when they hear my name used in the same sentence as the word "Spain."  But here's a little-known fact for you: taking a siesta after lunch really isn't all that popular here.  I do, naturally, and I hear that it's a bit more common in the summer, but for the most part, people just eat their lunch and go back to work or class or whatever it is they do.  The lunch hour here is really long (make that two or three hours), so if you want to take a siesta, you can.  However, most people actually use all that time for eating lunch, which is not only the largest meal of the day but also a big social event.

Well, there you have it: a nice little list of things that you'd normally never know (or care) about.  But you never know; if you ever happen to be in the neighborhood, such things as these might come in handy.  And I'm sure there's somebody out there who likes learning this stuff for no apparent reason at all.  Like me, for instance.