On Thursday we had a special gathering for friends to see each other once more before Christmas, toast each other and enjoy each others' company over some good wine.
The next morning we took care of a few errands to get my phone working and reconnected in the U.S. We also briefly visited the church of which Chris is the choir director and organist as well as visited a beautiful home in Clifton, VA in which Chris had done some major Christmas decorations and which he needed to freshen up their arrangements before the holidays. I got a chance to see close up the amazing creativity and beauty that Chris creates with his floral arrangements and the satisfaction that his clients feel as a result of his work for them.
Yesterday evening we were fortunate to be here for a gathering at the Shambhala Meditation Center in DC for a going away party for a member and teacher, who will be working for the New York City Mayor's office. It was great to see some of my Shambhala friends there. We then met up with my former next door neighbor Nick and his partner Tony and got caught up on our lives.
In one sense, it felt like only a week ago that I left the U.S. to move to Barcelona, reaquainting myself with my old stomping grounds in the DC/Virginia area. On the other hand, I noticed some cultural reactions within myself over these last couple of days. I'll be in the U.S. until Jan 6, but I wanted to capture some of the sensations and observed differences that I have already experienced:
- Big Distances - the U.S. created an infrastructure that essentially requires one to have a car to function. After living in Barcelona for many months and having most of the shops that I go to for my daily and weekly needs within blocks of my home, it's shocking to re-experience how far apart everything is and how dependent we are of having a vehicle.
I also think this phenomena also influences the ease or difficulty of Americans coming together to share and enjoy each other's company. The proximity factor and the abundance of public transportation options in Barcelona make spontaneous social gatherings much easier than what has been my experience in the U.S.
- Big Homes - other than Chris' new place, which is small but has everything one needs, homes here are so much bigger and where many are single family homes. Chris' client's home that we visited yesterday was probably an exaggeration, but it does exemplify perceived need for more space than our Spanish counterparts in Spain.
- Open Doors/Closed Doors - I've hosted a number of parties at my home in Barcelona. One of the interesting habits that people do there is to completely shut the bathroom door. They never leave it open. In the U.S. the bathroom door is almost always open and visible for everyone to see when it's unoccupied.
- Unlimited Refreshments - we went to a barbeque restaurant yesterday and there was a soda dispenser that customers use to fill and refill their sodas/iced tea. I have not seen this at any establishment that I have visited in Barcelona, other than Ikea.
- Energy Consumption - utility costs are higher in Spain than in the U.S. In the homes that I have visited in Barcelona, including my own, there is a conscious effort of using as little gas, water and electricity as is absolutely necessary in the home. In the U.S., although over the decades we have become more energy efficient, we still consume much more energy without too much thought than in Spain.
