29 Sep Be quiet, please.

Cultural shock is something that every person who travels outside his/her country has to face. As a Spanish person living in the U.S right now, I have felt that in my own skin. Food is different, the schedule is different, plans are different. But I have to say that there are some things that have especially surprised me about this county and this city in particular.

One of them, the noise “policy”. Obviously, I’m not talking about actual policy, it’s just a say (even though I’m sure there are actual laws about this matter). What I’m trying to say is that, in comparison with Spain, people here are way much more sensitive about their neighbors’ noises. Ever since we got here everyone warns us (me and my flatmates) about how careful we should be with the noise we made in our apartment. In Spain, we are, in general, way noisier than here. We speak louder, we shout more to each other (not in a negative way necessarily) and we like to party a lot. That’s maybe why everyone is more used to noises and not as sensitive as here. So, I guess we can just adapt to what we have here, even if it’s hard.

Nevertheless, I’m surprised that everyone is so quiet in their homes but the traffic is so noisy. The firefighter’s tracks are super noisy, just as motorbikes and police sirens. Also, a lot of people listen to music in a super high volume while in their cars. Maybe in Spain, we speak louder, but our vehicles are not that annoying.

With this post, I just want to point something that has surprised me and seem kind of weird to me. The fact that in my house I have to be as quiet as possible but, in my car, not, is inconsistent in my opinion. But I can definitely live with it.