Style in Spain

So as promised..

Instead of giving the usual update on what I've been up to.

I'm going to talk about one of the main differences I've noticed since I've been here.

Fashion/Style

This post probably won't be interesting to most people who read this blog, but at the moment my life is just too routine to explain. (school, swim, siesta, fiesta, the usual)

The reason I'm dedicating an entire post to this is because people here care a lot about what they look like. Well, when they're not in school. Whenever I get ready to go out with my friends they take at least twice as long as I do. I'm talking like two or three hours, maybe more. It's ridiculous. I'm going to break this post into smaller sections considering this a pretty broad topic.

School:

The first thing you should know about the style in Spain, is that school doesn't matter. I wanted to do a little section on school because of the fact that this is where I spend most of my time. Sweatsuits are perfectly normal (Cai this place is perfect for you). I myself have not taken part in the whole sweatsuit craze, unless it's gym, which I'll explain later. The difference between a person at school and a person at a club is almost scary. Everyone looks completely different. At school, girls rarely wear makeup, but at club, at least 85% of the girls look like they just came from a Jersey Shore casting audition. No joke. The reason kids don't dress up for school, is because on days they have gym, which is twice a week, we have to wear your gym clothes to school. Thank goodness it's not hot anymore because those first few weeks here were just unbearable. I have gym first period, so everyone would come to school in their gym clothes, run around outside for an hour, and then go to a confined classroom without changing or doing anything to not look/smell completely disgusting. I had a really hard time with this for a while. Of course, on days we don't have gym, some girls will dress up a little bit, but usually kids just trade out the sweat pants for jeans and wear boots instead of sneakers.

Now that I've talked a little bit about school I'll talk about articles of clothing that I've found to be different than in America.

Shoes:

I came here with four pairs of shoes, my flip-flops, a pair of Toms, a pair of nice sandals, and my sneakers. When I told my host sister this her first question was “What about your heels?” (in Spanish of course) It took her about ten minutes to understand that I didn't bring any. After my first weekend here I understood why my host sister acted the way she did. Everyone, well every girl, wears heels when they go out. The trick is, to wear a pair of flats when walking and then bring your heels for the club. Outside of clubs, heeled boots are especially popular. Shoe stores are filled with boots with the most obnoxiously high heels. I laughed when I first saw them which really confused my friend because she absolutely loves them. Everybody does. Except for the weird American. For guys, it's basically the same. The more pairs of dysfunctional sneakers the better.

Pants:

Jeans, jeans, jeans. Just like in America except there really isn't any other pants besides jeans here. I wore corduroys one day and had at least 10 people rub my leg cause they hadn't seen pants so soft before. With guys, skinny jeans are extremely popular. The whole baggy jean thing isn't as big here as it is back home.

Shirts:

Shirts alone made me want to write this post. You wouldn't believe how many shirts with random English phrases I see on a daily basis. Some of them, have drinking and drug references but they're seen as acceptable in school because no one can understand them. Well, except for a few of the teachers which makes me wonder why they don't do anything about it. Some of them are really bad. I'm constantly getting asked to translate peoples shirts because they have no idea what it says.. I can't imagine buying and wearing a shirt without understanding what's on it. Some of the weirdest ones I've seen are:

• “Party like a cheetah without its spots” (I didn't even bother translating this one considering I didn't even understand it in English)
• “I hate boys, I hate girls, I love me” (Hopefully that designer is out of business)
• “Don't eat my cabbage!” (Maybe this is a reference to something, but if it's not......)
• “Say my name in a Russian accent” (Again, I really hope this is a reference to something that makes sense.)

I wish I was making these up but sadly I'm not.

Jewelry:

Piercings anywhere and everywhere!

I'm talking earrings, lip rings, nose rings, tongue rings, nose rings galore. People pierce random places on their face. My host sister has a piercing on her cheek that I thought was mole for a good two weeks. Guy or girl it doesn't matter. Most people have some sort of weird piercing.

Hair:

Hair styles are basically the same except for when girls put their hair up. When putting your hair up for gym or to go out, the higher the better. Thankfully my hair is to short to do this so I have an excuse not to look like a complete freak. It's perfectly normal for a girl to stick her ponytail right on top of her head and have people rave about how pretty it is. I've seen this happen on numerous occasions and I just smile and try really hard not to laugh. With guys, BEWARE OF THE GEL! Everyone uses hair gel when going out and even sometimes in school. Another hair trend I have a hard time not laughing at.

So that's it from what I've seen. Obviously I don't know what the style is in Madrid or on the runways but from what I've seen in Jerez,

This is style:

Hair on top of their heads/Gel, gel, and more gel

Five earrings, two lip rings, and a nose ring

Shirt with some random phrase that no one understands

Jeans

And some heels or heeled boots/sneakers

I'm sorry this post is not what many people were expecting to read but next week I promise I'll give an update on how my first Thanksgiving away from home was. I'm already getting into the holiday mood which is fun but extremely sad. Lights have gone up around the Central and it makes me miss home every time I see them. Hopefully some more candy will come and I can push away the homesickness with some Starburst and Psych (the only/best cure..although I do think my family is starting to worry about why I'm always laughing to myself)

Abrazos y besos a todos

-Libby

P.S.

I got my internet back!

For now.....