Cultural Differences

 While living here in the city of Arcos de la Frontera I have noticed some cultural differences between how people live here than how people live in the United States. One those things I have noticed that is different is when people generally eat lunch and dinner. Here in Arcos it is more common to eat lunch at around 2:00-3:00 p.m. while people in the U.S. usually eat lunch around 12:00-1:00 p.m. For dinner most people in the U.S. eat dinner between 6:00-7:00 p.m. while people here in Arcos generally eat dinner between 8:00-9:00 p.m. Another cultural differences between here in Arcos and the U.S. is how in the grocery stores here in Arcos there will be pig legs on display with the hoof of the leg still showing as the workers serve fresh ham strips to people to buy. People can even buy a whole pig leg at the store with hoof still attached to bring home to cut up and eat it fresh. Even though this meat is much fresher this way it would be rare (I'm not sure that it happens anywhere in the U.S.) to find that in the U.S. since most Americans do not want to see any kind of the animals outside body parts on the meat they buy (for example the heads, hoofs, or skin of the animal). To Americans it would shock them and find it disturbing to see things related to the animal that reminds them of the animal when it was alive (Americans can be more sensitive, lol). 

Another cultural difference between Arcos and the U.S. is how lots of people who live here in Arcos walk in the city to get places while most Americans drive in their cars to get to places. In big cities in the U.S. lots of people walk to get to places but in small cities like a city the size of Arcos most people would drive places instead of walking there. Part of the reason why Americans usually drive places is because the cities in the U.S. are usually more spread out in space so it is harder to walk to places in a short time and it is also because Americans can be lazy and don't want to take the time to walk somewhere. The next cultural difference is related to vehicles in relating to what kind of vehicles people use here in Arcos verses the U.S. Lots of people here in Arcos have mopeds since this city is small and has many narrow streets but in the U.S. it is uncommon for a person to have a moped since the cities are usually bigger and the streets are generally more wide. Also, since most Americans have large or average size cars on busy roads it can be dangerous to drive a moped on those roads since the mopeds are small and can sometimes be difficult for drivers in the large cars or trucks to see the small mopeds. The last cultural difference I have noticed while living here in Arcos verses the U.S. is that the apartment buildings here in Arcos are different than most apartments in the U.S. The apartment buildings here in Arcos usually are one large connected building with a couple different entrances and a large interior courtyard with gardens and no roof to let sunlight and fresh air in. Also, many apartment buildings here in Arcos have a rooftop that the residents can access and usually use clotheslines to hang their clean clothes on to dry. In the U.S. most apartment complexes are made up of several separate buildings and do not have open courtyards in the middle of the apartment buildings. Also, most apartments have dryers in the buildings so there is no access to the roof of most apartments. Since apartments in the U.S. have open courtyards in the middle of the apartments they usually have open fields or small yards around the apartment buildings for the residents to use to walk around on or play sports on them.