DIFFERENCES WE HAVE FOUND BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND SPAIN

Sheila Martin and Martina Gutierrez 

We have been here only for four days, but we have found so many differences between Scottish and Spanish people. In Scotland everything is so quiet, and people are friendly, while in Spain we are considered as really loud people and sometimes we only pay attention to the things that are important for us, so we aren’t really helpful with tourists. We have noticed that in Scotland there are so many charity shops with incredible prices, and compared to Spain where there aren’t so many charity shops to help different causes. Talking about shops the schedules here are incredibly sharp, they close early, at six pm! Thank God, in Spain they close later at ten pm, so you have more time to go shopping so it’s nice. Not only do they close shops early, but they also have dinner while Spanish people are “tomando algo” so as Spanish people staying in Scotland, we find having dinner at seven or half past six pm extremely difficult because later we are still hungry.

Surprisingly, seeing the neighbourhoods we have seen that everyone lives in big houses, and they  prefer not living in flats like Spanish people. Also talking about houses and the neighbourhoods we have noticed that our host mother doesn’t mind not keeping the door shut something that in Spain is necessary if you don’ t want to get robbed. As Spanish people we had to buy some sleeping masks because of the light, as in Scotland it’s never completely dark and in this country, they don’t have shutters, and for Spanish people it is uncomfortable and shocking.

And the most important difference for us is the weather, here is all the time raining - well, often! And as Spanish girls that live in a warm country, it’s something that annoys us.