Image via Wikipedia

I’ll throw this out there: I feel really bad for President-elect Barack Obama.

Nothing is going his way right now. The economy’s in the toilet, Americans are unhappy, and the rest of the world is slowly going to shut itself in to deal with its own problems.

Don’t get me wrong. Everything started out well for him. Many elements of his platform were entirely feasible up to a few months ago. The one that I’ve got in mind specifically was his desire to make college education more affordable to all families.

He had proposed a $4,000 tax credit toward tuition for families who send their students to college as well as a simplification of the forms for federal financial aid. While these measures are a mere drop in the vast galaxy-sized bucket of Penn tuition, every bit helps.

In general, raising the number of students attending college can only yield positive results for the future of the United States economy. (See also: Cold War math and science education.)

The conflict in Mumbai right now brings into sharp relief the contrast between the ideal and the likely, in the sense that, once again, Obama has more on his hands than ever.

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Courtesy of Joshua Sherurcij via Wikipedia

Imagine a condom dispenser on Locust Walk. Picture a vending machine selling Coca-Cola and Trojans in Huntsman.

That’s exactly what the City of Madrid has proposed to do: install machines that vend condoms in some of the most popular metro stations in the city. Brown has installed similar machines on its campus as well.

So why is Penn so behind on the game?

With such a big campus, touting a supposed “work hard, play hard” mentality, promoting sexual health should be on the list of the administration’s to-do list.

Buying condoms is a delicate matter. And snide remarks from the cashiers at the Fresh Grocer are not conducive to students going out of their way to purchase safe-sex materials.

Free condoms from RA doors are, indeed, free, but that supply runs out quickly. Getting them at Student Health or a store involves time, effort, and money, a daunting troika that many students probably do not overcome.

Few things would encourage students to use protection more than the idea that the condom machine is just down a flight of stairs.

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100 years later, still politically incorrect. Image via Wikipedia

Abercrombie and Fitch and the Yankees. Pure American traditions, right?

Well, despite the different culture that Spain has developed over centuries, something still makes it look abroad for more.

And the place it looks? The United States.

Yet another surprise that came from being in Spain is the stranglehold that American culture seems to hold on so many aspects of Spanish life. Here are just a few things that are far more prevalent in Spain that you would ever guess:

1. Clothing brands. Here, Abercrombie and Fitch and Ralph Lauren are the things to own. If you can show you’ve been to the US, you instantly gain 20 coolness points.

2. TV shows. At least a quarter of the shows with the highest ratings every night are imported from the United States and redone in Spanish. Think “Dancing with the Stars” (”¡Mira quién baila!”), “Big Brother” (”Gran hermano”), and “CSI Miami” — consistently some of the most-viewed shows every week.

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More important than ever

Happy Election Day!

I start off staying that not only to the citizens of the United States but also to the rest of the world. The election is the most interesting thing since sliced bread for the world audience.

In a way, we grow up in the United States thinking that Americans are self-centered. At the very least I always thought that we focus entirely on the affairs of our nation and know nothing of what’s going on in the world outside our borders. I assumed that Europe and the wider world followed international news much more than we follow the news of other nations.

In Spain, there’s been a new twist on this set of suppositions. Apparently, the news from the United States is an integral part of news reporting in Europe. I watch the news nearly every weekday and a primary characteristic of the report is a segment on the happenings of the United States, whether it be news of the election or the economic crisis.

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Know where this is?

Now that I’m in a new place, I have a lot of ground to cover.

In Madrid, there are parks, museums, bars, monuments, etc. to visit. (If you’re coming anytime soon, visiting Parque del Retiro and Reina Sofia is a must.)

Moving to a new city requires an effort similar to that of learning one’s new apartment, whether it be “Sweet, my shower pressure is like stepping into the kingdom above” or “Erm, Roommate, do you see this giant hole in the shower wall?” (True story.)

You have to explore every nook and cranny, or otherwise you didn’t really live there.

So why is it that I constantly hear of Penn juniors and seniors who have never taken the trolley?

Spending four years in one place implies that one should know said place, including said place’s transit system. Did you know that the trolley existed? Did you know it has stops between 15th and 30th streets, that dark abyss virtually unknown to Penn students? (more…)

Closed for lunch.

Siesta.

It’s one of the first things American students think about when contemplating studying abroad in Spain.

The idea of a daily nap after lunch before resuming normal activity is virtually irresistible. Who wouldn’t want to siesta every day?

Let me break the news to you: virtually no one siestas in Spanish cities anymore, except the American foreign exchange students.

“But why?” you may whine.

It’s simple — there’s no time left in the day. Spain and its larger cities are just like any other in Europe: they’re very productive.

To be fair, in some smaller towns, people may still siesta. I would not be surprised to find an abuelita turning in for a couple of hours in a town in Andalucía, a region in the south of Spain.

However, by and large, siestas are being left behind.

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The other side is the same.

So what’s one of the first things I noticed here in Madrid?

The cramped quarters. Fitting all the people in Madrid into this little city is roughly equivalent to the elevator rush hours in the high rises on a macro scale. Madrilenians have elevated the bottleneck to an art.

This extends to parking. Naturally, much like Philadelphia, street parking dominates. We’re used to seeing cars parked (and double- and triple-parked) on the streets as students grasp at prime spaces for their vehicles.

However, nothing compares to last Friday night. I was coming back from an outing with my homestay señora in her car. It was perhaps 11 or 11:30 p.m., at which time normal Spaniards don’t even begin getting ready for their nights out. (That starts around one a.m.)

And do you know how long it took to find a parking space?

An hour and a half.

That’s right. Ninety minutes of my life went down the drain circling the same blocks over and over, searching for a ray of hope (or space, as it were).

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Wine. In Spain. For lunch.

You know what I can do now?

I can drink during lunchtime. Legally. At school. In the cafeteria.

Jealous much?

Probably very much indeed. Now every Penn student will want to work their way over to Spain for this opportunity. This semester, I’m studying abroad in Madrid, doing all the things you wish you could do.

Be prepared for a rude awakening. Students at my university, ICADE, have a cafeteria complete with a fully functional bar. That’s right — a beer tap and everything.

However, few students utilize this amenity in the capacity that American students might. We can all imagine a Penn student ordering beer after beer before heading off to their afternoon classes totally incapacitated. However, the native Spanish students usually just have a glass of wine to quietly accompany their lunches.

As you may guess, there is a very different attitude toward alcohol here (as opposed to the United States). People young and old take their alcohol as a means of quenching a social thirst rather than fulfilling an undying desire to get smashed.

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The source of the trouble

You know what I’m talking about — the girls dressed in head-to-toe pinstripes complete with modest strings of pearls, the guys in matching business regalia…

In the first week of school, you already see not only seniors but juniors and even sophomores partaking in the festivities of On Campus Recruiting. These poor pre-professionals are seeking new internships mere weeks after they finish their last ones.

I see them as nothing short of over-pressured, overworked drones. Granted, at least 80% of these folks are from Wharton, doomed from the beginning to sign their souls away for nothing more than a yearly bonus which they won’t have time to spend.

But what about you, College students? What are you doing attending recruiting sessions a whole semester before summer OCR actually starts?

There is something to be said about the bone-and-mental-capacity-crushing level of pre-professionalism here at Penn.

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Good luck, freshmen

This semester, I will be coming to you from Spain as I trek around Europe looking for good places to eat and think about doing my homework.

As a result, I’m missing out on what is arguably the most (im)memorable event of the fall semester, New Student Orientation. This cherished time of year involves many a frat party and drunken foray into quasi-philosophical nonsense.

Freshmen attempt to display their mental chops and often get roasted for it, and a new class of Penn students discovers the mysteries of dining hall cuisine. (”Is that really what I think it is? Isn’t that only eaten in rural Kazakhstan?”)

Personally, I have different ties to NSO. Anyone that knows me even remotely will tell you that I got my party out of my system a very, very long time ago. Like before I was born.

I have no regrets about missing out on the festivities as 17- and 18-year-olds taste their first floor-and-ping-pong ball-flavored light beer. No amount of “I’m Bringing Sexy Back” repetition could compel me to step into those dens of vice known as frat houses.

Nevertheless, I will miss many parts of NSO. (more…)