A Spanish party
Although everyone is different, I started to notice that some stereotypes about different cultures are sometimes very true. While I was living in a small town in England, I didn’t meet lots of foreigners to prove that statement. However, living in California where all the cultures are living together, I have an opportunity to become acquainted to hundreds of different traditions and lifestyles.
Being English, it’s sometimes hard for me to stay open and positive about some cultures like Spanish or Latin. I’m not saying that they’re bad, just really different. I like that they are so talkative, energetic and cheerful all the time, however, I was educated in a different manner: to stay calm and reserved, no matter what.
Anyway, I like learning something new to become a better person, which is impossible, if you always live and communicate with people who are a lot like yourself. For example:
My Russian friends made me taste some strange, yet delicious national cuisine – a soup made from beet with sour cream.
Cuban guys taught me how to smoke cigars (I hate them) and speak Spanish a little bit. Well, mostly swear, but still.
However, I would say that my favorite international experience was when my Spanish groupmates invited me to some party where only other immigrants from Spain were.
In England if you come to someone’s house you usually have a drink, talk to your friends. You may watch a film or play some funny games. Of course, there are also big loud parties with dancing, alcohol and rock-n-roll, but I’ve never been invited to any of those, anyway.
I couldn’t even imagine that my friends new how to dance that good. They are confident about their bodies and feel the music, I think, that’s why they move so well. There was one girl, who was literally amazing. She even knew how to dance flamenco. We all went outside, near the pool and switched off the lights. Everyone was watching her dance, because no one wanted to ruin the magic of the moment.
When I got back home, I started to look in the internet more information about flamenco. I found a flamenco dancer painting here while left me in awe. It belongs to a very famous contemporary artist Leonid Afremov. He travelled the world a lot and bases his works on real emotions and exeriences that he have had during his trips. I suppose that the emotion of a flamenco dancer on the painting is reflected best. I’m sure that being a creative person himself he couldn’t resist the pure beauty of the moment when the dancer shows his whole soul to the audience.
