A Microcosm of International Relations (?)

Recently, the relative peace and calm of our double occupancy in a three-room flat came to a screeching halt when, suddenly, one of the many people "coming to look at the room" finally decided to take it. My long-time roommate, Manuel, is a very un-Spanish Spaniard, if you ask me. He's very quiet, kind of timid and keeps to himself. Keeps to himself ALOT, like never ever leaves the house unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately for me, he had a break from the university all summer, which he spent perched in front of the television with his laptop in his lap, splitting time equally between playing video games with the most annoying little noises and watching television programs with similarly annoying sounds. He seems to only like cartoons on the television, although he has managed to find programs with real human beings that are like strange simulations of cartoons. EVERYTHING he watches has weird and annoying sounds, screams, stupid humor, etc. I have had a few talks with him about volume, but other than that, I've just put up with the noises, since I spend most of my time outside of the house, um, living and stuff...

ANYWAY, I came home one day, and Alejandro, the French Computer Science student, had moved in. Upon our first meeting, I could see the fear in his eyes, when he said, "Tu eres el Americano, no?" Yes, I'm the American. But, I think (or thought before I moved here) that I'm a decidedly un-American American, but kind of changing my thoughts on that after six months away from the mother ship. I can understand his hesitancy, as I am from the country that in some states changed the names of fried potato strips from French fries to American fries in a moment of patriotic furor. Well, after the initial discomfort, we actually got on quite well. His Spanish was not great, so he spoke to me in English the first day, but I told him that I preferred to speak in Spanish, so after that, Spanish it was. Later that day, Manuel asked me what I thought of the new guy. I said, "Fine, seems nice." He said, "He should be speaking Spanish, he's in Spain."

From what I can tell - and this is just what I've gleaned from conversations with students and the general vibe since I've been here - but French/Spanish relations aren't much better than French/American relations. One Spaniard explained to me that the Spanish see the French much like the Portugese see the Spanish - a richer and more powerful country that acts in an overbearing way in bilateral relations. If you ask a French person about the relationship between France and Spain, they'll say there's no problem. The Spaniards are all right. Same with the Spaniards about the Portugese. But, ask the Portugese about the Spanish (I did when I was in Lisbon), and you'll probably get a little more colorful response.

Well, the fun didn't stop there. For the next month, there were all sorts of little feuds between the other two roommates. It's not even worth going into, really, but mostly stupid stuff, like where to hang the bathroom rug (if at all). Never spoken, always just with actions. Finally, one day, Alejandro told me that he was moving out at the end of the month. He showed me a letter that Manuel had written to him in English that stated that he wasn't to have guests over any longer, because Manuel needed to study. I'm thinking - STUDY WHAT, the latest Japanese game show on T.V.?? It went on to state that the letter was written in English just to ensure that he would be able to understand it. Alejandro said that he could not live for an entire year with someone who couldn't talk to him about a problem and instead had to slip a note under the door.

So now Alejandro is gone, and it's back to a two-man flat with occasional random visitors dropping by for a "viewing." It's kind of sad, though, because I really liked Alejandro. And his Spanish may have sucked, but at least he SPOKE, so I could practice something, if only bad Spanish in a thick French accent. He also had the added benefit of GOING OUT frequently, about which we could compare notes and share new late night bus and metro information. Nonetheless, I actually really like the flat with only two people, and after a moment of annoyance at the entire situation, I settled back into the old rhythm pretty easily. Now I think I understand why the world is such a complicated place ;-)

DISCLAIMER: I like my roommate Manuel, we just have different tastes in "entertainment."