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yeah guys um good to have you here in the booth um but today we were going to discuss

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um maybe a couple things first off last week was a big week in the united states as you guys know

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um do you guys want to talk about um first of all obviously we all know what happened donald

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donald trump was elected president of the united states um tough news for a lot of people you know

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but a lot of people have different opinions and i just kind of wanted to uh hear what you guys

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thought when you heard that news yeah um my country i'm from puerto rico so we are a u.s um

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not a state but a u.s uh territory and we also had elections around the same time

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a lot of my country is very upset at the donald trump win just because of his politics and his

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points of view and then we were also kind of upset at our government elected officials

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because we also have a thing where I know in the United States a big thing is the

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bipartisan system and how there's usually just two main parties that tend to win one or the other

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and then we had that same thing as well this was the first year in a long time where we kind of

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went out of that by party but they still did not win so we've we're pretty upset as a country and

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I am upset as an individual as well but I'm sure I share those feelings with I think everybody at

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this table yeah for me it was definitely an interesting experience being out of country

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for the election getting settled in Spain I was definitely distracted for a large while

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but then once you log back in to your social media or check your whatsapp for messages from

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your friends with updates about the election that was definitely an interesting first time

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experience for me especially having to fall asleep before knowing which way the election

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was going to go yeah i got to check the results from the bus station at plaza de castilla which

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might not have been the place I needed to be checking the election results in.

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And everyone was asleep as well at the same time.

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When we found that out, I mean, my whole family was asleep, and I knew before them, so I knew

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they were going to wake up to a text from me maybe giving them this news that I know

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they're not going to be happy about.

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I mean, I have two sisters, both older, one 32 years old and one 27 years old.

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They both work in schools in education.

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So not only that, but my older sister is also gay.

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and some of Trump's policies might not be the best for a gay mom

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that's also a teacher in the United States, I would say.

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I think that's definitely a tough lineup with a lot of his policies,

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which I think is why a lot of folk might not be too comfortable with the results.

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um but it is weird to think that such a a large amount of people back home are okay with those

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results and because he did in fact win just by getting the votes he needed which just might have

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prompted some reflection for me over here thinking about what's actually going on yeah back at home

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for sure it was very surprising to see you know we see a lot on media kendall you can probably

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comment on this a bit but we see a lot on social media in the news against a guy like Donald Trump

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so when you see that amount of people vote for him it's kind of jarring for me at least I don't

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know do you have anything to add on that no okay well um moving on from that um you know living

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we're not in the States right now right now we're we're here in Spain which is

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very different for all of us none of us being from from Europe besides Mona and

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in the booth over here but what are I want to know what are some of your guys

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is what are what are the biggest differences that you've noticed maybe

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some cultural shock that you've noticed in your time here in Spain so far Carol

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if you want to head this one off

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because we've been here a year already, go for it

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yeah, Will and I have been here, this is our second year

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as aux teachers

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or aux assistants

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and I think

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the biggest thing right now, which we're experiencing

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presently is the cold

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we're freezing cold

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it's colder up here in El Molar than it is in Madrid

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and

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I know where I'm from

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that's just not a thing

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my maybe lowest degree weather

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is like 20 something I think because we don't use that metric system either there's a lot of

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differences in terms of when you get here how how you see your numbers being used in terms of like

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temperature money how a euro is definitely not a dollar things that you need to get adjusted to

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just in the beginning and then the people of course I think are very different from back home

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I don't know if you've seen like it had any major like shocking experiences but I remember when I

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got here I had a couple of um I cut my finger at some point and I went to a pharmacy to ask for

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some band-aids and also I had like I was sick because of the weather and I asked for some cough

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drops and when I asked for the cough drops they were like that's not the name of them I'm like

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okay but you know what I'm talking about right and I think that's a very big difference

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and people back home than people here.

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I feel people here are very straightforward

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and they're very direct.

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And people back home are a lot like,

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they get around the point, they're a lot nicer,

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they use pretty adjectives in between everything.

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That one I think is the most shocking

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in terms of living my everyday life.

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I think too, and we talked about this earlier,

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I think part of that might be Madrid specific

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from what I've been hearing

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is there is a very Madrid culture unlike I feel like in the U.S. individual cities aren't always

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such like a pride and joy yeah there definitely are plenty like New York and Boston I know are

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like diehard New York and Boston yeah but Madrid I think I would lump into that category of like

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there's a certain type of pride and expectation for what people in Madrid are like and what they

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should be like and how they should carry themselves and I see that in the language like with what you

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call a cough drop and then just how people carry themselves in the street too which has been

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interesting to get used to yeah definitely definitely some Madrid culture um I think

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a funny story that I have once when I first got here last year is everyone seemed like they were

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staring at me and it could have been big stares yeah bit of a staring problem here in madrid um

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but in in all love no it's i'm not trying to get on anyone for staring but

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and how could you not stare i mean come on no just kidding but it could have been what i was

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wearing it could have been my very american clothes that i choose to wear like my ucla

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sweatshirt and my baggy jeans and my vans that i wear every day it could have been that but i've

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talked to other people and they've also told me like yes people not only in madrid but all over

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europe kind of stare and look at you a bit more than people in the states do with no shame they

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don't no shame at all back they just they don't look aside like we yeah if i get caught staring

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in the united states it's someone on like a train or a bus i'm immediately looking away and i'm so

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embarrassed that they caught me staring yeah if i catch someone staring at me here

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they will continue to look at me with wide eyes right back at me even the the up and down they'll

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yeah you make eye contact they they see what you're wearing they check your your jeans for

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rips and then they meet you right back up at your eyes to let you know how they felt i think it's

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their compliment because i've tried complimenting them and they're like okay like if i say

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oh you look that's a cute dress and they're like weird stare and like walk away so i feel like it's

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that kind of thing where their compliments is just there's them staring at whatever oh yeah

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maybe i don't know that could be that could be it maybe yeah or or it's a bit judgmental i don't

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know but but i i tried to say like i got really fed up one day with it like it had happened

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multiple times in one day and I was taking it the wrong way I was taking it like someone from

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California so I think I said like toma un foto like we say that when people stare in my country

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but like it's because it's rude in my country if we're here it's just like I think it's normal

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yeah no it's completely normal it was on me that was my issue and that kind of just brings it around

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to like there's a lot of things here that are different that I think um we can't judge them

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because that's that's their culture you know and that's that's one of the things I've learned by

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doing this program is that not everything that I think not everything that I believe is what

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everyone else believes and I think this program would be beneficial for so many people for that

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reason because so many people in the states are so caught up in what they believe and think they're

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right all the time and that's just not the case yeah yeah that's a good point in terms of like

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a lot of the things that we are experiencing

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they're very normal here and they're shocking

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to us just because we come from a different culture

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different kinds of levels of

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not morality but in terms of

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things that are okay that are here

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that are just not back home

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but that's a good thing for us to keep in perspective

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and keep in mind for

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the future and just in general when

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we travel to other countries and I think

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people who are listening to this podcast

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might benefit from

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that as well

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yeah

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so thank you guys

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for coming in

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and talking

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it was great talking to you

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gladly

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bye