Dating in Spain

[Aries]

Hi Ben and Marina,

In one of your podcasts, I learned about how you two met in Intercambio. That's really sweet. Can you guys please do a podcast about meeting people in Spain and how foreigners intermix with the local Spaniards.

I know Ben is English, how do other persons of other nationalities fit in, Africans , North Americans, South Americans, Asians, Far Eastern Asians, MIddle Easterners etc. How are interracial couples viewed upon. It would be great if you do interviews in your podcast.

I think this topic would make for a very interesting podcast.

Thanks guys!

Aries

[Ben]

Hi Aries, I have put it in the list and hope we can get to it soon, it is definitely an interesting idea.

Does anyone else out there have any experiences of dating in Spain? How it differs from elsewhere?

I can't say I have a huge amount of experience of dating in Spain - my first Spanish date ended up as my wife!:D

[Davood]

Ha ha ha....what a fruitful dating http://qsmile.com/qsimages/303.gif

[ndbutter]

I actually dated a girl while I was abroad in Spain for about 3.5 months or so. Basically me and a friend (also American) met these girls in a club one night and started talking. He ended up dating one of them, and I dated the other (they were also friends). Neither one of the espanolas spoke English, so the fact that my friend's Spanish wasn't especially strong necessitated a lot of double dates. I think both sides were intrigued by the other as something different or "mysterious".

I'd say it was very similar to dating in the States. Normally we'd just go to dinner, bars, the theater, etc. Typical dating type stuff. It was a lot of fun because there were no real expectations (they knew we'd be leaving for the U.S. within a couple of months). It was a great cross-cultural experience. Many times they would take us to clubs/bars that we wouldn't have otherwise gone to because they were occupied completely by Spaniards. One time their town took a bus trip up to Madrid to go to the theater and they invited us along. We felt a bit awkward on a bus with 50 people who'd known each other their entire lives, but in the end it was tons of fun.

Now I'm getting married to a nice American nurse in about a month, so that's nice too!:)

[Ben]

Muchas Felicidades from us ndbutter!!!