Sunday, 12 January 2014

Cultural Differences

Doesn't this photo look like a doll that a little girl might get for Christmas? I assure you it's a real little angel - one of my great-nieces - who celebrated her second birthday on Friday. I haven't seen any photos of her birthday party yet, but my sister sent out photos of them taken at Christmas.

Because I come from a large family, having 7 brothers and sisters and lots and lots of cousins, there is quite often a new member born into the family. At the beginning of December, one of my nieces gave birth to her 4th child, and here is where one of the cultural differences comes in. My sister wrote that the baby's oldest brother had to be kept away from the baby, because he had the flu and had had a flu injection. I've never heard of a young child getting a flu injection, but apparently it's quite normal in the US. Is that right? The other cultural difference is that Spain is one of the countries with the lowest birth rates in the world. One of the families that I give classes to has 4 children - all boys. However, in general, most families have maximum of two and many only have one. As a matter of fact, there are many only-child families here. Of my married friends (I mean the British or Americans ones), only one has a child, who is 20-something and who works and still lives at home. So that's another cultural difference: kids continue living at home even after they've started working since their salary doesn't usually allow them to strike out on their own. It's also comfortable for them to let their mothers continue doing for them. Most of us of my generation couldn't wait to get out on our own.

The week that has finished was my first week back to work after Christmas. I don't know about you, but I hate January, and then February isn't far behind. Instead of our usual Thursday evening Chinese, we celebrated one of our friends' birthday in an Italian. I can't believe I ate a big pizza, and it was because the crust was as thin as paper. I only wish more people had been there as only 3 of us went. One good thing about the week was the mild weather. It's cloudy today and we've been promised more rain. I know though that we'll be getting some cold weather like parts of the States before long.

These have been my thoughts and doings for the week. Hope everybody has a good week.

4 comments:

  1. Happy Sunday. Yes they are pushing children here in the states to get a flu shot. I can't remember how young it goes perhaps age 1 or 2-this is something new in the last few years though.
    they are having a bad outbreak of the flu and another disease similiar to the flu this year too
    Have a good week!

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  2. Hi Brenda! Your great-niece is so precious! It is amazing how different cultures can be. My son's girlfriend is Filipino and her culture is so different from ours. I love learning about different traditions and beliefs. Sounds like your New Years was nice. We went out for dinner and then had a movie marathon. It was a nice, low key New Years. Have a great week!

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  3. Oh wow! What a beautiful baby. She does look like a little doll!

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  4. Thanks, Cheryl. Now she's a cute two-year old.

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