Adjusting to Spanish cultural life was something that I knew would be somewhat difficult even before I left the United States. What has stood out to me over my first two months in Spain is how open Spanish people are to sharing their opinions on a wide variety of topics. This does not necessarily mean that they hold strong or controversial opinions on every topic, but it means that in most cases, they are not shy about expressing how they feel about a particular situation.
In conversation, the use of slang words like hombre, tío and ostia among friends are not meant as insults or slurs, but rather meant as a way of saying "dude, c'mon." For example, the teachers at my school often use hombre when addressing students who forgot or did not do their homework. These words are used for both genders among people of all ages, and occur frequently in day-to-day conversation.
Some good examples that further illustrate directness in conversation and daily interaction are the faculty meetings at my school. The teachers frequently get into lengthy disagreements on how to approach a particular situation or problem, and in a few cases it has gotten slightly heated.
