1. Five Meals a Day. I didn't feel like it was an adjustment to eat five meals a day, and then I realized why - I do the same thing at home, I just call two of them "snacks". The difference is: we all eat our snacks independently; with my two Spanish host families, we ate all five meals together.
2. Eat Local. I think it was Anna who shared with me a study that the healthiest people were those who ate locally-produced food, regardless of what that diet was. I especially noticed this with Marina's family - I don't think there has been a single thing we've eaten that didn't come from Spain, and most of it from Navarra (their region of Spain). Futhermore, nothing has more than four ingredients: whatever it is (always fresh), plus olive oil, sometimes white wine vinegar, and sometimes garlic.
3. No hablo español: es malo. I regret that I didn't do a little more preparation. It put a lot of work on my host families to try to work around my ignorance. Everyone was very gracious, and some were quite interested in learning some English, but still, I could have been more helpful in advance.
4. Spain is not Mexico. At Mexican restaurants in America, they serve corn chips. Because there's a lot of corn in Mexico. In Spain, they serve potato chips. Corn is only used for chicken feed. And nothing is spicy (hot).
5. Or South America. I realized that all the Spanish language I've ever heard has been friends and co-workers in Florida, almost all of whom are South American. The Spanish accent in Spain sounds a lot different. And the Spanish accent in Pamplona (Basque country) is different than in Madrid (Castilian). This really stood out to me when I was at Ana's company lunch, and there were two Colombians there. When I heard them, I recognized them as speaking "Spanish".
6. Drive Precisely. The lanes are smaller, the parking spots are much, much smaller, and going in and out of one rotunda (roundabout, circle) is about equivalent to 3 or 4 merges onto or off of an interstate.
7. Stone Lasts a Long Time. For example, the Royal Palace (Castle) of Olite (photo below), once capital of the Kingdom of Navarre is the "New Castle" because it's only 600 years old. The "Old Castle" was built in the 1st Century.
8. The Earth is a Globe. I've often heard that "Europeans don't like Americans". I asked about this a little bit and found out, yeah, that was pretty true at one time, but it's not as true now. One person told me that it used to be that Americans only thought about what is good for America's interests, now America seems to be more of a global "team player".
9. Faith can Turn into a Monument. Although I'm sure there are many exceptions, most of what I've seen that visibly represents the Christian faith in Spain consists of monuments to the past. In the same category as old kings and castles and regimes. That's why we must rediscover who Jesus is in every generation, from the primary source.
10. I Can't Generalize a Whole Country from Two Families. But if I could, I'd say families are close, generations respect each other, and people help their friends.
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| The bullring in Pamplona after the Running of the Bulls was successfully completed. |
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| Iñaki and Ana's other Village House in Miranda de Arga. |
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| But THIS photo is what it looked like when the bought it!! 13 years of labor, primarily Iñaki's and Ana's, and some good friends' have transformed it. |
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| 360-Degree Panaroma photo from the lookout tower in the "New Castle" (built 1402 - 1424) of Olite. |
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