We are embracing the Spanish culture and custom of going for a stroll in the afternoon to do a little shopping, and then stopping by the local café on the way back. I typically walk 5 miles a day now, and much of that is walking in the 3-4 block area that surrounds our house. We have at least five cafés close to the house, and we live right between two grocery stores.
Our town is a very pedestrian town, and a late afternoon stroll is a daily ritual out of necessity and desire. It's a social gathering, a caffeine pick-me-up, a reason to get out of the house and meet new people. It's how to buy the small amount of groceries your small Spanish kitchen will hold. We see the same people every day during our walks, and I'm excited when someone says "hola" first. Do they recognize the crazy Americans with the strange Spanglish accent? Who knows. People are just friendly here, regardless.
It's customary to go out daily to buy fresh produce, bread, and other perishables. Not that you'll buy canned goods---good luck finding much of anything in a can in a Spanish grocery store. There are a few fruit stands and bakeries nearby, and even a few butcheries. Many stores close for siesta from 2-6 pm, so taking a walk to the grocery store, one of the few places that stays open during siesta time, dragging a couple of bags of groceries to the local café, which is also open, having a coffee, and stopping by the bakery on the way home, buys you time until other businesses, such as hardware or clothing stores, open again. These stores are then open until 8 or 9 pm.
It's sometimes hard to reconcile American work hours (for me, 7:30am-4 pm or so) with Spanish store hours, but I've learned to take it easy and wait until that magical time for shopping. There's also reconciling American dinner time (6-7 pm for us) with the fact that those are the hours you will need to shop, and if you want to go out to eat, the overwhelming majority of restaurants don't open before 8 pm. We eat later now, we walk a lot more now, and we shop more often but buy a lot less. I feel like we waste much less food now than ever before.
There is so much duality with being an American living in Spain. There is keeping up with two kinds of money (American dollars on the base, Euros every where else), which means two billfolds. There are two measurement systems, so you have to mentality figure out gas in liters, recipes in grams, and distances in kilometers. There is more mental math with weather (I almost died the other morning when the weather was 1º--which is still cold, but realizing that 1º C is 34º F makes it a little more pleasant). There is also military time---or what much of Europe just calls "time"----living around military installations prepared me well for figuring out what a store closing at 2100 means.
During an afternoon stroll, here are things that stand out to me:
1) Old people are EVERYWHERE.
I don't mean people my age (almost 50---it's sooner than later). I mean old old. Like your great-grandmother old. And in wheelchairs or walkers.
It's quite lovely to see a grown child or grandchild with an elderly person walking slowly on his or her arm. You see it every single day. Younger people take older people to the stores, to cafés, and for evening strolls. You see more elderly people here than in the U.S. You see grandparents or great-grandparents with young children everywhere you go.
2). . . . and so are people in wheelchairs.
I see people in wheelchairs everywhere. And this isn't always the most wheelchair-friendly country, but it's amazing to see children, teens, young adults, middle aged adults, and the elderly in wheelchairs everywhere you go. It isn't seen as an obstacle, and I often see a group of people helping someone in a wheelchair make it over a non-chair accessible curb.
I love this about this country---everyday Spanish life is very welcoming to everyone, and my kid sees a greater variety of people on the street than in the U.S.
3) Fathers are often the primary caretakers of children in public.
Fathers walk their kids to school. They take them on their afternoon strolls to get hot chocolate (because they aren't drinking coffee---yet). Fathers are alone with multiple kids in the grocery store, the clothing store, parks.
I'm not saying today's American fathers are not involved, but how many times in the States do you pass 5-6 families on the street in a space of an hour, and every single time, the father is carrying a toddler, driving the stroller, or swaddling the baby? It's just the norm here. Spaniards tend to wait later than Americans to have children, so it's not unusual to see grey-haired fathers chasing young kids in the park. I love this about Spain, and I love that Spanish culture embraces the important role of dads in kids' lives. And I love that women here are willing to take the backseat and let the fathers take control of childcare when families are out and about in town.
I imagine in many ways, life here is much like what life was like in America in the 1950s. I love my grandmother's stories that so many people walked around in downtown Jackson, MS on a Saturday afternoon, you couldn't drive your car down the main streets. Just like Americans in the 1950s, Spaniards tend to dress nicely to just go out in public---I'm yet to see someone in yoga pants (unless they are American). Women almost always wear heels, and men seldom wear jeans. That's just the way it is.
Around 4 or 5 pm, our little town seems a little desolate, with most stores closed and nobody on the sidewalks or in the parks. Then suddenly, things change. This is like what I call "the magic hour," that time around 5 pm when everyone seemingly leaves their houses at the same time, whether it's going out for an evening stroll to get coffee, meet friends at a café or bar, take the kids to a park, or walk the dog. Dozens and dozens of people suddenly appear, and you know it's still a few hours yet until dinner.
I'm sad that part of American culture is gone in many places now, traded for lives in cars and on cell phones, with more people living in suburbs than city centers. Although progress is a great thing, so is slowing down and enjoying the little things in life---like afternoon strolls and coffee breaks.
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Our town is a very pedestrian town, and a late afternoon stroll is a daily ritual out of necessity and desire. It's a social gathering, a caffeine pick-me-up, a reason to get out of the house and meet new people. It's how to buy the small amount of groceries your small Spanish kitchen will hold. We see the same people every day during our walks, and I'm excited when someone says "hola" first. Do they recognize the crazy Americans with the strange Spanglish accent? Who knows. People are just friendly here, regardless.
It's customary to go out daily to buy fresh produce, bread, and other perishables. Not that you'll buy canned goods---good luck finding much of anything in a can in a Spanish grocery store. There are a few fruit stands and bakeries nearby, and even a few butcheries. Many stores close for siesta from 2-6 pm, so taking a walk to the grocery store, one of the few places that stays open during siesta time, dragging a couple of bags of groceries to the local café, which is also open, having a coffee, and stopping by the bakery on the way home, buys you time until other businesses, such as hardware or clothing stores, open again. These stores are then open until 8 or 9 pm.
It's sometimes hard to reconcile American work hours (for me, 7:30am-4 pm or so) with Spanish store hours, but I've learned to take it easy and wait until that magical time for shopping. There's also reconciling American dinner time (6-7 pm for us) with the fact that those are the hours you will need to shop, and if you want to go out to eat, the overwhelming majority of restaurants don't open before 8 pm. We eat later now, we walk a lot more now, and we shop more often but buy a lot less. I feel like we waste much less food now than ever before.There is so much duality with being an American living in Spain. There is keeping up with two kinds of money (American dollars on the base, Euros every where else), which means two billfolds. There are two measurement systems, so you have to mentality figure out gas in liters, recipes in grams, and distances in kilometers. There is more mental math with weather (I almost died the other morning when the weather was 1º--which is still cold, but realizing that 1º C is 34º F makes it a little more pleasant). There is also military time---or what much of Europe just calls "time"----living around military installations prepared me well for figuring out what a store closing at 2100 means.
During an afternoon stroll, here are things that stand out to me:1) Old people are EVERYWHERE.
I don't mean people my age (almost 50---it's sooner than later). I mean old old. Like your great-grandmother old. And in wheelchairs or walkers.
It's quite lovely to see a grown child or grandchild with an elderly person walking slowly on his or her arm. You see it every single day. Younger people take older people to the stores, to cafés, and for evening strolls. You see more elderly people here than in the U.S. You see grandparents or great-grandparents with young children everywhere you go.
I see people in wheelchairs everywhere. And this isn't always the most wheelchair-friendly country, but it's amazing to see children, teens, young adults, middle aged adults, and the elderly in wheelchairs everywhere you go. It isn't seen as an obstacle, and I often see a group of people helping someone in a wheelchair make it over a non-chair accessible curb.
I love this about this country---everyday Spanish life is very welcoming to everyone, and my kid sees a greater variety of people on the street than in the U.S.
3) Fathers are often the primary caretakers of children in public.Fathers walk their kids to school. They take them on their afternoon strolls to get hot chocolate (because they aren't drinking coffee---yet). Fathers are alone with multiple kids in the grocery store, the clothing store, parks.
I'm not saying today's American fathers are not involved, but how many times in the States do you pass 5-6 families on the street in a space of an hour, and every single time, the father is carrying a toddler, driving the stroller, or swaddling the baby? It's just the norm here. Spaniards tend to wait later than Americans to have children, so it's not unusual to see grey-haired fathers chasing young kids in the park. I love this about Spain, and I love that Spanish culture embraces the important role of dads in kids' lives. And I love that women here are willing to take the backseat and let the fathers take control of childcare when families are out and about in town.
I imagine in many ways, life here is much like what life was like in America in the 1950s. I love my grandmother's stories that so many people walked around in downtown Jackson, MS on a Saturday afternoon, you couldn't drive your car down the main streets. Just like Americans in the 1950s, Spaniards tend to dress nicely to just go out in public---I'm yet to see someone in yoga pants (unless they are American). Women almost always wear heels, and men seldom wear jeans. That's just the way it is.
Around 4 or 5 pm, our little town seems a little desolate, with most stores closed and nobody on the sidewalks or in the parks. Then suddenly, things change. This is like what I call "the magic hour," that time around 5 pm when everyone seemingly leaves their houses at the same time, whether it's going out for an evening stroll to get coffee, meet friends at a café or bar, take the kids to a park, or walk the dog. Dozens and dozens of people suddenly appear, and you know it's still a few hours yet until dinner.
I'm sad that part of American culture is gone in many places now, traded for lives in cars and on cell phones, with more people living in suburbs than city centers. Although progress is a great thing, so is slowing down and enjoying the little things in life---like afternoon strolls and coffee breaks.
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| Basically, "don't take a piss here, think of the children who play against these walls." |
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