What I Have Learned in Spain thus Far...

1.     Airlines sell smokeless cigarettes during a two-hour flight, just in case somebody can’t wait for their next cigarette.

2.     Apples and peanut butter apparently do NOT go well together in Europe. Although with my very picky American taste, it is still a usual snack.

3.     Spaniards don’t sweat.  Caitlin at spinning for an hour: 2 liter water bottles, a towel to wipe the sweat, sweat repellant shirts…yet somehow I still leave looking a sweaty mess.  Spaniard at spinning for an hour: 50 ml water, no towel, long pants, long-sleeves (occasional sweatshirt), and of course makeup…they leave looking exactly the way they did on the way to the gym. UGH.

4.     Jaywalking is not a crime, it’s practically encouraged.

5.     Ordering an alcoholic beverage at any time of the day (10 am – 5 am the next day) is the norm.

6.     65 degrees is wool coat, scarf, earmuff, boot, and glove weather.  I have been asked if I am cold on multiple occasions when I am wearing a cardigan and jeans. But, wait, I forgot.  They don’t sweat.

7.     Americans eat a lot of eggs (according to my Spanish roommates).

8.     A 30-minute walk is considered short. Don’t worry, I signed up for a bike service.

9.     Europeans and Americans eat dinner approximately 5 hours apart. When I eat dinner at 6:30, my roommates still think I am “snacking”.

10.  Sometimes a professor won’t show up to the first day of classes. No big deal.

11.  Siestas are real…and usually quite inconvenient.

12.  Lighting a cigarette as you walk out the door of the gym is the routine.

13.  A soccer game is pretty much a picnic. Everybody brings “mondaditos” (sandwiches) as dinner.  Our taxi driver was surprised that we 1) had already eaten, even though the game was at 10pm and 2) didn’t think to bring mondaditos.

14.  If you are on time, you are early. Very early.

15. C-a-i-t-l-i-n is the hardest sequence of letters for a Spaniard to pronounce.  I am called “Kiteleen”, “Kitelan”, “Kathleen”, “Kaylan”...pretty much everything but Caitlin.