to answer a few questions...

I have now become the portal to everything Spain for my American friends and family. I now carry the honor of being the virtual Wikipedia for those who don't have the drive and the time to get a library card or catch the web cast of Spain on the National Geographic web site. I feel like I am the modern day Marco Polo, set to bring back paper from the new world. Ok I am going overboard but why not. I am not getting a big head about this, mind you. Many of our family members have done their bid in the US military and traveled to many far off places...they just usually had to fire a weapon once or twice in their abbreviated stay.

Funny thing, as Americans, we don't know much about Spain. Ask the average citizen, and they could find Spain on a map. Ask the not so average citizen and they will point to Mexico. My favorite response to my puzzled face was, "isn't the name 'Mexico' Spanish for Spain?” And it is not all Spain's fault. Living many years of the last century under a dictator that aligned himself with Hitler and Mussolini was more than enough to keep Spain out of the United Nations until 1955 and off the world stage for a considerable amount of time.
Whenever I “add a new friend” on FB, hook up with a chum on yahoo I am hit with the standard questions during the catching up phase. These questions have become routine and I thought it would be beneficial if I compile a list for future reference in case there is yet another "friend" from Facebook who I mistakenly forgot about 20 years after I received my diploma who asks me, "what time is it there?” Forgive my lack of remembering you sat next to me in homeroom, there has been a lot of years of alcohol, drugs and therapy.

So I am going to take the time to put out the top few things about Spain. Rather let's call it:

The top few myths to dispel and or things you did not know about Spain.

1. We are 6 hours ahead of ET, most of the year. Daylight Saving Time is a whole other ball game. In the fall, we fall back before ET falls back (if I remember correctly right before Halloween), thus we are 5 hours ahead. In the spring, we spring ahead a few weeks after the US does so...so again we are 5 hours apart. But outside of the collective 3 or 4 weeks in total, it is safe to assume we are 6 hours ahead for the other 50 odd weeks.

We see the sunrise before you do so if there is anything flaky about the sun (less intensity, excessive flaring, etc) I will call you and give you a 6 hour head start to make your "end of the world is near" signs. While you are waking up and making your morning commutes, (for my east cost homies) I am having lunch. While you are coming home from work, I am already in bed asleep.

2. Siestas are midday breaks, not necessarily time to go home and take a nap. It does last normally 2 or more hours and I have been tempted to nap thru those hours. I may be wrong but when the Spanish left their imprint on Latin and South America, during the midday, the field workers would call that siesta, the hottest time of the day where the sun's rays were the most intense. Instead of sweating thru it, the work day was halted until mid-afternoon and they continued to work after siesta until last light of the day.

The cool thing about here in this part of Spain, at the height of the summer, the sun done not set until near 10pm!!!! Believe that, homie! But the normal work day does not end here until 7 or 8pm, dinner not until 9 or 10, Sangria on the beach before sundown, party until sunrise. That sounds about right.

3. Food. There are no tacos in Spain. Well they might be, but remember...TACOS ARE MEXICAN CUISINE. Just like Pork Pies are not normally associated with the US, they are English. Speaking the same language does not mean you eat the same food.

4. Bull fighting still exists, but PETA is working hard! The bull is the national animal and the symbol of Spain. When driving to near Madrid, we encountered several tall and massive billboard like cutouts erected on hill tops that sort of loom there like some mythical creature watching over the land. Imagine an eagle on top of Mt. Rushmore of the same size.

5. Spain has a royal family, like the UK and Monaco. The king before last was overthrown before WWII by the military general Franco and ruled by him until 1975. During his life, he allowed the crown prince to attend the university here in Spain under protection while the King died in exile. Upon Franco's death, thinking no one could run it better as a dictator, he soft-heartedly gave control of his beloved country back to the royal family and thus Spain became a democracy soon after 1975. And the King is a pimp, too. Not like in selling of females on street corners, like Magic Don Juan. But during a meeting of the heads of states for Spanish speaking nations, he candidly, in front of live and international broadcast, told the President of Columbia to shut up when Chavez went on one of his long winded rants. It was priceless!

6. Everyone in Spain is not Spanish. The country is more like a collection geographically rather than culturally. There are many different people and regions here. Like we have 50 states and Georgia is way different than California, it is much like this in Spain. There are the Galician, Basque and Catalans to name a few, each region historically having their own language. Franco wanted to stamp this out by telling the world that they were all dialects of separatists and rained down on them in hellfire if they bucked the system. I live in the region called Cataluña. Here their first language is Catalan and it is off the chain! It is a romance language all on its own. I think I read somewhere it is the 8th most popular language that no one knows about. This is the reason why I am taking so long to learn anything because most people speak Spanish as a second language.

7. We drive on the right side of the road.