Spain Sunday: Christopher Columbus

Saturday was “Hispanidad (Hispanic) Day” Dia de la Hispanidad. Aka the National Day of Spain AKA Day Christopher Columbus’s Arrival in Americas Day. That’s right, while Americans have Monday off for Columbus Day, Spain has no day off because they always celebrate it on October 12th. While America uses the second Monday in October Spain […]

The Great Spanish Beer Taste Test

The perfect answer to a Spanish summer is a Spanish lager, but after nearly two years of living here, Kwe still aren’t sure which we prefer. There are so many brands and styles available that it’s difficult to keep track of what we’ve already tried and which we prefer. So mainly to help ourselves, and […]

Spain Sunday: Basque Country

We just got back from 11 days in the northernmost part of Spain known as País Vasco (in pink) AKA, Basque country. This is a different place. Like really different (and I’mma bout to tell you why). This is like the Ireland post where we just feel like we should lay out all the facts […]

Mallorca Monday: Sobrasada

You can’t talk to a Mallorquin about food without sobrasada being brought up. Every single class I have had has asked me, without fail, “Have you had sobrasada?” “Do you like sobrasada?”. It does not exists anywhere else in Spain, and it is a purely Mallorcan tradition. So here we go! Basically, it’s like a […]

Mallorca Monday: Feast of Immaculate Conception

The Feast of Immaculate Conception was on December 8th. It was super, super quiet that day. People went out to eat but no one was walking around or driving. We had the streets to ourselves. We wanted to know what was up with the holiday. There are patron saints of many things. Patron Saint of […]

Mallorca Monday: Catalan

Not all of Spain speaks Spanish as their preferred or first language. While Spain is just about the size of Texas, it has a dozen or so languages. Some of the languages are “endangered”, and probably won’t be around much longer, but it’s still impressive. The five largest languages in order of fewest to largest […]

Spain Sunday: Daylight Saving Time

The Romans always adapted their clocks to the changing daylight hours over the seasons. So you could say Europeans have basically always been observing some sort of Daylight Saving Time. And yes it’s saving time, not savings time. They switched a little differently, so DST, as we know it, was introduced during WW1 to save […]

Spain Sunday: August Closures

It’s August which means everything is shut and everyone is away. No joke, most local businesses are closed right now. We had been seeing all the “see you again in September!” signs all over everything but weren’t taking it seriously. Some places closed for vacation and are now re-opening. It seemed like some places were […]

Spain Sunday: Birthdays

Somebody just had a birthday so we thought what better topic to learn about than birthdays in Spain. Traditionally birthdays in Spain did not matter as much as Saint’s days. We talked a lot about religious names in this Spain Sunday. Most people are named after saints because it used to be mandatory to do so. So […]

Spain Sunday: The Thousand Faces of Cojones

Back when I was teaching a conversation class for my coworkers I decided to have them make presentations. These presentations could be on any subject. Where were you born? What’s your favorite movie? Teach us about something related to your field of study, etc. It motivated them to study at home, gave them a chance […]