Comida

Food is fuel, and in every culture this is true. However, just like it is in America, Europeans use food more than just for fuel. We eat because it tastes good, and because we are hungry. We also to pass time and for something to do, and sometimes we eat because it joins our friends and family around one table. I find the presence and importance of food is different in Spain then what I'm used to back home. I'm not used getting food shoved in my face and shoveled onto my plate, even if I tell you I'm not that hungry. It's like my host family doesn't understand the concept of eating more will equal weighing more. I suppose this is also a difference in Spain and the rest of Europe as well. At home, if you're not hungry, don't eat. In Spain, if you're around the table you are hungry. In the United States there is so much pressure and importance on health (or trying to maintain health) and we feel this pressure every day. In our magazines, news, movies, television and other media outlets it's common to see good looking, thin, and often active people in the center of attention.

In the States I also believe there is a big stress on going to the gym and being active, where here in Spain when I go for runs my host mother always exclaims, "que deportista," which means something like, "how athletic." I even heard the same phrase when I took the stairs to the 5th floor to tutor my neighbor's son. In my opinion, I'm not active here. Although I walk everywhere, and run many days of the week, I feel soft, out of shape and quite weak.

I love food but I also love the gym. Here my love of food is outweighing most other activities. Eating is engraved into the social life of Spaniards, and I really have no will to say no. I live with a Spanish family, and the woman of the house feeds me like I'm a teenage boy. Today I got home around noon and ate lunch, and now, not even two hours later my host mother is summoning me for lunch. Since this is such a social setting, I feel like I cannot refuse. Most of the time it's the meals that bring us together. I might not be hungry, but I feel like I have to sit down and eat, so here I go.