Cultural Differences!!

One of the first things we started noticing since arriving in Spain is how much more publicaly affectionate Spaniards are with their significant others than we tend to be in the States. We never see it at our house because Maria is single and Alba is too young. However, Sunday, Maria's older daughter Leticia and son in-law Phil were over for lunch (which is more like the US dinner). We had all sat down to eat and other than the fact that we had no idea what was being said because they were talking to one another so fast things were going just fine. About 10 minutes into the meal, they were all mid conversation and Leticia was even mid bite and her and Phil lean into each other for a kiss. Maria and Alba seemed to think nothing of it, and it continued to happen every few minutes throughout the whole meal. I guess thats just normal hear, but the whole time all I could think about was the strange looks I would be getting from my family if I were to be doing the same at home and all of the teasing they would be doing later.
We have also seemed to acquire a brother! There is a guy in our ward who we noticed our first Sunday here, because he and his fiance had coordinated outfits on. Thursday morning he was down in the kitchen when we went down to eat breakfast. It was awkward at first because he didn't say anything to us, so finally in Spanish I asked him his name, and we had a small conversation in Spanish with the little bit I know. We were gone all weekend and up until yesterday morning we thought he only spoke Spanish. I was down there eating breakfast and he said do you know where the cups are, and it took me a minute to realize he had just said it in English and I had to almost process what he said as if I were trying to translate it, and finally spit out an answer. So then we proceded to have a nice conversation in English, and I was able to find out that he was born and raised in Sweden where in school they teach you English and Spanish so he was pretty much fluent in both languages before he even left Sweden. He served his mission in South Salt Lake City and I loved his description of the people there..."25% are active members, 25% are inactive and loving every minute of it, 25% are anti and doing everything they can to bring others down with them, and 25% have no idea what is going on as far as the Mormon church goes." His girlfriend waited for him the whole 2 years and he just got back in December and they are now engaged!
Last night for FHE we went to this store called Alcamp which is like a super Walmart, and we had a picture scavenger hunt. We were in groups of two and had 10 minutes to find as many things on the list as possible. A few of the groups were stopped by the Alcampo security and asked why there were so many people in there taking pictures. When we explained that it was a game, they were really confused and just kind of smiled and let us continue on our way! It was lots of fun. Heres a picture of some pigs feet, I think thats about the weirdest thing that was on the list. The grocery stores each have a section where there tons of meet in these sac type things that hang EVERYWHERE!!! Its enough to make me want to hurl and the smell doesn't help AT ALL!

















Yes, Twilight is pretty much just as big of a deal here as it is in the states!















They love Hannah Montana here as well!!