My Observations about the People in Madrid

First thing I noticed was that many smoke especially young teenage and college age girls. They don't have tattoos. They don't chew gum and don't wear sunglasses. They don't have brand names plastered all over their clothing and purses like we do in the US. They drive tiny cars (makes the Toyota Prius look large) but expensive cars. There are lots of BMW, Mini Coopers, Mercedes, and Land Rovers. Their bigger cars like mini vans are really narrow and they have to be because the streets are very narrow with cars parked everywhere. We don't see many of the vans. We've only seen a couple trucks and they don't really look the same. They have back ends covered not open like we do in US.

They have the best transportation here with the underground metro system. I absolutely love it. It can literally take us anywhere in the city. It is very busy in the afternoon because everyone goes home for siestas. Then they go back to work after.

Food is mostly the same as the US, just different brands. There are a few things we couldn't find in the regular grocery store like peanut butter and Mac and Cheese. Don't worry though, we found an American store that sells each for about $9. Ouch!!! They don't use preservatives in their food here which is good. They love their breads, so do I. I have to stay away from the bakeries. I think most of the salads are oil and vinegar. I don't think they do dressings like Ranch.

The people here love little children and they give them lots of candy. My kids should love that aspect. I asked an American at church if her kids mind going to church where they don't understand the language. She said no because they always get large bags of chocolate even on Fast Sunday.

The people are super affectionate. They hug and kiss all over each other. The public displays of affection will take a little getting used to.

The people have been super friendly to us. A Puerto Rican guy that Mario is replacing says that the locals aren't friendly to him. We found that odd since they have been very friendly to us. But then Mario guessed that maybe it's because Mario is very light skinned like the people here. I guess there some prejudices towards Latinos here.