By Kalee F.
Group 3

Today was full of learning experiences about the Spanish culture. We left Burgos, taking a train to Leon. In Leon we went to McDonalds, which you wouldn’t think would reflect the Spanish culture, but it does. The differences between American McDonalds and Spanish McDonalds can tell you a lot about the cultural differences. The Spanish McDonalds has croquettes, which I am very jealous that we don’t have in American McDonalds. The McDonalds still has the staples that are signature to the McDonalds name like the Big Mac, and chicken nuggets. Eating at McDonalds was also probably the largest meal I have had so far in Spain, it was easy to not notice the portion difference before this experience. After eating dinner the quickest way back to the hotel was through a park. Walking through this park was also an educational experience because it was a Sunday evening and the park benches were all full. Full of people just enjoying the outdoors and chatting with one another. This is a completely different scene than I am used to seeing in America, the lax pace and the friendly nature of the community is something culturally different from my own. On Sunday nights in America I am used to a busy preparation for the week to come, not very relaxing and in fact very stressful. This experience really put some things in to perspective, and even though I’m in a big city the pace does not match that of what I would expect.