You never realize how american you are until you leave america.

I've developed a pretty horrible cold here in the past few weeks and going out to experience another average night club is just not gonna happen tonight. So I realized I had to do a post on what being American means to me and what it's like being a foreigner in a new country for the first time. There are things I already miss from America, and things I realized we can live without in America too. For example, I miss Taco Bell and McDonalds dearly. (I've actually been craving fast food pretty bad and I just found a McDonalds in the mall in Bilbao! So Micky D's is now on my go to list.) I also reallyyyy miss Port Of Subs and Subway. The sandwiches here are very basic, bread, meat and cheese or vegetables. They're actually very good, and I like the simplicity of them. But I miss ordering a huge BLT with lots of different veggies and cheese. I love all the fresh fish and meat here though and I LOVE the pastries and coffee!

I've realized we don't need dishwashers in the United States. It's a lot easier and sustainable to just wash your dishes in the sink when your done with them and put them on a rack to dry. They never stack up too much and you never have to unload the dishwasher, so much more efficient. I also don't miss drying my clothes as much as I thought I would, my clothes dry in half a day after hanging them up. I miss driving a car but I don't miss Seattle's traffic at all and I don't mind taking the metro in the morning at all. In fact I love that most people don't drive in Europe. Walking around the old district of Bilbao today I realized how quiet and low key the city is without a ton of cars everywhere and especially in the old district of bilbao, my favorite part as of today, (I'll talk about that later though.) The parking garages are also all underground as well as the metro stops downtown, this definitely makes the city feel less cluttered and leaves room for all the beautiful buildings and parks.

Anyways on another American note, what I miss the most about America is the language... I miss hearing everyone around me speaking english and being able to understand what people are talking about. I miss speaking and not feeling foreign and looked at like I obviously said something wrong when trying to talk to people. I will do my next post in all spanish, I promise :)