Abroad in Spain: Travel Blog

Let me start off this post by saying ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ to all of my fellow Americans.  You should feel very proud and lucky that you’re hearing those words come out of my mouth (well, in a figurative sense — you’re actually reading those words) because, as much as I hate to admit it, I almost “forgot” that today was Thanksgiving Day.

You see, today started like any other day.  I woke up, got a shower, got dressed, and went to the school to teach class.  I went through most of the morning normally — the same way I would any other morning — completely oblivious to the fact that today was Thanksgiving.  Later in the day, when I had a free moment, I decided to check my email and, lo and behold, I had a message from my mom in the States wishing me a “HAPPPYYYYYYY THANKSGIVINGGGG” (I write the phrase in capitals because that’s how she put it in the email).

It wasn’t until I received that email from my mother that I realized that today was Thanksgiving.  It’s funny, really.  Since I’m living in Spain and Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here, the whole fact that today was the day just “slipped my mind,” so to speak.  Still, my Thanksgiving story does not end there….

After I realized that today was Thanksgiving, I mentioned something about the holiday to my housemates.  Of course, they explained to me that they already knew all about the holiday from watching American movies on TV.  They then proceeded to elaborate further on how the “Americans” wake up very early on Thanksgiving morning to go outside and kill the turkey that they’re going to eat for dinner.  This made me laugh a bit because, despite being an American who has celebrated Thanksgiving pretty much every year of his life, I have never “went outside to kill a turkey.”  I then explained to my housemates that I preferred to buy my turkeys “already dead” from the supermarket and, although it may have been disappointing for them at first, they seemed to accept the new information rather well.

So, to end this post I’d like to remind everyone in the USA to be careful with those axes when they’re killing their turkeys.  After all, we don’t want any accidents, do we?  Continue reading this post…

I was just surfing the internet today and came across a really good resource for people traveling throughout Spain and the world.  The site is called Wikitravel and is set up somewhat like Wikipedia in that it can be edited by anyone; however, instead of providing encyclopedia entries, Wikitravel provides travel guides.  I typed a few Spanish cities into the search engine on the site and was able to get some pretty good information on tourist attractions in the cities that I had searched for.  You may want to check it out — perhaps the site can help you plan your next trip to Spain (or anywhere else in the world for that matter). Continue reading this post…

Ok, I know that this is a Spain blog and I normally write about things that happen to me while living here in Spain; however, I’m going to “steer off” the topic a bit to talk about something that I think is pretty important and is happening right now in my home country, the USA.  You guessed it – I’m talking about the great “Health Care Debate.” 

Living in Spain has made me realize something: we Americans are stupid for not having some form of public health care system in place.  You see, Spain has a two-tier health system in which there are public hospitals and doctors (which are free) and private hospitals and doctors (you need insurance to go there) and, in my opinion, the system works WONDERFULY.  Everyone here has the basic care they need under the government-run, public system and those who wish to buy a private insurance plan in order to have more choices of doctors and hospitals can do so if they are unhappy with the public system.  In my eyes, it’s a “win-win situation” for all involved, both the rich and the poor. 

The public heath care system in Spain also helps to keep the private system in check.  For example, if the private doctors and hospitals were to “cross the line” by charging too much for a treatment or service, they would loose patients to the public system, which provides the same quality care but is free.  More importantly, however, the public system here allows everyone in the country to have affordable access to health care when they need it.  There’s no such thing as waiting for insurance authorizations before surgery, co-pays, and “in-network” and “out-of-network” services like in the States. 

Truly, the Spanish don’t know how good they have it when it comes to health care.  I think it’s about time for us Americans to “wise up” and establish a plan that, like Spain’s, entitles everyone to health coverage they can afford while still allowing for individuals to make choices.   Maybe we don’t need to make a completely public health care system in the USA like what is here in Spain; but, we do need to do something and I think the government does need to take a more active role.  That’s why I support President Obama’s call for health care reform and hope that you too will show your support.  Continue reading this post…