Spanish Meal Times

Living in Spain for an entire semester and experiencing a different culture has been an amazing and unforgettable experience. While living in Spain there were many differences from my way of life in the United States. One of the biggest differences was getting used to the different times that meals are eaten. Back home I tended to eat a small breakfast and then eat lunch early around 11:00 am; however, in Spain I tend to eat lunch around 3:30pm. This was a huge adjustment for me as I really do not like having multiple snacks in the morning to hold me over until lunch. It also took some time to adjust to having a larger lunch rather than a larger dinner. For lunch back home, I usually had soup and salad so when I came to Spain and started having large meals for lunch it was a big change. After a few weeks of living in Spain it made sense to me why Spaniards have larger lunches than dinners. Most of the time people eat dinner around 10pm and then go to bed sometime after 11pm. If I had a huge dinner and went to bed right after eating, I would feel awful, so I now know why people eat a larger lunch than dinner. It has been a very eye-opening experience living in Spain for a semester and I am grateful for the experience to step out of my cultural viewpoint.

This is one of my favorite Spanish dishes: Chickpea Soup.