Hola!
What a question… On one side, it is great to find out about the interest on our habits. But… Oh boy, what a question…
Where to start… I guess we have a million typical habits. I would like to mention a few, but I would rather like to ask all of you back. PLEASE, help me out and leave your comments with what you think are the most typical habits of Spaniards.
TALKING: First and probably most descriptive: We have the habit of talking, talking and talking. When we don’t, we laugh and sing loud all the time. The best of all, is that we have the habit of doing it all at the same time. When we are less happy about something, you get the same effect on the opposite: we discuss and complaint
FOOD: We eat 6 times a day. Actually a very healthy habit, as I later found out. We have our breakfast, almuerzo, comida, merienda y cena. Ah, and drink coffee at all times of the day.
TIMING: We come late everywhere. Actually live late: Lunch late, dinner late, go out late… I guess you could talk about our “Late Back Mentality”
SOCCER: We watch soccer, talk about soccer, live soccer, love soccer. There is only one country in the world with more national soccer team coaches than Spain. It is Italy, and simply because it has a few more inhabitants.
PLAY ON WORDS: We have the habit of playing ith words constantly. make jokes about everything and invent double meanings and having 15 different words for everything.
A MILLION LITTLE THINGS: We also have a lot of small little habits that are very deeply anchored in ourselves. Such as listening to music everywhere and everytime, putting olive oil on everything (its healty and we love it), or parking in a “touchy” style. We call it to park “of hearing” (guess that is why they build car-bumpers and actually call them that way).
EXAGERATING: Last but not least, we have the habit of exagerating. We love to exagerate. It is our passion. We live for it. We can’t breathe without it. Day and night and night and day. 365 
days a year, 24 hours a day, again and again, nonstop! Well, maybe I am exagerating a bit now.
But if there is a habit that would really describe us is the one of opening a bottle of red wine, sharing it with friends and talking for hours after lunch or dinner. You know what? I think I will grab a bottle of “The Spanish Quarter” Cabernet-Tempranillo and walk over to the neighbours, see if they want to join a discussion about why we love being so “Late Back”…
Salud!
Francisco
4 comments
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March 2, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Ana
Hey, here goes another habit, or a variation on one you wrote: We are loud! We don’t just sing loud, we also talk loudly, almost scream. When we engage in our frequent discussions after dinner, and happen to have a foreign guest, it will very often appear to the poor guest that we are fighting…. Yet we are not, we are just enjoying the discussion and trying to make ourselves heard with all the noise and other people talking… because we tend to all talk at the same time!
Yes, we enjoy food, but even more than food, we love our family and friends, we love company, and the ideal is to eat with all of them. As we say, where 2 eat, 3 eat, meaning that there is always enough food for a spontaneous guest. Which brings me to one more typical characteristic: We also are spontaneous, and a lot less serious than many of or fellow Europeans, you can call round a friends house without having to schedule an appointment!
Time to go buy some Spanish wine and have a glass to all the wonderful things in our country!
March 4, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Francisco
Muchas gracias Ana!
right you are with your comment. My toast is to you!
Salud!
Francisco
April 11, 2009 at 3:11 pm
danmihalache
hi,
like always, it’s a pleasure to visit you.
it’s a long time from my last visit.
i design some houses in greece on the beach, in an island and i have not internet there. when i come home, i must renew my sites (i have over 30 now) (the architecture laws, normatives and rules), go to see my son, my friends and relatives. on the next beach works an english architect from atkins, with tom wright as chief project, so i’m very proud to build next the greatest architect in the world, but i must do my best for this.
anyway, i’ll try not to forget my friends, and, axiomatic, you are one of them.
i hope to hear from you soon,
dan
June 26, 2009 at 1:55 pm
danmihalache