I do speak and understand Spanish much better than I did before I went. And I now understand what I know and don't know in Spanish grammar. But just as importantly I learned what the Spanish culture is about. I'm not saying that the family's persepective of Spain was biased, b-u-t .... having lived there for a short while, I formulated my own impressions of the place. I don't know if it's because I'm older and have had greater exposure to things outside of my village, or if it's that things in Spain have changed that much since the first time I saw it, but the single thing that struck me the most about Spain this time (and I assume by extension, Europe) is how homogeneous the world has become. Sure, there are differences, but what impressed me more were the similarities between the U.S. and Spain, especially in the built environment. I often looked at a streetscape (usually in the suburbs) and thought to myself that with very little exception, that it looked like an American scene. And in talking with people there, their day-to-day lives and attitudes and manner of thinking seemed very much like our own. Their medical care and facilities were almost identical, except that their doctors didn't seem overworked and too much in a hurry as our system has caused our doctors to be.
I'm glad that I went to España, even if it was 30 years too late. And at this moment I'm of the mind to go back and continue studying the language. But as the saying goes: "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" ... We'll see.
