A Walk In The Park
Hola! (admittingly the 1 of 2 words I know in Spanish). With about three days in Madrid, I can now confidently say "Gracias!" as well :) I am learning lots already about Spain's culture by being a full-fledged tourist with about 20 other students. We've enjoyed walking around the city, eating, drinking, and getting to know one another. I guess that is just in my opinion, but I'm sure the others will say the same. I will do my best to take you along on the journey of studying social determinants of health in Spain and share my new knowledge and thoughts. I am super excited about this 😁 (ok these emojis are kind of fun)
We had a formal class for the first time today, a lecture about the Mediterranean diet. Before today's discussion, I definitely had the perspective of most Americans on this topic. I thought of this diet as the very specific foods that are being eaten, without a consideration for the other aspects of culture. What I've loved most about college is learning the ways in which areas of study are all intertwined. The mediterranean diet lesson gave us a great example of how history, economics, social behaviors, etc. are interconnected into every aspect of health. It is not just the nutritional value of the ingredients that we eat but health is also impacted by the human connectedness or stress-reducing qualities of the culture surrounding food. One example that we have noticed in the differences in Spanish culture compared to that of the United States is the encouragement of social gatherings at restaurants. We have our large group but restaurants have been surprisingly welcoming to accommodate us. As soon as we walked in for lunch yesterday, they began moving tables and chairs so we could all sit together. This is a testament to their community and conversational centered way of eating. Unlike the US, you are not rushed out of the restaurant and must ask the waiter or waitress for your bill when you are ready. We stayed in this particular restaurant for quite some time before giving the waitress the hefty task of splitting the bill. I had a large burger that turned into me eating it with a fork and knife. It was very delicious and not necessarily healthy eating, but another difference in eating behaviors is that they do not bring bottles of dressings or sauces. As students at Iowa, we all talk about missing our ranch. We settled for some ketchup packets that are definitely less sweet. This is something I have noticed in most all other countries I have visited as well.
Well, I titled this post because I wanted to discuss my favorite activity so far, a literal walk in the park, but I rambled about the diet for a bit. I have so much more to say, but I will continue on. Laura, our program director, kept laughing about our difficulty with moving on in the park yesterday due to taking lots of pictures. We were at El Retiro Park, which felt like a better way to see more into the local community as opposed to the part of the city our hostel is in. The park demonstrated the healthier lifestyle of the people living in Madrid. The park was full of people running, biking, and even taking a silent zumba class. The park is free for the public and very nicely kept. It is an example of a positive community conditions that support a healthy environment. We talked about how there are so many aspects that impact health, with environment being a large part of those. It was awesome to see how easily accessible it was for so many people to engage in healthy behaviors. So many people were just hanging in groups or running together. The socializing of both eating and exercising have been evident over the past few days, and I am excited to keep exploring this while I am here. With our hike tomorrow, I will have lots more walking to be had.
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