Amongst the pines in Pinetop, Arizona

A Quintessentially American Experience

Getting some Indian fry bread on the rez.

Pinetop, Arizona

A particularly American kind of heaven

This is why I haven't blogged

My week in short declarative sentences:

Go to California. See sister-in-law. Celebrate 4th of July (in America!). Eat cheeseburgers and grilled hot dogs. Swim in the hotel pool. Make last minute changes to the wedding ceremony the morning of the wedding. (Did I mention that The Mister was performing our friends' wedding? And that I was writing it?) Watch The Mister knock his ministerial duties out of the park. If the bride hadn't been quite so beautiful he might have stolen the show. Dance our butts off at the reception. Go to lots of vineyards while in California. Taste wine. Taste more wine. Flight home. Sushi. The end.

America.

Ah yes, America. It still is as big and sassy as ever, with an added dash of spicy summer heat. 

We've been back for a week now and it's going to take a while to fully reorient ourselves. Things that have seemed strange include:

• Almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, sunflower butter and on and on
• How efficient the security line at the airport is - everyone seems to know the drill. No mass confusion: what? I have to take my shoes off? Both of them?
• Everything really is huge, you guys. Houses. Wide avenues. Elevators. Bathrooms. Sodas. Dogs. Cars. People (you knew I had to say it).
• Dollar bills are really terribly designed currency once you think about it. All the same color and size regardless of denomination? Confusing. And so long and skinny.
• Dr. Pepper and bagels and 100% beef burgers with cheddar cheese.
• Technology. Man it has been racing along. All these apps and mobile bar codes and cool gadgetry.
• Flavors that have been largely absent from our lives: beer with lime, buffalo wing sauce, chipotle peppers.
• All the English. I can't tune out a background conversation with the same ease. 
• Everyone keeps trying to eat lunch at 12, or worse, 11:30. I still think of it as breakfast.
• American flags are everywhere. 

Do you know how great it is though to be able to have a phone and talk and text with friends and family? After two years of email-based communications, it still feels pretty novel to get an instantaneous response. 

Spain is lovely, and it's hard not to fall in love. But I was out in the car yesterday and saw a huge American flag rippling across the wide, blue desert sky - the widest and bluest sky in the world - and I though that yes, yes indeed, I am glad to be back.

Spanish efficiency

Spaniards are valuable companions for their good cheer, willingness to party at any time and in any location, and their unusually good fashion sense (mullets aside).

Spaniards, however, are subpar companions if you wish to do anything on the following list: anything involving efficiency, anything involving deadlines of any kind, anything that needs to get done in a timely manner, anything that involves a goal that you would actually like to accomplish.

I realize that my vision is tainted by the simple fact that I am American, and Americans are known to be particularly touchy about productivity, so I'm willing to grant that I'm not a neutral observer. But still.

There is construction near my apartment on a project that was supposed to be completed in 2007. Two thousand seven. It was delayed, half-finished for many years because of financial concerns, and now the construction company is blowing through deadline after deadline for actual completion dates. Yesterday was supposed to be the grand opening, but it wasn't. It's the third or fourth time it's been postponed on the actual day of.

It's not just on a societal level. On a personal level, Spaniards are shockingly and maddeningly averse to, well, hurrying it up a bit.

Teachers wander their classrooms handing out worksheets one by one to students - I don't think they've ever heard of the old "take one and pass one" American standard.

The man at the library who checks out my books stamps one book, puts the stamp away, then takes it out again for the next person in line.

When my boss had a simple question for all the teachers on staff  she went to every class, one by one, and interrupted the lesson while she chatted with each teacher to ask her question. Getting all the answers took her two days. She could have just asked for a show of hands in the faculty meeting. Two minutes and done.

Again, Americans are famous for their obsession with saving time, so who's to say it's not all in the eye of the observer? Maybe it's better that way. Their system works for them (...although I'm not sure a certain Angela Merkel would agree...)

But sometimes, the American in me really wants to take over for about five minutes and just make everything a little more streamlined, run a little smoother, trim a little fat from all the unnecessary time wasters.