Jennison Grigsby is an American mother living in Spain. She regularly visits the United States with her 8-year-old son, Luca. He is amazed at how many junk food and sugary breakfast options there are in the United States.
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This essay is based on a conversation with Jennison Grigsby, an American mother and yoga teacher living in Valencia, Spain. Edited for length and clarity.
My son Luca is almost 9 years old. He has lived in Spain since he was born, but we always come back to the States. Our first trip was when he was 5 weeks old, and we’ve been back and forth many times since then.
I have 10 cousins there, lots of aunts and uncles, and my parents too, so we visit at least once a year, sometimes twice. We spend a lot of time together as a family every other Christmas and over the summer. He has strong ties to his American family and loves both being American and being Spanish, but he definitely feels a deeper connection to Spanish culture.
Luca always remembers our previous trips. He has a great memory, and I think that’s also because these trips are so influential to him. He can travel and spend time with his cousins. It’s really special because I don’t have any cousins in Spain. We talk about family a lot and FaceTime a lot, so when we visit he doesn’t hesitate to get back to family time.
As he grows, he notices different things each time we return and notices what catches his attention. He’s always finding something new.
Luca is fascinated by various American “luxury” cars
I remember when Luca was 2 or 3 years old we were driving down a freeway in Los Angeles. At that time he was really confused by the heavy traffic. I kept asking, “Why aren’t you running faster?” He also shared the highway with us and was surprised at how many large trucks were on the road. He even asked, “Where’s the bus?” Public transportation was almost non-existent in California, where we were.
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Living in Spain, he is used to the bus arriving in front of his house every day, and we often ride together. So it was interesting for him to see how much we have to drive in the US. He also wondered why we didn’t walk anywhere.
Now that he’s older, his interests are changing. He is very interested in cars themselves, especially large SUVs and luxury cars such as Ford Mustangs, Porsches and Ferraris, which are rare in Spain. He gets excited when he notices that there are a lot of nice cars in the neighborhood and on the highway.
He is amazed at how many junk food and sugary breakfast options there are.
When in America, Luca is always amazed at how many junk food and sugary breakfast options there are. He ate pizza, hamburgers, quesadillas, sandwiches, etc. almost every day and found it very different from the food he had in Spain. I also love that I can have pancakes, French toast, and donuts for breakfast. It’s something you don’t eat very often in Spain. But if you eat like that for weeks at a time, you won’t feel as good.
Luca’s usual breakfast in Spain is fruit and sometimes cereal, but he doesn’t eat sweets like I did growing up in the United States. He is always excited to have donuts as soon as we arrive in the US and often wants to find them as soon as we get to the airport.
In Spain, meals are more balanced, with three-course lunches at school and healthier snacks throughout the day. There is almuerzo, which is a mid-morning snack, and merienda, which is an afternoon snack that can be sweet or savory. Californians typically only eat three staple meals a day, with desserts often being sweets such as ice cream or cookies. Luca is used to eating yogurt and fruit after dinner in Spain.
He also notes that everything is happening much earlier in the United States.
In the US, everything happens much faster than what we are used to in Spain. Weekends in Spain start with breakfast around 8am, snack around 11am, lunch around 2 or 3pm, another snack around 6pm, and dinner not later than 9pm. But in California, the day starts much earlier. — Breakfast can be eaten by 7 a.m., lunch by noon, dinner by 6 p.m., and everyone goes to bed around 8 p.m.
Luka clearly notices how much the routine has changed. In Spain, our schedules are more relaxed and flexible, and our dinner and bedtimes in particular are often dictated by social plans. In California, his cousins have a more regular day with set meal times and early bedtimes, which is a big change for him. He usually stays up later than his cousins, but due to jet lag, he still goes to bed earlier than in Spain.
California’s cold water makes a big difference
During my last trip to California, my brother and father were at the beach when they were bitten by a stingray. Luka was having fun in the ocean until that happened, but after that he didn’t want to go back in the water. It’s very different from the Mediterranean he’s used to. In the summer, the water is warm, calm, and clear, so it feels very safe. Jellyfish also exist in Spain, but they are easy to spot because they float on the surface of the water.
The water was much colder in California and the waves were bigger. It’s already a big change for him. But he got really upset when he found out there was a stingray hiding in the sand. Now he’s almost decided he doesn’t want to go back to that ocean.
After the stingray incident, we all felt a little anxious, especially since we couldn’t see the stingray. The kids there even do something called the “stingray shuffle” to avoid getting stepped on, but it’s no fun at all. Plus, getting out of the cold water and freezing is something you’re not used to, especially compared to Spain’s warm and inviting beaches.
